We are proud to announce the publication of the IYTT Working Paper No 9 – December 2024 , titled Enhancing Governance Capacity Through Youth Quotas: Evidence from the Business and Peace-Building Sectors.

Although people aged 15 and 34 constitute about one-third of the world’s population, their participation and influence in formal politics remain limited, leading to consensus gaps, disengagement, and often, polarization. For these reasons, in 2019, the participants of the first International Youth Conference chose “Electoral Youth Quotas” as a major policy reform to enact positive change in society. While reflecting on these concerns, the newly published Working Paper digs deeper into the benefits of youth inclusion and the existing examples of youth quotas, providing recommendations for future action.

The Paper found that youth exclusion in politics is truly a “missed opportunity” for democracies. Not only because exclusion itself provokes conflict, but because democratic deliberations and governance capacity improve when a functional level of diversity among the decision-makers (including age) is achieved. Literature in psychology and political science shows that, when diversity is promoted, group biases are reduced and problem-solving and innovation thrive, generally leading to better outcomes.

This has proven to be the case in business and peace-building. In fact, meaningful age diversity in corporate boards and official peace processes has led to better resource management and more successful conflict prevention.

Luca Guidoboni, Youth Fellow, IYTT