Washington, D.C. - In April of 2025, Henry Wright, chair of the Youth Democracy Movement, addressed the symposium, Centering young people’s voice and agency in and through research and policy, at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. In his address, Wright put forth three proposals:
- In humanitarian situations, youth-led NGOs ought to be included in every step of the humanitarian cycle, from the formation of the program to its implementation.
- In developing education systems, student unions ought to be included in every step of the reform process, from the design of the Education Sector Plan to its evaluation, as members of the Local Education Group.
- At the school and university level, school boards, university sub-committees, and boards of trustees ought to be considered incomplete without the inclusion of a democratically elected student representative.
Following his address, Wright joined the expert panel alongside Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education, and Salvador Villaseñor, Coordinator General of the Office of Economic Development and Combating Inequality in the Zapopan Municipality of Mexico.
Wright maintained,
"Youth agency cannot be activated without you—without an intergenerational movement of researchers, scholars, and practitioners working alongside and in dialogue with youth leaders to establish the urgency of intergenerational action in transforming education systems worldwide."
