Participation during the Covid-19 pandemic – voices of children and youth

The chapter does not provide a full picture of how children and youth participated in decision-making during the pandemic, but it offers insights based on discussions with children and youth representatives.

The lessons and direct experiences of the representatives of Nordic youth organisations during the pandemic serve as an important source of information in preparing for potential crises in the future.

The learnings will be useful for all decision makers who are in the process of building or strengthening participation, or crisis management structures.

“Lots of decisions were made very quickly. Youth were not included.” (Chiara Bergmark, Sweden’s Student Union)

“Everything had to happen very quickly. When things happen quickly, it is seldom well done.” (Ingrid Thunem, The Norwegian Association of Youth with Disabilities)

Many young people have stated that, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, decisions were taken quickly and with minimal consultation with children and youth. This changed as the crisis continued and evolved.

In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, national youth organisations state that they were invited to engage in dialogue with decision makers. For example, student council associations were invited to meetings with the Minister of Education and the Ministry for Education in the respective country and associations working for youth with disabilities were invited to meetings with the respective Ministers of Health. However, the consultations often took place after major decisions had been taken and youth representatives were not invited to any processes in which they should have been involved. In Greenland and the Faroe Islands, the children and youth who participated in the focus groups felt that there had been no dialogue during the pandemic, on either a regional or a local level.

“We could have been involved in so many processes but we were not.” (Embla Líf Hallsdottír, UMFI, Icelandic Youth Association)

As the crisis evolved, youth representatives in some parts of the Nordic region felt that more consultations were being held on the national level than before the crisis. They had the impression that online meetings removed the barriers for decision makers to contact young people.

“My understanding is that it was much easier to invite us to consultations from the government when they were digital. I don’t think that politicians like to meet students in person.” (Petter Lona, School Student Union of Norway)

Local involvement differed greatly, not only between countries but also within countries. Many youth representatives had the impression that it was harder to reach and speak to local decision makers than politicians at the national level.

During the discussions with youth representatives from all over the Nordic region, some common pitfalls in the municipalities were identified. Interestingly, many of the challenges were similar across the Nordic region. The obstacles to child and youth participation caused much frustration and resignation.

It was often the case that young people felt that they were meeting decision makers at the wrong level. The decision makers that invited the youth to consultations had little or no decision-making power themselves.  

“My school is a public school and is governed by a central School Director at the municipal level. Sometimes we were consulted by the principal at our school on what was working and what was not working. But when we brought suggestions forward, they often said that this was decided at a higher level and that they could not do anything.” (Malcolm Alencar, Student Association at Kungsholmen’s Gymnasium in Stockholm)

It was also difficult to find information about the right person or institution to contact. This information gap, in combination with poor resources for the youth organisations, made it hard to engage in meaningful consultations.

Young people also found it difficult to get sufficient information from decision makers and that, as a result, they did not have the knowledge to participate.

Many decision makers seemed afraid to consult with children and youth. They appeared to be unsure of how to relate to and communicate with young people, and even more so with young people with disabilities.

According to many youth representatives, the decision makers did not consider how their decisions might impact children and youth. Their focus was exclusively on the pandemic and the potential adverse effects on the for-profit sector, as well as the economy as a whole.

In the focus groups, it was agreed that individuals and groups who were already in vul­ner­able life situations became even more vul­ner­able during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, young people with disabilities were denied access to important health services such as rehabilitation or physical exercise and became more isolated because of the pandemic. However, they were rarely consulted or invited to present their views on the consequences of different decisions.

Even when it came to decisions that seriously impacted children’s rights and the rights and well-being of youth, the various organi­sations were rarely invited or consulted. In Sweden, schools for children with special needs did not provide distance learning options although many students were in risk groups. In Norway, schools for children with special needs were closed but were not replaced by adequate alternative options; either there was no schooling at all, or the students were expected to take part in distance learning through digital platforms that were not adapted to their special needs. Information and communication were inclusive. There were initially no sign language interpreters at press conferences and in both Sweden and Norway, information was not provided in an accessible and easy language

Nevertheless, for some groups of children and youth, the Covid-19 pandemic improved their life situations. For example, it became possible for children and youth with chronic disabilities to follow the school curriculum from home through distance learning. The national youth disability organisation in Norway had been trying to achieve this for years. However, after the pandemic was considered ‘over’, this option was removed.

“Overall, for the group with chronic disabilities, the pandemic was a blessing in disguise. Those that needed a lot of rest at home were still able to attend lectures, and many of them were able to finish on time in a way that they would not have been able to do otherwise. There were also lots of social activities online. But now those things are gone.” (Ingrid Thunem, The Norwegian Association of Youth with Disabilities)

It is important to acknowledge that for some groups of children and youth, the crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic remains. They may be part of a risk group and have a disease that is so rare that they cannot be advised to take the vaccine. This means that they must remain in isolation and few adaptations are made to meet their needs and few adaptations are made to meet the needs of this group when it comes to school and leisure activities. In other words, once the majority of society has decided what constitutes a crisis, as well as when it starts and ends, children and youth in vulnerable life situations often risk being left behind.

Youth civil society plays a key role in promoting and advocating for the rights of children and youth, as well as in empowering and strengthening individuals. The pandemic had severe consequences on the structures, budgets and operations for many of these youth organisations.

Covid-19 restrictions made it difficult for youth organisations to implement activities which, in turn, made it harder to recruit mem­bers. This affected their financial well-being since much of the funding of youth organisations is tied to activities with a certain number of participants and/or number of members. In some cases, government authorities, regions and municipalities decided to let youth organisations keep their funding despite the reduced number of activities and members. This was key to the survival of many organisations.

In the focus groups, the participants agreed that throughout the Nordic region, government guidelines and restrictions tended to be unclear and changed rapidly. Consequently, youth organi­sations cancelled activities that could have taken place if they had received better and more timely information. This was particularly frustrating for organisations whose activities or operations were targeted at children and youth in vulnerable life situations, since the consequences of a cancelled activity could be hard for the individual child or young person.

Student councils play a key role in school democracy. However, during the pandemic, the national student council associations noted that few schools provided the necessary support to main­tain well-functioning student councils. Some student councils managed to transfer their meetings to digital platforms but some student councils, particularly those for younger age groups, found this transition difficult.

“There are many ways that young people are participating, all those forms of participation were put on hold during the pandemic. Many of our members felt that it did not function. Especially for younger children it was more difficult to mobilise online. For upper secondary school students, it was easier, many of them could continue to have activities.” (Edvin Johansson, Swedish Federation of Student Councils)

“The situation was very different depending on the school board. There is a law (in Sweden) that all principals are responsible to offer support to democratic work – but this was completely forgotten during the pandemic. The student councils that survived did so because the students put in a lot of effort and had a lot of resources.” (Chiara Bergmark, Sweden’s Student Union)