Message still not getting through

Hundreds of impassioned, placard-waving secondary school students marched down Auckland's Queen St last week to protest against low wages and substandard work conditions.

The youth minimum wage has been one of the most polarising issues of the year, affecting thousands of young people employed in part-time or fulltime work, and is finally coming to a head with multinational corporates agreeing to phase out youth rates.

But one voice has been noticeably absent from this forum: that of the Government agency responsible for advocating on behalf of youth. Although the Ministry of Youth Development had an opportunity to promote the interests of young people, it did not have a resounding voice in the debate.

In a changing society, it is essential that governments stay connected to the needs of youth, so they can successfully deal with the challenges facing the generation. But some question the effectiveness of New Zealand's present model and its capacity to represent the interests of our 750,000 young people.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs was established in 1988 to address the fact that youth had little influence on decision-making, despite constituting a large part of the population and being affected by the same social, economic and political conditions as adults.

New Zealand is one of few countries in the world with a dedicated youth ministry.

The ministry's main achievement was the creation of the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (YDSA), a document "all about focusing on the big picture for young people," to guide and support those working with youth.

The ministry also made ground in suicide prevention and drug education, and targeted the needs of young males.

However, a State Services Commission capability review of the ministry in 2003 concluded that it was ill-equipped to execute and promote the strategy, and lacked influence across government.

The review also identified gaps in the ministry's policy and business support systems. The Ministry of Youth Affairs was dissolved, and the Ministry of Youth Development created within the Ministry of Social Development.

"In their present form they're very new, but they're considerably strengthened by being within a bigger ministry," says adventurer Graeme Dingle. He is co-founder of the Foundation for Youth Development, which delivers a range of programmes, including mentoring initiative Project K.

"Their primary purpose should be to co-ordinate what is going on within the youth sector and to support initiatives," Dingle says.

Stephen Bell, director of youth counselling service Youthline, takes a different view: "Their role is not to co-ordinate the sector. Their role is to support the structures that the sector has in place.

"They're a small player in a big sea, but sitting inside MSD is useful, rather than sitting outside by itself like an 11-year-old child banging on the door."

The Ministry of Youth Development serves those aged 12 to 24, and identifies its three functions as policy advice, communication and facilitation, and administration and funding of youth development programmes - although its minister, Nanaia Mahuta, was unable to identify these three key outputs when interviewed by the Weekend Herald.

The Weekend Herald contacted nine government agencies to find out how much influence the ministry has, including the Ministries of Education, Justice, Health, Transport and Economic Development; the Department of Internal Affairs, Te Puni Kokiri, the Police, and the Office of Ethnic Affairs. All nine had been mentioned in the YDSA as partners in youth development.

Reactions from the nine agencies were mixed and, at times, contradictory. Many of the agencies that the Ministry of Youth Development claims it has relationships with say that no such links exist.

Others suggested that one-way relationships were in place, with the Ministry of Youth Development drawing on their information in its work.

Some said that full working relationships were in place.

Some of the agencies spoken to were not even aware of the ministry's name change.

"Certainly the advocacy with other ministries is something we need to continue to work on," says Nanaia Mahuta, "but generally it's about having strong relationships with other ministries to be able to contribute to positive development on a wider scale."

Says Youthline's Stephen Bell: "There's no point developing a Youth Development Strategy if it just sits on a shelf as a pretty book. It's alive in a number of areas but hasn't yet influenced Government, local government or even tertiary providers. [At Youthline] our work is absolutely seamless with the youth development model."

The National Party's "liaison with youth", Katherine Rich, suggests the current model is ineffective. "Whenever Labour is faced with issues they band together and develop a strategy, launch it with some kind of expensive event, and then it goes and sits on ministers' shelves. It's not obvious to me what the YDSA has achieved. The ministry is an adviser to Government so it can't even speak out independently - a structure more like that of the Children's Commissioner would be more effective."

The briefing paper to the incoming minister reveals that the youth sector is facing major challenges. These include training and development opportunities for youth workers, co-ordination and leadership, and sustainability of funding to community-based agencies. All four community agencies spoken to by the Weekend Herald agreed that such concerns should be at the top of the ministry's agenda.

Last year, the ministry spent an extra $1 million on policy advice while valuable youth development programmes were left starving for cash, including Youthline which delivers a range of services and relies largely on donations to meet its annual costs.

The ministry had a budget of $5.1 million in the last financial year, and employs 35 staff.

The majority of the money for youth development programmes goes to Conservation and Youth Service Corps, two schemes targeted at at-risk youth.

"Overwhelmingly, the big picture for young people in New Zealand is a positive one," says the ministry's general manager Alison Taylor. "Unfortunately, there is a minority of young people who are being left behind.[But] responding to every youth issue or current concern is not the specific responsibility of just one agency - but that of many government and non-government agencies, as well as communities and families."

Mahuta expressed her satisfaction with the Corps to the Weekend Herald, but an internal review of the programmes identifies vast inadequacies. It states that outcomes are uncertain, and that the two programmes only reflect some principles of the YDSA. The review noted the need for improved research and evaluation, a new funding plan, the development of an outcomes framework ("urgently required"), clear and consistent expectations and information provision, and individualised goals. With substandard reporting processes, the ministry accepts it is unable to measure progress.

"As a funder of youth development services it is totally under-resourced," says Bell.

"There is no way the ministry is a service provider and it should never be one."

The concern that prompted the establishment of the ministry was that youth had little influence in decision-making. But is the picture any different today? The ministry employs three fulltime youth participation advisers to make sure that it is.

But youth involvement has been a major challenge for the ministry since its inception. New Zealand's last biennial Youth Parliament, in 2004, conducted an inquiry into the ministry.

"Our concern is whether the ministry has adopted sufficiently effective strategies to reach youth," the youth-led select committee reported. "There is not yet enough evidence of active two-way feedback between the ministry and youth."

The nomination period for this year's Provoke student representative scheme through schools had to be extended because of a lack of nominations.

Although the ministry has implemented many youth participation schemes in recent years, it appears that youth are not aware of them, let alone the ministry's existence.

Victoria University first-year student Franchesca Walker says that if she had not been one of the ministry's student representatives at school, she would not have even known the ministry existed.

The ministry's youth advisory group, Activate, is open only to young people who have not undertaken any leadership roles within their school or community, to ensure that youth leadership positions are "shared" among the youth community.

"There are too many young people who aren't well-informed about politics," says student Tai Windle, one of the advisory group's members. "The ministry's staff are really passionate and dedicated. I think they're probably doing quite a good job."

Katherine Rich suggests that the ministry is keeping adults happy. "Those who are concerned with youth issues can point to it and say, 'Look at the good work of the ministry'.

"But if you look at how the ministry attempts to communicate with young people and the results it produces, it's not really of any great relevance to young people."

Says Bell: "They've added additional staff to Auckland and Christchurch, and they're good people - but what do three people do in Auckland? The jury is still out, [regional hubs] may be very good. Their goals are good but at this point I don't think it's helped us to do our job.

"The ministry is still moving towards what we hoped it would achieve, but it holds a very important role in the sector. It is important that, at government level, young people are not invisible.

"We have a history of young people not doing as well as we expect from a country like this. We need advocates in government."

* Jehan Casinader is a freelance youth journalist in Wellington.