The role of young people in global health governance: an interview-based observational study

Abstract Background Youth organisations are becoming increasingly involved in global health governance. We investigated the effect of a multidisciplinary workshop on youth participation in global health by assessing quantity and quality of actions taken by young people at the 66th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland (May 20–28, 2013). Methods We selected 42 students from a written application pool, balanced for experience, future goals, nationality, and sex. After a multidisciplinary workshop, we recorded the number of WHO member states approached by the youth delegates during the Assembly and recorded how many member states had committed to make young people a part of their official delegation for future World Health Assemblies. Findings Participants were from 18 countries on five continents and representing seven disciplines (medicine, pharmacy, law, biomedical engineering, dentistry, public health, and policy). On average, each student had at least three interactions with different WHO member states, contributing to 58 individual interactions between young people and country delegates compared with 24 at the previous World Health Assembly in 2012. 18 countries had verbally agreed to include youth representatives in future official World Health Assembly delegations, which would substantially increase formal youth participation at the World Health Assembly. Interpretation Multidisciplinary collaboration can improve health negotiations at high-level meetings for young people. We anticipate such workshops becoming a model for future high-level meetings and the group of students becoming active participants and leaders in global health. Funding None.