The workshop on “Youth participation in cultural life”, was organised at Tajalla (a mixed cultural centre that was established by Med Culture beneficiaries) over one and a half days. It gathered 25 participants in total. The group included two representatives of the Ministry of Culture and a representative of the Department of Antiquities (Ministry of Tourism) and representatives of NetMed Youth.

This activity was identified based on several exchanges with the NetMed Youth team, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and a long-standing collaboration with the officer in charge of culture at UNESCO Amman Office. It’s a multiplier effect of the work accomplished in Amman for the preparation of the National Strategy for Culture and mobilises the contributions of the National Focus Group in Jordan. This initiative focused on the development of a pilot indicator on “youth participation to cultural life” in Jordan as a contribution to the National Cultural Strategy developed by the MedCulture Team in collaboration with Jordanian cultural operators.

The creation of the indicator will be informed at the technical level by the existing UNESCO Culture for Development Indicator Suite which is an operational tool that aims to measure the impact of culture in development across seven dimensions: economy, governance, social participation, gender, communication, education, cultural heritage.

Key to the successful implementation of this activity is the participatory engagement of youth in the design of the indicator. To this end, the youth will be trained on specific data collection techniques which they will then apply in a pilot data collection exercise. Based on this first initiatives, the activity will conclude with the pilot definition of an indicator on “youth participation to cultural life” in Jordan. Should this initiative be successful, there are possibility to implement this at the regional level.

The workshop was very interactive and much time was allocated for discussion of methodology, and identification of data to be used for measuring youth participation in cultural life. 

The group adopted the UN definition for youth from age 12 to 30, categorised into three age groups:

• From 12 to 18: School period (cultural education and awareness phase)
• From 19 to 22: College/University (Higher cultural education and awareness phase with active participation in cultural activities)
• From 23 to 30: Work period (More direct and active participation levels in cultural life)

Efforts towards institution building and institutional participation in policy reforms:

1. The UNESCO Amman office will mobilise institutions to gather the necessary relevant data to complete the exercise.
2. The results will be presented in Amman in late June.
3. This experience, which is a first in the definition of indicators for youth in cultural life, is a pilot and model for other countries.