OGP at 15: How youth-led co-creation is reshaping social protection, accountability

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

As the Open Government Partnership (OGP) marks 15 years of advancing global transparency, a pioneering approach to social protection is demonstrating how youth participation can move beyond token consultations into structured, institutional co-creation.

A comprehensive report released by the Society for Equitable Development Foundation (SEDF) and the Civic Impact for Sustainable Development Foundation (CISDF)—in collaboration with state social investment authorities outlines how integrating young people into policy design, climate resilience, and public finance tracking is building systems built for long-term sustainability.

In regions marked by high youth demographics and systemic economic deprivations, traditional top-down governance often struggles to deliver targeted relief.

The report, titled “YOUTH, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND SOCIAL PROTECTION REFORM,” captures key insights from a global OGP Week roundtable broadcast that brought together government leaders, civil society, development partners, and disability advocates.

Rather than treating youth merely as beneficiaries, the OGP framework has been leveraged to give young advocates direct seats at the decision-making table.

Youth advocates aged 25–29 reviewed existing social protection policies, successfully identifying critical gaps such as a lack of climate mainstreaming, missing youth-disaggregated data, and underutilized technology that were subsequently integrated into updated state frameworks.

Young leaders now hold co-chair positions on state OGP Steering Committees, directly influencing policy agendas, coordinating reforms, and driving equity financing for children.

Also, Citizen-led engagement has shifted from social media commentary to active participation in town halls, public finance monitoring, and direct oversight of government projects.

“Dialogue is an institutional mechanism that produces accountability and reform.

“Participation should go beyond social media commentary to active involvement in town hall meetings, policy dialogues, community engagement, budget monitoring, and oversight of government projects,”

Usman Haruna, Youth Advocate

Systemic Innovation and Climate Resilience stated.

It added that to prevent political exclusion and improve targeting social investment agencies are transitioning toward unified, data-driven platforms.

Furthermore, the deployment of centralized Management Information Systems (MIS) compiles data across multiple government agencies into a single database, reducing duplicate efforts and minimizing political bias in aid distribution.

According to the report, programs like the Ultra Poor Graduation Program (UGP) pair financial safety nets with skills acquisition and sustainable livelihood pathways to pull households out of poverty permanently.

Equally, by integrating climate reporting into local accountability mechanisms, trained citizen champions across local government areas provide real-time reporting on climate shocks. This ensures safety nets respond dynamically to environmental crises.

No doubt, a central takeaway of the 15-year OGP reflection is the necessity of building institutional frameworks that survive political and administrative transitions.

It was noted that disability advocacy has moved from passive representation to structural policy.

Through initiatives like the Youth Engagement Power Plan, accessibility standards and disability-disaggregated data are now mandatory operational guidelines across youth development ministries.

To guarantee governance continuity, stakeholders outlined four immediate priority actions such as operationalizing permanent youth desks within state social investment agencies to maintain continuous dialogue.

Also, embedding accessibility standards across all public infrastructure and social program evaluations.

Equally , establishing peer-learning networks to train emerging leaders in budget analysis, public finance tracking, and policy advocacy.

Similarly, deploying standardized advocacy toolkits to ensure equitable resource allocation at the grass-roots level.

As global open government initiatives mature, this co-creation model serves as a practical blueprint: proving that sustainable social reform relies not just on financial investment, but on transparent, youth-driven, and institutionalized partnerships between citizens and Kaduna state.