OUR WORK · YOUTH

Youth
Voices.

The Future belongs to the Youth
their Voices must be heard

ENGAGING YOUTH

Sustainable Development
with a Focus
on Youth.

Retour was founded by young people for young people who want to travel responsibly and in solidarity with disadvantaged groups in tourism destinations.

Over the years we realized that the engagement of youth is key in any project that aims to create sustainable impacts in the long term. Our work focuses on connecting local youth priorities with sustainable development, structured around three overarching ambitions based on the SDGs:

1. Power to shape the future: equality, meaningful participation and accountable decision-making.

2. A decent and secure future: safety, decent jobs, education, skills, health and wellbeing.

3. A sustainable and liveable community: climate, environment, public spaces, mobility and access to services.

01

Power to shape the future

By working with, and training young people, we empower them to connect local youth priorities with sustainable development, ensuring that young people's concerns and aspirations inform local action. Our work with diverse learner and stakeholder groups also provides opportunities to consider how participation, inclusion and cooperation can contribute to more responsive local decision-making. Through our Tourism Voices Projects (click to open the Tourism Voices Website) we help youth to assess and tell their stories, identifying what their community needs are.

02

A decent and secure future

Through its projects, and through its youth associates, Retour reaches out to youth groups to assess what they see as the most important goals for sustainable development. The most recent assessments show that safety, decent jobs, education, skills, health and wellbeing are the top priorities among young people. Our projects therefor focus on research and training aimed at skills development, employability, entrepreneurship and inclusiveness.

03

A sustainable and liveable community

To fully develop the qualities mentioned above, young people need (and are entitled to grow up in) safe, secure and inclusive communities for which the SDGs set the ecological, economic and social conditions. Retour’s expertise is mainly focussed on economic and social impacts of sustainable development. We assist youth in creating sustainable and liveable communities through our work on inclusive tourism, local development and entrepreneurship and research on markets and demand, destination management, and innovative approaches that connect economic opportunities with local needs.

OUR APPROACH TO:

Meaningful
Participation.

Our approach to youth engagement has always been consistent across our activities: young people should not be treated simply as beneficiaries of policies designed by others.

In the Youth Governance Survey (OECD, 2019) international youth organisations complained about the lack of political will and leadership to engage young people. A recent project by Retour confirmed that also at local levels, young people do not feel heard.

Good intentions and occasional consultations are insufficient without structures that connect youth input to government decisions. Participation should not be limited to young people who are already confident, well connected or comfortable in formal political settings. Local organisations can help reach different communities and translate their concerns into collective proposals.

Our approach to meaningful participation has five safeguards built in:

1

A defined mandate

Agree which decisions young people can shape and which authorities remain responsible.

2

Co-creation from the beginning

Involve young people in defining questions, methods and priorities, not just in collecting information.

3

Diverse and inclusive participation

Actively reach young people outside established youth councils and familiar networks.

4

A formal response

Governments and other stakeholders give feed back and explain how they will act on the recommendations, or why they cannot.

5

Monitoring and accountability

Track agreed actions and report progress back to the young people and wider community.

YOUTH AND SDGS

Why
now?

The 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the current global framework for sustainable development, but this framework will reach the end of its formal period in 2030.

The United Nations has already begun considering what should follow, with the 2027 SDG Summit expected to be an important milestone in shaping the post-2030 approach. A successor framework has not yet been decided, which makes the years ahead a crucial opportunity to influence its priorities, principles and ways of working.

2030+

Sustainable development after 2030 should not simply be designed for young people, but also with them.

Young people therefore need to act now, rather than wait until the post-2030 framework is established. The decisions and priorities developed in the coming years will shape the communities in which today's young people will live and work for decades to come.

By identifying the issues that matter most in their own communities, developing proposals and engaging directly with decision-makers, young people can gain experience and a stronger voice in shaping future sustainable-development priorities.

Retour works with young people to move from being recipients of the SDGs to becoming active contributors to the next generation of sustainable-development policies, ensuring that the transition beyond 2030 reflects the needs, priorities and aspirations of the generations who will live with its consequences.

FOUR DECADES
OF COMMITMENT


Retour
and Youth

A long-term commitment to youth, sustainable development and responsible tourism.

1980s

A Youth initiative

Retour is founded by a group of young friends, unhappy about older generations ruining the very resources that they would need to have a future for themselves and their kids.

1994

The first Youth project

For SNV, the Dutch development organisation, Retour assists young Maasai in the Loliondo area to take control over tourism in their bomas.

1996-2016

Protection from exploitation

Retour commits to youth through initiating and long standing involvement in the ECPAT campaign, focused on the protection of youth from exploitation in tourism.

2017-now

A broader Youth agenda

From 2017 onwards, Retour makes youth the core target group of all actions, assisting youth in realizing the SDGs from their perspectives and interests, preferably but not exclusively through responsible tourism projects.

Retour Foundation→

EXPERIENCE THROUGH PROJECTS

Turning commitment
into action.

Retour’s work with young people spans decades and connects youth participation with protection, empowerment and the knowledge needed to shape a sustainable future.

From our beginnings as a youth initiative in the 1980s to our current work on locally defined SDG priorities, we have sought to help young people influence the decisions that affect their lives. This experience brings together three connected strands: empowering youth to shape community development, protecting children's rights, and building the knowledge and capacity needed for lasting change.

01

Youth participation and empowerment

From supporting Maasai youth in Tanzania in 1994 to assessing local SDG priorities with youth organisations in the Netherlands and Africa in 2025, Retour has worked to strengthen young people’s ability to identify their priorities and shape community development.

02

Education and capacity-building

Retour has developed curricula, training materials and capacity-building activities that help tourism professionals and stakeholders put responsible and child-safe practices into action, creating a stronger basis for sustainable development.

03

Child rights and protection

Through long-term work with UNICEF, ECPAT and other partners, Retour has contributed to research, campaigns, training and international cooperation to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and promote child-safe tourism.