In December 2025, the Bahá’í International Community Jakarta Office held a hybrid regional consultative space on ‘Envisioning the Roadmap for Meaningful Youth Participation in Southeast Asia’, bringing together 112 participants from across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

The consultation acknowledges that there is substantial evidence that youth are cognisant of society’s needs and are eager not only to voice their concerns but also to act on them. The participants echoed the conviction that providing a conducive environment for young people to participate at all levels of society is vital, and that this conducive environment requires both technical support mechanisms and a paradigm shift from perceiving youth as beneficiaries of development to active participants in shaping social progress. Three important conditions for meaningful youth participation were identified: shifting the perspectives on youth, building relationships based on trust among youth, communities, and institutions, and encouraging collaboration between youth networks, communities, and institutions. Fundamentally, what is central to meaningful youth participation is the conviction that youth are endowed with capacities to contribute to the betterment of society. 

An outcome document from this regional consultative space, released by the BIC, can be found here.