Leadership has been a constant in my life ever since I took on the challenge of becoming a student representative while still in school. That first experience helped me realize that leadership does not mean simply speaking on behalf of others; rather, it involves listening, building consensus, and ensuring that the voices of others are taken into account. Since then, my commitment to young people has evolved from being an extracurricular activity into the driving force behind my academic studies and civic engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My name is Maloris Guerra; I am a 25-year-old from Cartagena and a final-year student of Law and Territorial Public Administration. Firmly convinced that social change begins when young people engage in public affairs, I have dedicated the last few years to strengthening spaces for youth representation and advocacy; This path led me to join youth organisations in Cartagena and, subsequently, to chair the District Youth Platform between 2022 and early 2025 \u2013 an experience that allowed me to understand the value of dialogue, consensus-building and collective action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My commitment to peace and participation initiatives has extended to both regional and national levels. From 2021 to 2024, I had the honor of serving as a Departmental Peace Councillor for Bol\u00edvar. I believe that discussing peace means recognizing young people as key players in its construction. Additionally, I was a member of the National Youth Platform and, during 2023, served as the National Commissioner for Consultation and Decision-Making. These roles have strengthened my advocacy skills and reaffirmed a belief that continues to guide my leadership today. When young people are given genuine opportunities to participate, they not only transform their communities but also enhance democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participating in the Youth Connection Hub has provided me with the opportunity to engage in a space where learning is enriched by diverse experiences and knowledge. In this setting, academia, social organizations, the private sector, and youth leaders collaborate. It demonstrates that solutions to the major challenges facing young people can only be achieved when different stakeholders come together on equal ground to engage in dialogue and develop solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most important lessons I have learned from this process is that trust is not the outcome of collective work; rather, it is the foundation upon which it is built. This trust has enabled us to forge networks, coordinate initiatives, and establish connections that enhance the capabilities of everyone involved in the Hub. Every experience, best practice, and perspective shared by the various participants serves as valuable input for developing more comprehensive responses to the challenges faced by young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When young people are given genuine opportunities to participate, they not only transform their communities but also enhance democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>
Until now, I had never participated in an environment where horizontal organization became more than just a concept\u2014it became a daily practice. At the Hub, everyone can propose ideas, debate, decide, and collaborate. No one's voice carries more weight than another, and every individual and collective experience enriches the decisions ultimately made. This way of working shows that true participation begins when everyone is acknowledged as a valid contributor and shares responsibility for the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose to join the Youth Participation Committee because my career has always been dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of young people. This committee provides a platform to acknowledge the diverse realities that young people face across the country and offers an opportunity to develop tools that strengthen their participation.\nFrom the beginning, we recognized that youth participation is a broad concept with various forms and challenges. As a committee, we decided to focus our discussions on a fundamental question: How does youth participation occur in intergenerational settings? This question led to further reflections: What conditions must be in place for such participation to be possible? What elements enable genuine dialogue between generations? Most importantly, what is needed for young people\u2019s participation to move beyond being merely symbolic and become a meaningful exercise in advocacy that can influence decisions affecting their lives? \nThese questions not only guided the work of our group but also transformed my understanding of the role of young people in shaping public policy and strengthening democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Colombia, discussing youth participation remains a challenge. However, significant progress has been made in recent decades regarding legislation, such as Law 1622 of 2013, and institutional frameworks that recognize young people as political actors, including the Vice-Ministry for Youth and CONPES Resolution 4040 of 2021. Despite these advancements, youth participation is viewed as a mere formality rather than a genuine exercise in advocacy. Young people are often invited to share their opinions, but they are not always included in decision-making processes. While our voices may be heard, they are not necessarily taken into account policy development or decisions that directly affect our lives. To strengthen genuine participation, it is essential to go beyond merely creating spaces for dialogue; we must establish conditions that empower young people to influence, build, and transform society on an equal footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout this process, we have come to realize that one of the greatest challenges facing youth participation in Colombia is not the lack of forums, but rather the way many of them are operated. Public forums often maintain a top-down dynamic, where young people are invited to participate, but they rarely have the opportunity to make a real impact. While officials and other institutional actors contribute from a position of expert knowledge, the experiences, proposals, and insights of young people are often pushed to the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concept for \u2018Voces que inciden\u2019 (Voices that Make a Difference) originated from this reflection. Developed by the Youth Participation Committee, it is more than just a game; it is an educational tool that uses scenarios inspired by real-life experiences. The resource encourages conversation, challenges traditional practices, and promotes shared learning across generations. Its goal is to illustrate that trust, legitimacy, and coordination are not the results of a participatory process, but rather essential conditions that ensure the process is authentic and capable of transforming decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creating spaces for open dialogue on an equal footing ensures that all voices are acknowledged and none are overlooked. Recognizing that everyone has something valuable to contribute, regardless of their age, position, or background, means that when young people are heard as equals, participation transforms a symbolic act into a genuine exercise in advocacy. This strengthens public decision-making and enhances the democratic nature of collective processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Voces que inciden\u2019 aims to bring generations closer together, encourage honest conversations, foster shared reflections, and highlight the barriers that still limit young people\u2019s effective participation. It emphasizes that the voices of young people are not just another opinion in public debate; they are vital sources of innovation, transformation, and democratic development. Additionally, it seeks to showcase the power of these voices and illustrate how intergenerational settings can evolve into spaces where differences become opportunities to build collective solutions that address the realities young people face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Youth participation should not just be measured by the number of forums or the number of young people who attend them. Its true value lies in the capacity to turn conversations into decisions and those decisions into actions that enhance the lives of young people.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
El liderazgo ha sido una constante en mi vida desde que siendo estudiante de colegio asum\u00ed el reto de ser personera estudiantil. Esa primera experiencia me permiti\u00f3 comprender que liderar no significa hablar por los dem\u00e1s, sino escuchar, construir consensos y trabajar para que las voces de otros tambi\u00e9n sean tenidas en cuenta. Desde entonces,…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1918,"template":"","class_list":["post-1917","altavoz","type-altavoz","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/altavoz"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1920,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz\/1917\/revisions\/1920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}