AI for Good stories

Empowering youth to actively participate in shaping their cities and digital future

The world’s youth account for 16% of the global population, making young people today the largest generation in history. (UN World Youth Report).

by Cindy X. S. Zheng

Featured Image

The world’s youth account for 16% of the global population, making young people today the largest generation in history. (UN World Youth Report). Many of them as part of 68% of the world’s population, are expected to reside in urban areas by 2050 (UNFPA).

However, most young people whose lives revolve around the physical and digital infrastructures of their cities, have little say in how they are developed. More than the future generation, they are active stakeholders in every city at present. If the youth were better included and equipped, they could play a key in tackling urban challenges both today and in the future.

In the AI for Good Perspectives session Inclusive futures: AI & digital platforms for active youth participation, moderated by Chris Bockman, three leading experts in youth participation in urban planning laid out the various opportunities digital platforms and AI technologies bring to shape more inclusive cities.

Strengthening young voices and bolstering datasets

Digital platforms and digital spaces have become predominant in today’s society. In urban planning, these technologies have the potential to foster citizen participation and inclusion, especially in making young voices heard. As accessible venues, digital platforms offer a way for young people to participate in the community.

One example is the Safetipin app, which is a part of the Cities for You(th) program by Safetipin, an organization that works towards building safe and inclusive cities. Supported by Fondation Botnar, the youth fellows in the program use the Safetipin app to conduct safety audits in their cities. While conducting the audits, they assess public spaces on parameters like street lighting, walkability, security presence, and safety feeling.

“This crowdsourced data reflects the lived experiences of young people and has been integrated into the city data platforms. Based on the data that was collected by young people, 90% of streetlights have been improved […]. This action was taken by city officials, so the use of digital platforms in data ensures that youth voices are not just heard but also acted upon to strengthen the youth participation and inclusion in our cities,“ said Neeruja Gupta, Assistant Program Manager of the Cities for You(th) Program at Safetipin.

Another example was demonstrated by the AIP Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to safe, equitable, and sustainable mobility for all that developed the AI&Me app, also supported by Fondation Botnar and others.

AI&Me was used in their innovative Big Data road safety program to support young Vietnamese people to share their safety perception on their travel to school. Applied across three cities, young people have created more than 20,000 pins to indicate high-risk areas near their schools via the app.

“Their feedback helps us to identify locations for further technical assessment to determine the rating of that school zone. Then our young people share the result to the local authorities and tell them what they want to change,” explained Trang Truong, Senior Program Manager at AIP Foundation

Trang Truong highlighted that in Vietnam, a lack of consistent data collection and processing poses a hurdle for decision-makers to effectively allocate public resources. The youth engagement app AI&Me helps fill that gap. As a result of AI&Me, the government has implemented upgrades at more than 13 schools.

This is not a local phenomenon; the sustainable development of urban areas is difficult to track. For the United Nation Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, only 35% of data is available (ETHZ), making it a challenge to accurately assess progress toward the targets. Crowd-sourcing data through youth engagement can be an antidote to that.

Using AI to transform citizen participation and data collection for urban planning

The emergence of AI strongly affects citizen participation at all levels, from providing information and consultation to driving decision-making. Using AI-powered tools can simplify and speed up many processes, but it is vital that these tools reflect the growing diversity of cities to be representative. City planners must become just as diverse to be inclusive, requiring marginalised groups in the used data and planning offices.

“Especially now, with the advance of AI, it is very important that their views and their inputs are taken into account while we develop the physical, digital and AI infrastructures. So that the actors […] involved in the development of physical and digital spaces can adequately address their needs and concerns,” said Siddhartha Jha, AI and Digital Innovation Lead at Fondation Botnar.

Tools like Safetipin Nite, another digital tool developed by Safetipin, use machine learning algorithms to analyse street images for safety parameters and supplement this data by input from trained coders. This allows the real-time analysis of street safety using advanced image recognition to identify potential hazards instantly.

AI has further transformed the way of data collection and analysis in urban planning. Traditional methods are time-consuming and limited in scope. Using AI and digital innovations can reduce the natural complexity of urban planning.

AI enables the analysis of large datasets that reflect spatial, socio-economic, and other diversities in communities.  The effective use of more varied data makes cities more inclusive, and can also highlight gaps in current urban policies, ensuring that they reflect the need of youth and other vulnerable groups adequately.

Learning from young people is the best way to give back to young people

The speakers emphasize the multiple roles young people occupy: youth can be problem-solvers, change advocates, and knowledge carriers. They are well-positioned to ensure cities are changing to everyone’s benefit.

Trang Troung underlined that youth perception is data: “We support the collection of perception from our young people that don’t need validation. Different individuals perceive the environment differently so there is no right or wrong.”

Urban planning has often overlooked youth’s needs and marginalized communities. Trang Troung reminded us that young people want to be heard, and that not validating their voices and integrating their opinions will lead to a decline in their involvement, as they deserve something in return for their engagement.

Empowering youth encourages them to advocate for their needs, to participate in public initiative for community improvement, to create a stronger sense of responsibility as they are acknowledged by city officials and decision-makers.

“It’s very important to give young people the chance, to give their input as we develop services and infrastructures and cities and digital spaces as well. These create feedback loops from a very important group whose perspectives are traditionally not taken into account formally. That’s a great opportunity for the world and we should tap into the power of digital platforms to give the young people the collective agency to shape their environments better,” added Siddhartha Jha

Digital transformation for urban acceleration: Bringing SDG 11 back on track

Siddhartha Jha called on non-profits and social impact organizations to actively use the tools presented during the session and to engage more with young people, ensuring their voices are reflected in programming.

To make cities and digital future more inclusive, philanthropic organizations and funders must embrace technology, investing more in AI and digital solutions in the context of enhancing young people’s agency.

Nerruja Gupta agreed, underlining that “we have to continue supporting innovation through AI and technologies and keep improving our urban environments for the youth.” She underlined that two-thirds of India’s population is below the age of 35, positioning it as the world’s youngest nation, advocating that cities must integrate more digital platforms as a pathway to facilitate collaboration across sectors and support youth engagement.

It is equally important to invest in the training and education of young people to equip them with the skills needed to use digital technologies effectively. AI for Good’s AI Skills Coalition that has just launched with more than 25 partner organizations aims to bridge the AI skills gap by democratizing access to AI education. Together with UNDP, the coalition focuses on underserved regions, aligning with the fact that almost 90 % of today’s youth lives in developing countries, and 30 % live in fragile and conflict-affected countries (UN World Youth Report). AI for Good has further launched the Young AI Leaders Community, driving youth-led initiatives globally aligned with the UN SDGs.

To learn more about AI, digital platforms and active youth participation, watch the full AI for Good Perspectives session: