Policy & research

Policy and Research

The Ministry of Youth Development policy and research projects keeps the Minister of Youth Affairs and government agencies informed about key issues that affect young people.

Policy advice

The Ministry of Youth Development provides the Government with advice on the impact of policies on young people and their development.

The Ministry of Youth Development has the mandate and responsibility to look across the social and economic sectors to consider how the totality of government’s work impacts on young people. 

Current policy work
We are interested in all areas of youth development, however, are currently focussing extra attention on youth health (eg access to health services, physical activity and drugs and alcohol), active youth citizenship (eg Youth Parliament, volunteering), workforce needs of the youth development sector, and improving attendance, engagement and achievement in secondary education and youth transitions.

In addition our policy role includes providing young people with a central point of contact within government so they can express their views and interests.

The Ministry also provides policy advice to Mission-On, a cross-government package of initiatives aimed at improving the lifestyles of young New Zealanders by improving their nutrition and getting them more involved in physical activity.

Our policy work involves commenting on policy, legislation and services that have implications for young people, and providing the Minister of Youth Affairs, agencies and and the youth development sector with regular assessments of these implications. 

Another part of our policy role is coordinating cross-government input to major youth-related international opportunities like the OECD cross-national review of youth transitions or the Government’s reporting on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Past policy work
See the publications section of our website to see previous policy advice and publications we have produced in the areas of education, health, employment and justice.


Research & evaluation

The Ministry of Youth Development is committed to building and sharing an evidence-base about youth development in New Zealand.

We build, synthesise and share information and evidence on positive youth development across central government, local government, community organisations and academia.

Our research and evaluation role includes compiling and updating key facts and statistics about young people in New Zealand, evaluating youth services across New Zealand, producing reports on best practice youth development and hosting regular seminars to showcase youth research.

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