TED Webinar Recording - Women and Youth as Political Drivers

Youth and women are increasingly at the centre of political change, not as peripheral participants but as active drivers reshaping how influence is generated, expressed and institutionalised. 

The recent Team Europe Democracy (TED) webinar on “Youth and Women as Political Drivers” (5^th of May 2026) moderated by European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP), brought together contributions from the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation; DG INTPA (WYDE); the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES); the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD); Demo Finland; International IDEA (I-IDEA); youth and women political participation advocates from The Gambia and Senegal to explore the growing disconnect between symbolic inclusion and substantive political power, asking whether institutions are able to recognise and respond to shifting forms of political agency. 

A consistent picture emerged: political engagement is moving through digital mobilisation, community organising, artistic expression and new participatory infrastructures that often sit outside traditional pathways. Yet the central challenge remains whether these dynamics can be translated into durable influence within parties, parliaments and governance systems. The question is no longer where participation happens, but whether institutions are capable of following where political power is already moving.