Recommendations and strategy

Strategy

Empathy is not fixed, but can be extended, expanded, and promoted. The extension of empathy can be a part of the solution to various contemporary issues, counteracting social isolation, political extremism and the propagation of toxic ideologies. Empathy can be a binding force that embeds liberal democratic values and civil society in the face of the challenges set against it, as well as improving wellbeing, life chances, and educational outcomes.

To accomplish these benefits requires systemic interventions that create spaces for young people to develop their empathetic capabilities. It also requires engagement with existing debates and priorities. These include economic sustainability, civil society development, counter-extremism interventions, and building resilience to substantial social change (including the challenges that AI, climate change, and geopolitical upheaval may cause), and the integration of empathy interventions within and through policies in relation to those areas. Empathy in action, and empathy through organisations, institutions, and public policy is therefore the overarching strategic objective.

Practical mechanisms

The general outcome sought is the expansion of empathy in the lived experience of young people and more broadly in society as whole. To begin to achieve this in a concrete and actionable way, work needs to be undertaken in a number of different areas to create necessary structures and networks to build capacity and develop new interventions. This in turn will require the creation of a strategy and plans for implementation. In the latter stages of the event, it became evident that there was emerging agreement around different structures and solutions.   These are grouped below under three headings: working groups and work packages; network and community building; and an empathy observatory and related initiatives.

Working groups/work packages

The following groups and work packages will seek to organise going forward in the following areas. Further groups and work packages can be developed following need identification.

Convening group

• A new Convening Group will provide strategic leadership and coordinate the organisation of any initiatives and other working groups. It will be responsible for strategy development, communications, and participant network maintenance.
• It was noted that there should be both short-term and longer-term strategic objectives that will require different planning cycles and opportunity identification.
• The Convening Group will act as a coordinator for any funding and philanthropic initiatives
• The Convening Group will build alliances and relationships:
  • Collaborations with different levels of civil society actor organisations
  • Undertake matchmaking to align groups with specific common interests
  • Provide advocacy and media representation
• Provide leadership and guidance in relation to different priorities, for example, the different needs of the Global South and Global North, and nonformal and formal educational settings
• Provide a forum for young people and their voice to be included at a strategic level
• The Convening Group will take the lead in creating the Empathy Observatory and the Empathy Gauge (see below).

Work packages (WPs)

The purpose of the following four work packages is to bring together different interested organisations and individuals to address specific issues and problems identified at the Wilton Park event, and to take forward ideas and potential projects as discussed at the event as noted in the report above. These would typically involve collaboration between different types of organisations/individuals (some combination of civil society organisations, university research groups, youth work organisations and nonformal education organisations).

WP1: Hard-to-reach groups

• Hard to reach groups pose a challenge in terms of designing and implementing interventions to promote empathy. The purpose of this work package will be to bring together those with experience of undertaking youth work and social research in relation to hard to reach groups to work on this problem.

WP2: Anti-empathy

• The use of anti-empathy rhetoric to inflame opinion and encourage social division, especially online, is reflective of an active opposition to empathy. This work package will seek to better understand the ways in which the social environment has become contested by adversaries to empathy, as well as the causes and mechanisms of anti-empathy, and to work towards solutions to its appeal.

WP3: Public service delivery

• Embedding greater empathy in public service delivery offers the potential to benefit young people and their families in wider social and policy contexts. This work package will seek to develop a better understanding of how, where and when greater empathy might lead to better outcomes in public service delivery

WP4: Non-formal education

Non-formal education has been identified as an important mode through which greater empathy among young people can be fostered. The purpose of this work package will be to examine ways in which this can be deepened and widened, in particular to reach a greater number of young people on a global basis. This would include how the nonformal and formal education sectors could work together.

Network and community building

It was recognised that the meeting was a beginning for future discussions and network development in relation to shared values and aims in relation to promoting empathy.

• The need to include young people within these processes is of utmost importance. Effective partnerships are a critical means of including youth voice in the discussions about empathy and programmes to develop empathy
• The intention is to facilitate the creation of partnerships with organisations with shared interests, especially those with an interest in, or responsibility for delivery of, nonformal education.
• Partnership extension will build on the existing connections between the UNESCO chairs global network, the Human Development and Family Studies Department and the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State University, USA, and the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the University of Galway, Ireland.
• Partnerships might include:
  • Non-formal educational organisations, for example the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGOS), the World Scout Movement (WOSM), the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), and Foróige
  • International civil society organisations, such as UNESCO, UNICEF, and the Council of Europe
  • International institutions of global governance, especially those with responsibility for social, economic, and human development, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the World Bank
  • Humanitarian aid organizations, such as The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Save the Children
  • Universities and research institutes with a focus on youth work and child services
  • Faith groups and wisdom traditions, and related humanitarian initiatives that focus on children, young people, and families
  • Governmental departments and agencies at multiple levels, particularly those with responsibility for children and youth services, or those public services with substantial impact on children, young people, and their families
• Effective partnerships need to be able to cut across different sectors

Empathy Observatory

The purpose of an Empathy Observatory is to monitor, coordinate, and promote empathy related interventions and research, and to provide resources and technical assistance in relation to the advancement of empathy in society. It would seek to leverage convening power and work as a commissioning agency

• The Empathy Observatory would be the venue for facilitating and including youth voice as part of empathy education and related societal interventions. A key element of the observatory would be the participation of young people, including youth as researchers
• The Empathy Observatory would act as an international centre for empathy work, and the dissemination and promotion of good practice:
  • The Empathy Observatory would act as a repository for research and other resources to enable organisations and individuals to embed empathy enhancement within practice. This might include, for example, models and resources for teachers and youth workers, and sharing good practice
  • The Empathy Observatory would undertake evaluation of existing empathy related initiatives, and to provide compelling evidence of the impact that empathy can have.
• The Empathy Observatory might commission further initiatives, as a potential conduit and coordinator of fund-raising activities to develop capacity and support new projects and programmes. The Observatory might develop the following:
  • Technical assistance and capacity building for policy-makers, activists, as well as organisations engaging with young people in a range of settings, including nonformal and formal education, and public service delivery. This would include the commissioning of pilot programmes.
  • Research coordination to enable organisations with research capability to support the work of practice based groups. This would also link and coordinate with the working groups/work packages listed above to provide research and data.
  • Empathy gauge
    • A key ambition is to create a framework for measuring the impact of empathy, to demonstrate the value of empathy initiatives to organisations and policy-makers
    • This will involve the creation of credible methodology. This would incorporate the different national, cultural, linguistic, and conceptual variations in understanding what empathy is, and is not, in different contexts. This would include understanding the variations in empathy acquisition and understanding on the basis of gender, nationality, socio-economic group, and other demographic variations
    • It was discussed that the gauge should also seek to measure, perhaps qualitatively, issues in relation to social environment and community, as well as using existing quantitative datasets, especially those made available by the OECD, Eurostat, and other international institutions
  • A Youth Empathy Charter would provide an international platform for embedding empathy from a human rights perspective, designed and quality proofed by young people.
  • A Global Human Skills Council would galvanise urgent practical policy change to make sure young people worldwide have all the Human Skills they need to thrive in a world of rapid technological change, especially those rooted in empathy and empathetic behaviour.
    • By mobilising an influential partnership of multilateral bodies, significant tech players, and the world’s largest youth movements, the Global Human Skills Council aims to establish that Human Skills are an essential complement to formal education and Digital Skills in driving the best outcomes for societies and economies worldwide.
    • It would amplify evidence from the Empathy Observatory, coordinate political support and policy dialogue across countries, continents and relevant stakeholders, establish and share best practices, demonstrating models that develop Human Skills, as well as signposting technical assistance, guidance, and partnership opportunities to facilitate implementation.

Simon Mollan

Wilton Park | February 2026

References

Heaton, Benedict. 2025. “The Oxford Word of the Year 2025 Is Rage Bait.” Oxford University Press. December 1, 2025. https://corp.oup.com/news/the-oxford-word-of-the-year-2025-is-rage-bait/.

“Leadership for Life – Foróige.” 2025. Foróige. March 18, 2025. https://www.foroige.ie/our-work/programmes/leadership-for-life/.

Silke, Charlotte, Bernadine Brady, Ciara Boylan, and Pat Dolan. 2018. “Factors Influencing the Development of Empathy and Pro-Social Behaviour among Adolescents: A Systematic Review.” Children and Youth Services Review 94 (November): 421–36.

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