It also acts as an environmental as well as an outdoorsman organisation which sees the importance of teaching children and adolescents about the intrinsic value of enjoying and caring about nature.
Political issues which Framfylkingen works with include poverty, child labour, cultural diversity and international solidarity.
The name consists of two parts, fram, meaning "forward", and fylking which is a term which denotes an organisation and which is commonly associated with the labour movement in Norway (e.g. the Workers' Youth League, Norwegian: Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking – AUF).
The initiative was intended to provide an alternative to leisure activities which Christian and bourgeois organisations, such as the boy scouts, had to offer.
In the 1933 charter it states "the aim of framfylkingen is to create a public socialist outdoor organisation with parallel chores, which coincide with the interests of young people.