YouthPower Learning (YouthPower: Evidence and Evaluation IDIQ)

Challenge

Significant gaps remain in the areas of research and evaluation of youth programming. Apart from several known examples of success, there has been an absence of focused efforts to show meaningful and lasting development outcomes for youth around the world as a result of asset-based, cross-sectoral, positive youth development interventions.

Solution

Making Cents International is the prime contractor for YouthPower Learning, a five-year Task Order awarded under the YouthPower: Evidence and Evaluation IDIQ. It is designed to support USAID’s Youth in Development Policy by enabling investments in Positive Youth Development (PYD) research and evaluation within and across multiple sectors. PYD engages youth along with their families, communities, and governments so that youth are empowered to reach their full potential. PYD approaches build skills, assets, and competencies; foster healthy relationships; strengthen the environment; and transform systems. This project also supports USAID’s Evaluation Policy in its renewed call for unbiased impact and performance evaluations of USAID programs, as well as increased utilization of research for use.

Key activities and accomplishments to date are:

• Created, developed, and is managing www.YouthPower.org, the leading online information and networking resource for international cross-sectoral PYD.

• Developed an inclusive, demand-driven, cross-sectoral Learning Network and associated communities of practice (CoPs) that expand the knowledge base and advance practices and partnerships around an international PYD approach.

• Hosting YouthPower’s Annual Learning Network Meetings, which provide a forum to share and exchange innovative approaches, tools, products, and findings from YouthPower and other youth-serving organizations that can be applied across programs.

• Created, finalized, disseminated, and socialized a PYD Measurement Toolkit, which includes the PYD indicators, through a variety of activities.

• Produced A Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, which identified and used existing peer-reviewed literature and grey literature to expand the knowledge base about PYD programs in international development.

• Providing ongoing project design, assessment, and evidence and evaluation support through USAID Mission and Bureau buy-ins, including:

  • Seven buy-ins from USAID Missions focusing on project and activity design and portfolio reviews: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, DRC, Liberia, Honduras, and the Kyrgyz Republic.

  • Buy-in from the Bureau for Food Security

  • Buy-in from the Office of Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment

  • Buy-in from the Office of HIV/AIDS

  • Buy-in from the Latin American and Caribbean Bureau to create the YouthLead Platform