Youth develop 21st century analytical skills while collecting ground truth (data) in youth development program

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday VI)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Active youth engagement in program design, data collection, and analysis: strong positive data

Proposal

It is widely recognized that secondary education school curriculums do not provide the skills youth need which lead to depreciated employment & entrepreneurship opportunities. The implementing organization works with vulnerable rural youth of East Africa providing them with skills and opportunities for the rapidly changing and expanding East African economic landscape. It’s multi-phased integrated Leadership and Entrepreneurship (LEI) program has qualitative and quantitative assessments showing the program to be high-impact, low-cost, and valued by business and community stakeholders. The youth who graduate from the Program are prepared to transition successfully from school to life beyond the classroom as self-confident leaders, entrepreneurs and skilled workers; widening their career choices and improving their chances of creating and sustaining successful businesses. (LEI 5-Year Outcome Study, 2017).

In 2016, the organization executed a 5-year outcome study across Kenya and Tanzania counties. The organization chose to upskill and train young people (ages 18-25) in monitoring and evaluation methodology, data collection and analytical skills rather than using the trained M&E professionals. Use of digital (no paper) survey tools and training for data collection, both qualitative and quantitative, provided avenues for job skills in areas of ICT, communication, and basic data analytical skills. The quantitative data collection was executed using digital tools (no paper), with open source collection tools. The qualitative research and data collection was conducted using focus groups, external observation, video and interview techniques. In addition to skill development, the organization saw this as an opportunity to ensure “ground truth” of the data being collected by using local languages and knowing the communities intimately, manage a constrained timeline for the collection process, and provide the young people a stipend for project implementation.

The presenter will describe the methods developed by an external objective expert, conducting the “ground training”, and upskilling of the youth, and implementation of the multifaceted data collection process across 42 rural communities, assessing 357 youth, including a control group, to quantify the longer-term outcomes and impact of the program. Using this model, the organization was able to keep its MEL process lean and efficient, provide a local language speaker, provide opportunity for youth skill building and empowerment, and deeper stakeholder engagement by the youth. The organization has strong data and evidence that this approach simultaneously enhancing the organizational capacity and providing opportunities for youth skills development.

Keywords: Youth Skills Building, Youth Empowerment, Building a Foundation, Ready for the Global Workforce, Livelihoods Through Self-Employment.

Authors

• Gloria Mushi, Asante Africa Foundation - Tanzania, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator

• Ewald Tesha, Asante Africa Foundation - Tanzania