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Cross-Sectoral Analysis Reveals Hidden Links to Youth Development

Tue, February 21, 9:30 to 11:00am EST (9:30 to 11:00am EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Independence Level (3B), Cherry Blossom Boardroom

Proposal

Considering that today’s young people under the age of 30 make up half of the world’s population, The voices and skills of 2.4 billion youth between the ages of 10 and 29 are critical to development work (Youth in Development Policy, 2022). The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently updated its Youth in Development Policy, seeking to strengthen cross-sectoral youth programming, participation, and partnership in development and humanitarian objectives. The policy also emphasizes the inclusion and support of young people, especially those with intersecting, marginalized identities. As a result, it elevates intentional, inclusive program design to work closely with youth as partners in development. Underpinning the policy is the Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach, which is both a guiding philosophy as well as a programmatic approach for supporting healthy, productive, and engaged youth as they grow into adulthood. With four domains (assets, agency, contribution, and enabling environment), the PYD framework also provides guidelines to begin uncovering the often-hidden stories of support to – or neglect of – youth across the globe. In partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), Chemonics International embarked on a journey of continuous learning to examine our youth-related projects.

In the first quarter of 2022, Chemonics’ youth experts teamed up with a group of graduate students from ASU, many of whom were youth themselves, to determine how our projects align with USAID’s PYD principles. The seven projects that were analyzed covered a range of disciplines as youth development is so cross-cutting, and often were not youth-focused projects. Through this analysis, we sought to identify alignment with the tenets of PYD and, more broadly, the trends, successes, and learning opportunities in USAID programming as it relates to youth development. The analysis also looked at the level of youth engagement in the design and implementation of projects’ goals, the process by which projects identified youth stakeholders, and project staff’s awareness of the PYD model.

We utilized modern text analytics techniques to distill data from nearly 6,000 pages of annual reports, annual work plans, and contracts. From there, we implemented a three-step process to achieve our intended goals of:

1. Structuring and cleaning the data to allow input into machine learning models.

2. Manual tagging to ensure relevancy and accuracy.

3. Populating a dashboard to make the information more accessible. We used Python to perform backend processing and created a Microsoft Power BI dashboard to easily display the results from the information collected.

The analysis revealed that most of Chemonics’ support to youth are realized through the PYD domains of assets, contribution, and enabling environment. We primarily engage those domains through training, youth engagement, and gender-responsive policies, respectively. For example, we provided youth with training for technology and engineering skills sought by the private sector through the Moldova Competitiveness Project, increased economic opportunities for Ugandan youth in agricultural-related fields through the Feed the Future Youth Leadership in Agriculture Activity, and enabling education through digital platforms in the ZRDA Activity in Georgia.

Because of ASU’s creation of an automated process and a dashboard for visualization, we can quickly filter project information in correlation to the PYD framework. Information that would have taken weeks, or even months, to decipher can now be analyzed within a matter of minutes. This process allows us to find links to PYD where we may not have known they existed. We can also begin to be more intentional in designing our youth programs – replicating and adapting successful practices into different contexts, more rapidly adjusting activities when needed, and scaling when appropriate. In addition to analyzing for the purposes of PYD, this process will enable other technical sectors to encompass frameworks relevant to their work.

Engaging with a youth-led team and an academic institution not only provided a valuable perspective on our work but also embodied our commitment to partner with youth on their own development and actively engage in continuous learning. This initiative was a reminder that international development practitioners should not be making decisions about youth-development programming without listening to youth voices. One of the many ways we can commit to improving engagement with youth is to look across the work we are doing to uncover the hidden story of our support to young people across the globe and using this research initiative to further demonstrate our accountability as project implementers.


References:

USAID, (2022), Youth in Development Policy 2022-2030. Retrieved from Youth in Development Policy | U.S. Agency for International Development (usaid.gov).

Youth Power, (2022), Positive Youth Development (PYD) Framework. Retrieved from Positive Youth Development (PYD) Framework | YouthPower.

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