Youth Excel aims to advance gender equality by using research, learning, and data to change systems and transform norms, shifting power differentials so that diverse youth—including youth of all genders in different age categories—influence development agendas and development decision making. In late 2020, we conducted a Global GESI Analysis through desk research to (1) compile data and identify broad trends in line with Youth Excel’s work; (2) provide recommendations for Youth Excel activities.
Positive Youth Development
Positive Youth Development (PYD) originates in the field of prevention. Prevention researchers and practitioners over time learned that youth who exhibit factors that are protective against adversity – factors such as family support, self-esteem, and engagement in community and school activities - will be more likely to experience positive outcomes.
1 The focus on positive outcomes – such as taking an active role in society – emerged in part in response to the previous preoccupation with addressing risks and problems.
2 Youth Excel currently uses the framework for PYD developed by the USAID-supported YouthPower Learning project which was created based on input from practitioners, implementers, researchers, and existing literature.
3 Youth Excel works from the assumption that to contribute to healthy, productive, and engaged youth, PYD programs must focus on available assets, youth agency, youth contribution, and the surrounding enabling environment. Assets refers to resources, skills, and competencies that youth need to achieve desired outcomes; agency refers to the ability to employ those assets; contribution refers to youth engagement, and enabling environment refers to an environment that encourages and recognizes youth.
PYD Domain: Enabling Environment
The enabling environment domain supports healthy, productive, and engaged youth by surrounding them with an environment that enables them to maximize their assets, agency, and contribution. The enabling environment can include such areas as pro social norms, youth-friendly laws and policies, gender-responsive policies, and youth responsive services. Considering the domains in ADS 205 (specifically “Laws, Policies, Regulations, and Institutional Practices” and “Norms and Beliefs”), as well as the availability of global-level data, we have focused on global trends in laws and policies as well as in norms and beliefs affecting PYD. Although many legal and institutional areas affect the equal participation of women and girls, men and boys, and gender diverse persons, we have limited the focus in the section on laws and policies to barriers to civic participation, which is important to the implementation of the Youth Excel Program.
PYD Domains: Contribution and agency
Although contribution and agency are separate aspects of the Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework, they are closely linked, and we have grouped them here to increase the readability of the report. To examine differences in young people’s sense of agency, we look at differences in self-esteem and leadership. Contribution is measured through youth civic engagement as well as young people’s participation in the labor market.
PYD Domain: Assets
The assets domain defines a broad range of necessary resources and skills that youth need to achieve their desired outcomes. In this analysis, we have focused on aspects that are highly relevant to the Youth Excel ToC and where there is readily available data on the global level: access to education and training together with digital participation and inclusion. Digital access and participation have emerged as key during the current global COVID-19 pandemic, when most Civil Society Organizations (like IREX) have strict limitations on in-person events and activities.
Cross-Cutting
In addition to the PYD framework, there are several concepts that are relevant to the implementation and outcomes of the Youth Excel Program and its potential impact on gender equality and social inclusion. Youth Excel will specifically work in the field of Implementation Research (IR).
This section addresses inequalities in the area of IR and academic research. We also include a short section to highlight inequality in access to tertiary education – which provides the most solid foundation for people to conduct IR. In addition, considering the funding source (USAID), the program operates within the Development Cooperation sector. The report briefly addresses inequality on the level of state development cooperation agencies but does not go into detail with regards to the enduring legacy of colonialism and post-colonialism in the sector.
Finally, since this report is written at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we assess the potential impact of this global event on inclusion in relation to the Youth Excel program.
Recommendations for Project Implementation
Based on the analysis of gender gaps and other markers and identities, as well as barriers to equitable outcomes of Youth Excel, we include a list of recommendation for the program’s design and implementation for consideration by the team that makes up the Youth Excel Consortium (IREX, international and local partners).
In some cases, the recommendations come directly from or coincide with recommendations in the literature that has been analyzed for this report. Where appropriate, we cite the source of the recommendation. In other cases, the recommendations are based on our analysis of available data and knowledge about IREX approaches. The recommendations are organized along eight thematic areas to help the reader.
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