Youth Involvement in Analysis Reviews and Evaluations

Programme Management Tool

Purpose

In line with the youth involvement in sounding boards for policy development and ongoing programme monitoring, youth may also be involved in regular programme analysis, reviews and real-time and end-evaluations. This will further support the overall youth agenda and specific priorities, policies and achievements related to youth-specific indicators, as well as provide a critical youth perspective on the overall exercise. Youth inclusive analyses, reviews and evaluations will benefit from having youth represented on the team(s) carrying out the analytical work.

Involving Youth

The objective of involving youth in the analysis, review and evaluation teams is multiple:

To promote that young people’s rights and perspectives are embedded throughout the analysis, review and evaluation processes and outputs
To strengthen perception data (i.e. stakeholders’ perception of a given situation) available for programming, assessing the success of programme implementation, and/or informing recommendations for future programming, including best or promising practices related to young people’s active involvement
To strengthen inter-generational dialogue and learning and build a bridge between different generations’ assessment of priorities.

The advantages and results of including youth in a team of experts may include:

Enhanced community perspective
Better communication with young people
Broadening the canvas of assumptions held in the team
Enhanced capacity of young evaluator(s)
Visibility of young people as a resource.

Profile of Young Team Members

When recruiting young team members, it is important to consider their legitimacy as representatives of a larger group of young people, by tapping into organised structures representing a broader and consolidated voice of youth. Moreover, the young team members should be:

Within the national (or regional) age range for youth
Experienced in working with youth in the specific development sector
Knowledgeable of non-capital and non-urban areas (depending on the context of engagements)
Balanced with regard to gender.

Recruitment

If the young team members are recruited among members of a youth sounding board or similar consultation group for the Danish programmes, the participation may also contribute to:

Building the long-term capacities of members of the youth sounding board
Model a new approach to youth-inclusive analysis, reviews and evaluations

Young team members may also be contracted through subject matter relevant civil society organisations, private sector institutions/organisations, universities, consultancy agencies or independently.

Youth-inclusive evaluation of an end early marriage programme in Ethiopia

The inclusion of young evaluators and young ambassadors as official members of the final evaluation team was an innovation. The inclusion of young people’s voices is an established good practice in all aspects of programmes that aim to benefit the lives and opportunities of young people, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child supports children’s right to participate in any decision-making which affects them. Despite this, inclusion of young people as bona fide evaluators is not well evidenced. Young people are now often consulted or work as peer researchers, but they are not often included in analysis and decision-making relating to other young people’s rights and needs.2

CONTACT:

In case of questions, please contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Global Youth Advisor at [email protected]