YouthPower Learning was a five-year contract funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Making Cents International to generate and disseminate knowledge about the implementation and impact of positive youth development (PYD) in international development. It had a multi-year grants component as a mechanism for engaging youth-led and youth-serving organizations in efforts to further assess, evaluate, document, and disseminate innovative work in PYD and cross-sectoral youth programming.

There were four grant cycles over the course of 2016-2020. The learning grants were also an opportunity to invest in and learn from youth-led, community-based organizations in low- and middle-income countries. Of all 17 grants, 11 funded or highlighted youth-led initiatives, including 6 grants that went directly to organizations founded and run by youth. As USAID embarks on its Journey to Self-reliance by enabling low- and middle-income countries to lead their own development solutions, there’s a lot they and INGOs can learn about how to use grant programs like YPL to partner with local organizations.

Here is an infographic highlighting some of YPL's innovative work in PYD and cross-sectoral youth programming.