Cross-cutting Considerations: Youth Leadership
Leadership skills are critical for the success of youth participation in political structures as well as for initiating change through youth-led organizations and organizing. Training and forming a critical mass of young leaders is a project anchored in the participation and good governance agenda, hence, encouraged by donors, agencies, policymakers, and various civil society organizations. The last decade has seen an exponential increase in the number of leadership programs and fellowships (for example, President Obama’s Youth Leaders Initiatives), training kits and packages, curricula and modules, guidelines and best practices, many of which are targeting youth in developed and developing countries.
State of the Evidence
The majority of studies of youth leadership programs focus on gains in youth’s personal and emotional development, school achievement and performance, and risk reduction. A traditional “deficit” or a “youth as a problem to be fixed” approach to youth leadership development dominates the field and thus the research as well. Positive Youth Development approaches are relatively new. The accompanying research to identify what works still lags. There is a lack of evidence of the cause-effect relationship between short-term personal gains and long-term impact of youth leadership on larger processes of change.
Key Concepts and Principles
The approach to youth leadership and leadership development presented here is based on PYD. As described in the Civic Participation section of this toolkit, PYD engages youth along with their families, communities and/or governments so that youth are empowered to reach their full potential and through this approach transform systems. It is worth noting that this definition of youth leadership has a political dimension of youth development in addition to the more conventional youth development cognitive, psychological and behavioral gains. The two definitions tend to be used by programs interchangeably implying that all programs share a single coherent and clear set of goals.
Confusing the youth development field with the youth leadership for political participation field is a common and serious mistake. This lack of clarity undermines what is defined and measured as impact as well as what can be defined as success and best practices by whom. Also, many programs focus on the personal, cognitive and social skills but fail to build political understanding of why youth are excluded, discriminated against or live in poverty. Only the exceptional program actually challenges the status quo and tries to deal with injustices. Youth leadership development for political development is a relatively new field of study and one where assessment and evaluation need to catch up to practice.
Be sure that in addition to just skill building and training, which may be the most tangible activities under a youth leadership program, there are organizations ready to take on youth as partners who can practice what they have learned. It is also important to ensure the program connects youth to their community in ways that afford them the time and space to discern their priorities and not just mimic adult priorities, and to work to initiate change beyond the individual level. Ultimately, leadership development should open up young leaders’ understanding of the political context they live in and link that increased awareness to organizations and adults who will be partners in pursuing youth-centered and youth-led change.
For M&E, consider self-evaluations assessing participants’ own impressions. If thoughtfully designed and administered to avoid social desirability bias, you can assess how participants are perceiving the leadership development process. They can be gathered over time and compared across various factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status.
Ideas for Incorporating PYD Features into Youth Organization Support
Skill Building: Skill building is a core component of youth leadership. Ensure you focus not only on technical skills, but on soft/life skills as well. Include skills that will help the young people apply the personal leadership skills they will have developed to have greater impact on the broader community, as well as broader civic advocacy skills. In conflict-affected environments, include conflict resolutions skills that help youth reach across the various divisions in their communities.
Youth Engagement: Engage young people in the design, monitoring and evaluation of youth leadership initiatives. Support the creation of youth advisory committees that can serve as a constant feedback loop to improve the program. Include a grants component where the youth participants can actually apply what they’ve learned to real-world problems. Establish processes so youth are a part of the decision-making process for the grants.
Healthy Relationships: Mentorship opportunities and other opportunities to link supportive adults with youth is particularly important for youth leadership programs. Consider ways to link youth participants to CSOs and other stakeholders engaged in work of interest to them. Internships are also frequently a core component of youth leadership programs.
Belonging/Membership: Consider having participants create action groups where they will work together over a period of time, even after the training ends, to address problems or issues of mutual concern to them. Create alumni groups as well as youth advisory groups. Develop leadership training targeting specific youth sub-cohorts (e.g., young women, LGBTI youth)
Norms/Expectations/Perceptions: Clarifying norms and expectations should be part of any youth leadership initiative. Ensure there is time for everyone in the program to discuss the norms and expectations within the context of the program, as well as what is expected of youth in the actual world. Part of the youth leadership training could focus on how adults perceive youth and how to improve those perceptions.
Safe Public Space: Ensure the training space is a safe public space for youth to share with one another. Consider including activities that may focus on how to create such spaces in the “outside” world. This could turn out to be a useful project in itself.
Youth Friendly Programming: Be strategic about where the leadership training will be conducted and who will conduct it. If through an existing institution, ensure it’s accessible to youth and youth have a say in the training itself. Some of the leadership activities could focus on identifying specific services provided by government or other youth-serving institutions and working with them to make their services more youth friendly. services. Youth organizations could potentially be contracted to train service providers in this area.
Explore the toolkit:
What is Positive Youth Development?
What is Inclusive Development?
Models for Integrating Youth
Cross-cutting Considerations
- Civic Participation
- Youth Organizations
- Youth Leadership
- Example Program Types and Theories of Change
Entry Points for Youth Integration into the Program Cycle
Country/Regional Strategic Planning
Project Design and Implementation
Activity Design and Implementation
Monitoring and Evaluation
Guide to Youth in Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Programs
1. Civil Society
2. Human Rights Protection and Promotion
3. Rule of Law and the Justice Sector
4. Legislative Strengthening
5. Local Governance and Devolution
6. Political Party Development
7. Electoral Processes
8. Anti-Corruption and Accountability
9. Reconciliation, Peacebuilding, and Transitional Justice
10. Media, Information, and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Bibliography
Glossary
Relevant USAID projects