YouthPower Learning

Resources

YouthPower Learning’s mandate included building and strengthening the evidence base for PYD to promote coordination and high standards in the field.
To that end, YouthPower Learning spearheaded the creation of more than 160 program tools, resources, research, and more than 150 webinars and major events.

Designed to advance objectives across sectors and dimensions of youth development, these tools and resources support the youth development community’s work at every phase of the program cycle, from strategic planning to program design and implementation to activity design and implementation to monitoring and evaluation.

The project’s lasting legacy depends on the YouthPower Learning community taking these key learnings forward for continued impact. By factoring these resources and the principles behind them into every step, donors and implementers can help ensure the scalability and sustainability of programming.
Resources below are organized according to the following 10 thematic areas, or download the full list here:

Download the full list here.

Access the YouthPower Learning Final Report.

YouthLead Photo Contest

YouthPower Photo Contest

A Review of USAID YouthPower Activities

Monitoring and Evaluation

Positive Youth Development Measurement Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Implementers of Youth Programs

This book and online toolkit provides guidance and resources for implementers of youth programming in LMICs to integrate PYD principles in their M&E systems and effectively measure PYD outputs and outcomes within their programs. Also available in French.

Positive Youth Development Illustrative Indicators

This indicator list is designed for use across multiple sectors and a variety of programs (e.g., youth, SRH, and democracy and governance.)

PYD for Youth in LMICs: Why Is It Important for Better Youth Outcomes, and How Do We Measure It?

This infographic illustrates the importance of the PYD Measurement Framework and provides examples of indicators.

Youth Engagement Measurement Guide

This online guide helps program implementers, researchers, evaluators, and funders identify indicators to effectively measure youth engagement and provides additional resources. The indicators can be used during program design and M&E.

Measuring Youth Engagement: Guidance for Monitoring and Evaluating Youth Programs

This brief discusses what meaningful youth engagement is, as well as how to measure and evaluate youth engagement.

Multi-Month Dispensing and Scripting Focus Group Discussion Toolkit

This toolkit provides background on multi-month dispensing/scripting (MMD/S), in the context of HIV-related care for young people and differentiated service delivery as a means of meeting the UN's 95-95-95 goals by 2030.

Transforming Vulnerable Girls to Entrepreneurial Women Through Leadership, Livelihood, and Entrepreneurship Skills

This grant-funded report from Asante Africa Foundation summarizes lessons from the Foundation's system-level evaluation of their Girl-Led Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Program.

Community Score Card

This methodological guide provides the process and steps to implement the Community Score Card as part of an orphaned and vulnerable children program.

Safe Cities Tools and Research

These grant deliverables from Mercy Corps Girl Research and Learning (GRL Power) document lessons around designing and measuring the impact of the role of adolescent girls in mobilizing communities to foster safer public spaces and reduce the potential for gender-based violence.

Cross-Sectoral Youth Assessments

The USAID Mission-driven assessments examine the status and aspirations of youth in each country in their journey from adolescence to adulthood. Most assessments provide a situational analysis report and brief.

Armenia

Democratic Republic of Congo

Ethiopia

Guinea

Honduras

Kenya

Kyrgyz Republic

Liberia

Nigeria

Madagascar

Mauritania

Morocco

Rwanda

Somalia

Zambia

Youth Assessments 101 Brief

Youth Engagement and Empowerment

Youth Advisory Councils: Eight Steps to Consider Before You Engage

This brief offers projects and organizations an organizing framework and steps in the formation of a Youth Advisory Council and outlines key questions to consider.

Youth-Led Club Documentary

This grant-funded series of videos, based on a year in the life of Komo Learning Centres' youth-led club, demonstrates an in-depth approach to youth engagement within one local program.

Technical Briefs: Making the Pitch for Youth Engagement

This technical brief provides tips gathered from members of the YouthPower Youth Engagement Community of Practice for pitching meaningful and ongoing youth engagement to different actors.

Six Tips for Increasing Meaningful Youth Engagement in Programs

This technical brief provides recommendations on increasing meaningful youth engagement in programs and synthesizes contributions from the YouthPower Youth Engagement Community of Practice.

Inspire, Influence, and Inform: A Video Series Highlighting Young People’s Role in Positive Youth Development Programs

These grant-funded videos from Restless Development address the benefits, impacts, best practices, and challenges of youth engagement.

"I Am JA" Video Series

These grant-funded videos from JA Worldwide feature JA alumni sharing their compelling stories. The videos showcase youth engagement and the diverse and dynamic talent of JA alumni.

Experts, Researchers, and Advocates: The Many Forms of Youth Leadership

This brief describes different forms of youth engagement and encourages practitioners and policymakers to learn and expand on the efforts of the YouthPower Learning grants to strengthen youth leadership in PYD programs.

Youthlead.org

YouthLead is an online platform for young changemakers to give them assets and agency for changing their environment and their future. YouthLead enables them to connect with and learn from other changemakers, get resources, and find funding opportunities.

Young Women Leading Change: Lessons from the Young Women Transform Prize Grants

This report presents learnings from the Young Women Transform Prize grants about how to increase young women’s and girls’ economic opportunities.

Grants Under Contract: Lessons from the YouthPower Learning Grants

This brief, based on the experience of the grants management team, shares lessons about and recommendations for managing a diverse portfolio of small learning grants, particularly those that fund local youth-led organizations.

Gender and Social Inclusion

Research on Understanding and Tackling the Gendered Drivers of Poor Adolescent Mental Health

This set of research products includes a conceptual framework for understanding the context of adolescent mental health and two briefs that synthesize these analyses and provide recommendations for programming and research: 1)The Gendered Impacts of Bullying on Mental Health Among Adolescents in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: Recommendations for Programming and 2) Gender and Adolescent Mental Health: An Opportunity to Achieve Sustainable Development.

PYD Approaches to Mitigate Sexual Violence and Coercion Among Adolescents: Building Choice, Voice, and Agency for Prevention and Response

This technical brief informs researchers and program implementers working with youth in developing countries, who likely interact with youth who have experienced sexual coercion. The brief highlights examples and strategies of successful programs for reducing the occurrence of sexual coercion and force.

Does Your Program Reflect Gender-Transformative or Positive Youth Development Practices? A Checklist

This checklist support development practitioners who want to ensure their programs incorporate good practices for gender-transformative and PYD programming.

Social Inclusion in Positive Youth Development Programs

This brief covers the importance of social inclusion for PYD and key considerations for understanding, tracking, measuring, and evaluating the impact of social inclusion initiatives.

Changing Norms, Shifting Power: Lessons from YouthPower Learning Grants about Gender Transformative Positive Youth Development

This grant-funded brief highlights some of the ways in which PYD programs are addressing the impacts of gender inequalities and restrictive gender norms on young people. It uses the grants as a sample of initiatives that have revealed insightful lessons about where gender and PYD intersect, and what to do about it.

The Gender Gap in Technology and How the Innovative Approach by Dream Factory Foundation Addresses the Problem

This grant-funded brief describes how the Dream Factory's Emergent Business and Coding Academy empowers young people through education, equipping them with skills and creating meaningful opportunities to become active citizens.

The Honey Book: Beekeeping Handbook for Rural Women

This grant-funded beekeeping handbook by SafePlan Uganda is oriented to help vulnerable, low-literate women living in rural communities in Western Uganda by guiding them in a beekeeping project.

Safeplan Uganda – Gender Equality and Cultural Diversity Training Manual for Staff and Community Representatives

This grant-funded training manual aims to promote a better understanding of gender and culture within an organization.

Moving Beyond Data Disaggregation: Utilizing Evaluation Systems to Promote Gender Equality in Sports Development for Youth at Scale

This grant-funded report and brief describes key activities, data, and findings from Waves for Change that uncovers ways in which their approach can be gender transformative.

Cross-Sectoral

Positive Youth Development Learning Agenda

This learning agenda builds upon the findings of the Systematic Review of PYD Programs in LMICs, which highlighted gaps in the evidence for what works and for whom. This agenda defines priority questions in the field of PYD in LMICs. An infographic illustrates the development process and opportunity to contibute. The online microsite sythesizes learnings to date and resources that contribute to each of the themes.

The Evolution of Positive Youth Development as a Key International Development Approach

This infographic addresses the evolution of PYD in international development and identifies the evidence on PYD in LMICs.

Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This review and associated brief document how PYD approaches have been applied in LMICs, as well as what the evidence reveals about the effectiveness of such programs. The systematic review presents the results of a rigorous analysis of existing evidence of PYD in LMICs; expands the knowledge base on the impacts and measurement of PYD programs; and provides valuable insights for international implementing organizations, researchers, and donors.

Positive Youth Development Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Conceptual Framework and Review of Efficacy

The journal article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health systematically reviews the impact of PYD programs in LMICs.

PYD Infographics

1. What is Positive Youth Development?
2. Key Findings: Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development in Low- and Middle-income Countries
3. Positive Youth Development Programs
4. Designing a "Non-Academic" Systematic Review to Better Design Youth Interventions

Examples of Positive Youth Development Program Activities Aligned with PYD Features, Mapped to a Socio-Ecological Model

This handout provides illustrative activities that PYD programs could implement. The sample activities provided transcend sectors and could be applied in a variety of settings to achieve sectoral outcomes of interest.

A Review of USAID YouthPower Activities

This document presents a review of activities implemented under the USAID YouthPower project, generating the lessons learned related to USAID’s application of PYD approaches over the past five years.

- Brief: Proponte Más Honduras

This brief looks at the Proponte Más project's family-focused approach to PYD within a comprehensive program for violence reduction in Honduras.

- Brief: Feed the Future Tanzania Advancing Youth

This brief highlights how the PYD approach can position youth to become economically and socially productive members of their communities within an integrated program focused on youth workforce development.

- Brief: Programa Para o Futuro Mozambique

This brief highlights how the PYD approach can help extremely vulnerable youth move from a vicious cycle of HIV risk to a virtuous, protective cycle, using a case study from a cross-sectoral, integrated youth development program in Mozambique.

Programa Para o Futuro Mozambique: Rapid Assessment Report

This report unpacks the key elements that contribute to Programa Para o Futuro Mozambique’s success and challenges to expand the knowledge base about learnings from YouthPower investments and the challenges that hinder the success of a positive youth development program.

Evidence and Promising Practices from Peer-Based Approaches in Youth Programs

This brief examines how peer-based approaches affect development outcomes and examples of peer-based youth programming.

Improving Positive Youth Outcomes through the Use of Safe Spaces in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This brief discusses the characteristics of safe spaces and evaluates their success in contributing to positive youth outcomes in LMICs across sectors.

Soft Skills

Soft Skills Research Suite

This microsite highlights a suite of tools and research to support implementers in developing youth's soft skills. The site includes an inventory of the skills identified in two literature reviews as enjoying strong and wide-ranging support across multiple outcomes.

Brief: Measuring Youth Competencies Across Contexts: Lessons From Implementers on How to Adapt Soft Skills Measurement Tools

This brief gathers and synthesizes lessons learned from implementers’ experiences adapting soft skills measurement tools in diverse geographic and cultural contexts through a brief scan of the literature and three implementer case studies.

Exploring the Development of Cross-Sectoral Skills for Youth: Reflections from the Cross-Sectoral Skills CoP

This brief offers an overview of current research findings on cross-sectoral skills development; summarizes promising practices, implementation challenges, and unanswered questions about cross-sectoral youth programs; and outlines three case studies that describe the impacts of taking a cross-sectoral approach on youth.

A Study on Cross-Cutting Non-Cognitive Skills: Uncovering Youth’s Values

This grant-funded report by the Education Development Center shares findings from a study analyzing perceptions of the skills that youth, employers, and educators identify as important for education and employment, and highlighting the gap between those perspectives.

Workforce Development and Entrepreneurship

Applications of Effectuation Theory on Youth Entrepreneurship Programs

This suite of resources includes 1) a report and associated brief documenting the current evidence on effectuation models and associated case studies to improve understanding their applicability to the African youth context 2) a training guide for applying the theory for entrepreneurship and 3) a blog to bring the study findings to life.

Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Findings on Workforce Readiness and Employability

This brief summarizes the findings from the Systematic Review of PYD Programs in LMICs that are relevant to workforce readiness and employability.

How Do Youth Skills Development Initiatives Ensure Effective Targeting, Recruitment, and Retention?

This technical brief explores strategies used by skills-based youth livelihood programs to target, recruit, and retain youth beneficiaries for optimal impact, providing concrete examples of how program implementers have addressed these challenges, and documenting lessons and best practices.

Agriculture and Food Security

Feed the Future Project Design Guide for Youth-Inclusive Agriculture And Food Systems Volume I - Project Design

Volume I of the guide is intended to support Feed the Future staff (USAID Missions and others) to design youth-inclusive programs based on the USAID project design cycle that promote meaningul youth engagement with the U.S. Feed the Future Initiative and the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy, as well as agriculture and food systems more generally.

Feed The Future Project Design Guide for Youth-Inclusive Agriculture and Food Systems Volume II – Implementation

Volume II of the guide offers implementation guidance for activity-level interventions, intended for USAID staff and implementers who may be managing activities and/or who are seeking information about youth-inclusive approaches to implementation in Feed the Future activities.

Feed the Future Project Design Guide for Youth-Inclusive Agriculture And Food Systems

This shorter, online version of the two-part Feed The Future Project Design Guide for Youth-Inclusive Agriculture and Food Systems provides USAID staff and implementing partners with approaches, frameworks, and tools to design agriculture programs that promote successful and meaningful youth engagement with the U.S. Feed the Future Initiative and the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy.

Soil Mates: Finding the Right Fit Between Youth and Agriculture Opportunities

This infographic provides an analytical framework to both implementers and funders to help them connect sub-groups within the youth cohort with economic opportunities in the agriculture sector.

A Market-Systems Approach with a Youth-Inclusive Lens

This infographic illustrates how the Market Systems Development approach interacts with youth and agriculture and highlights the most relevant questions to be addressed to facilitate greater youth inclusion and allow youth to thrive in the global agri-food system.

What Works in Youth and Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition

This YouthPower.org section includes curated best practices and tools for engaging youth effectively in youth and agriculture, food security, and nutrition.

Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance/Peacebuilding

Toolkit for Youth Inclusion in Democracy Human Rights and Governance

This online toolkit offers considerations for designing, managing, and evaluating DRG-related programs. This toolkit contains 10 modules on integrating youth effectively into ten DRG sub-sectors:

1: Civil Society
2: Human Rights
3: Rule of Law and Justice
4: Legislative Strengthening
5: Local Governance and Devolution
6: Political Party Development
7: Electoral Processes
8: Anti-Corruption Accountability
9: Reconciliation, Peacebuilding, and Transitional Justice
10: Media, Information, and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

Brief: Promising Practices in Engaging Youth in Peace and Security and PVE/CVE

This brief identifies best practices, bright spots, and opportunities to replicate the best practices, with a primary focus on preventing violent extremism/countering violent extremism (PVE/CVE).

What Works in Youth and Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance

This YouthPower.org section includes curated best practices and tools related to youth in democracy, human rights, and governance.

What Works in Youth in Peace and Security

This YouthPower.org section includes curated best practices and tools related to youth in peace and security.

Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Findings on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance

This brief summarizes findings from the Systematic Review of PYD Programs in LMICs relevant to Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance.

Engaging Youth in Disaster, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Efforts

This brief recognizes that youth are a tremendous resource in responding to situations of disaster or conflict, and offers some recommendations and options of how to engage youth.

Positive Youth Development through Civic Engagement for Peacebuilding and Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism

This brief summarizes the findings and implications from the PVE research grants. It begins with summaries of each of the four research results and then synthesizes some of the cross-cutting themes and what they could mean for policymakers and practitioners from both the PYD and PVE field.

The Contribution of Positive Youth Development in Tajikistan to Effective Peacebuilding and to Countering or Preventing Violent Extremism: Successes, Limitations, and Recommendations - Research Report

This grant-funded report by Eurasia Foundation measures the real impact of local and international efforts in the field of youth civic engagement and peacebuilding in the Republic of Tajikistan.

Report on the Analysis of Findings from the Research by YouthPower Learning Grantee AMSS

This grant-funded report by Association Malienne pour la Survie au Sahel (AMSS) contributes to building and strengthening resilience of youth in the communes and outlines the factors that drive youth from candidates for violent extremism to radicalization.

Beyond Dividing Lines -The Reality of Youth-led Peacebuilding in Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya, and Sierra Leone

This grant-funded report presents the findings of research carried out in Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya, and Sierra Leone between January and October 2018 by the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY Peacebuilders). This project contributed to an increasingly evidence-based approach to policies and programming related to peace and security.

Policy Briefs: Beyond Dividing Lines: Youth-led Civic Engagement for Peace

This series of policy briefs written by UNOY Peacebuilders presents the findings of research on youth-led civic engagement in Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya, and Sierra Leone, four countries at different phases of conflict for comparative purposes.

"We Were Changing the World": Radicalization and Empowerment among Young People Associated with Armed Opposition Groups in Northeast Nigeria

This grant-funded study by Equal Access provides insights on the relationship between empowerment and radicalization through in-depth interviews with ideologically aligned members of armed opposition groups in northeast Nigeria.

Two Sides of the Same Coin? An Examination of the Cognitive and Psychosocial Pathways Leading to Empowerment and Radicalization, and a Model for Reorienting Violent Radicalization

This grant-funded report by Equal Access unpacks key theories of empowerment and radicalization, including some shared elements between the two notions, for the purpose of leveraging and transforming often-destructive processes and behavior associated with radicalization for positive outcomes.

Health

Planning and Conducting Index Testing and Partner Notification for Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Implementation and Clinical Guidance for Health Services

This tool provides programmatic/service delivery considerations for implementing index testing services with AGYW; a provider job aid for index testing with AGYW; and a toolbox with additional resources for providers working with adolescent clients.

Integrated Index Testing, Partner Notification, and Routine Enquiry for Intimate Partner Violence for Adolescent Girls and Young Women Living with HIV: A Technical and Programmatic Brief

This technical and programmatic brief summarizes the evidence on social harms linked with HIV index testing and partner notification, including intimate partner violence and stigma, as well as programmatic recommendations.

Technical and Programmatic Considerations for Index Testing and Partner Notification for Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Technical Report

This report outlines evidence on social harms linked with HIV index testing and partner notification, including intimate partner violence and stigma. This report synthesizes the potential risks to AGYW of HIV partner notification among this vulnerable population.

Toolkit on Adolescents Living with HIV

This toolkit provides guidance, training, and implementation resources for service providers, advocates, policy-makers, researchers, and educators working with or designing initiatives to reach adolescents living with HIV.

Examples of Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health and PYD Program Activities with PYD Features, Mapped to a Socio-Ecological Model

This handout provides illustrative activities that can help the design and implementation of PYD programs in adolescent and youth reproductive health.

Families Matter: How Families Improve Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health

This brief highlights existing evidence on family-based adolescent and youth reproductive health interventions that will help program implementers and researchers design appropriate interventions to better address the reproductive health needs of adolescents in LMICs.

Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Findings on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and HIV/AIDS

This brief summarizes findings from the Systematic Review of PYD Programs in LMICs relevant to programming for SRH and HIV/AIDS, and leverages insights from the PYD Measurement Toolkit. International implementing organizations can integrate lessons learned into practice as researchers continue to build the knowledge base on the impacts of PYD programs.

What Works in Youth and Health

This YouthPower.org section includes curated best practices and tools in youth and health, including 30 subtopics across the themes of family planning and reproductive health, key populations of young people, enabling environments, and connections between the health sector and other sectors.