Measuring Success of Youth Livelihood Interventions

Programs to actively support young people's employment prospects have existed for decades in industrialized countries; however, they are relatively new in developing nations. In a broad sense, youth livelihood interventions support young people's means to earn a living, and include training, public service, youth entrepreneurship, and financial services. More narrowly, many practitioners define youth livelihood programs as activities targeting particularly vulnerable and marginalized groups in the informal economy, with a specific focus on self-employment for the formal sector.

With this guide, we aim to equip readers with the basic set of concepts and tools needed to make informed decisions about how to best evaluate their programs. We seek to provide a clear understanding of the variety of evaluation options available and the considerations that will allow practitioners to choose the most appropriate one based on learning objectives and operational context. Moreover, we describe how to manage an impact evaluation if it is the assessment method of choice.