Review of YouthPower Activities 2015-2020
This document presents a review of activities implemented under the USAID YouthPower project. YouthPower is a USAID-funded contract awarded in 2015 that aimed to expand the evidence base in international positive youth development. It sought to improve PYD approaches across programs and sectors and strengthen the capacity of youth-led and youth-serving institutions. The contract engaged young people, their families, and communities in order for youth to reach their full potential.
This review covers eleven activities at the country level, in addition to lessons learned from select USAID research in PYD and youth engagement efforts. While the majority of activities (6 of the 11) were considered primarily “workforce development” (WFD) activities, interventions spanned across more than 16 different sectors including education, economic growth, violence prevention, health, and civic participation. More than 215,000 youth were served by the eleven YouthPower implementation activities covered under this review.
The overall purpose of this review is to generate the lessons learned related to USAID’s application of positive youth development (PYD) approaches over the past five years, namely:
- To what extent have USAID youth activities applied the principles and practices of a PYD approach, and what are the perceived benefits and challenges associated with implementing a PYD approach?
- In what ways does a PYD approach contribute to the different sectoral outcomes that USAID activities seek to achieve, and have there been observable cross-sectoral benefits?
- How have lessons from the YouthPower activities contributed to the USAID PYD Learning Agenda?