Launch theme: How might we as a global youth development community  leverage youth-led research and learning to help international development work better for young people, their communities and the world? 

Youth Excel was finally launched on 4th  May 2021! All of us implementing partners of the project are excited to finally have the project launched to the general public! We hope, moving forward, we will be able to attract more buy-ins, from both the donor community, private and public institutions!

The launch was facilitated by Sylvia Kananu, who is the Youth Excel Project Lead based in Kenya. The launch was held on the zoom platform. The agenda of the launch included a brief breakdown of the project, remarks from the IREX team, Keynote addresses, a youth panel discussion, a Q&A session and a celebratory moment for all the participants in the launch.

Young leaders and changemakers made insightful videos on youth, research, information and decision making practices. It was clear from the young leaders perspectives that it is critical to lead the research as they know what affects them better. Additionally, young people get a chance to not only shape narratives, but also to own and drive the change that they believe is best for them. As Dumitso a member of the Youth Excel GYAC council says “Nothing for us, without us”.

The IREX President and CEO Kristin Lord who has spent most time in her career working at the nexus of youth, research and development. She remarked that she appreciates that the Youth Excel recognizes and draws on global trends that IREX prioritizes. The trends include: empowering youth, cultivating leaders, strengthening institutions and ensuring access to information and education. She noted that Youth excel elevates diversity, equity and inclusion and demands that we incorporate data for development and in all of our consortium work.

The Keynote speaker was LeAnna Marr, acting deputy assistant administrator for the bureau for development, democracy and Innovation of USAID missions. She noted that too often in the past, development projects have marginalized the young people even in programs that seek to empower youth. Youth Excel however has ensured intentional youth engagement as it included, elevated and integrated the youth voices through genuine partnerships and inclusion that enhances and transforms the way USAID works. 

A statement that we at The Youth Cafe definitely agree to! This is because throughout the Youth Excel design processes, we were intensely involved in the virtual co-creation process where we got to align priorities, refine program approaches and focus not forgetting to build trust across the program partners. In her powerful address she also noted that USAID aims to activate 1 million youth changemakers. This will be done by building a continuum programming that promotes civic education, engagement and youth leadership. The main aim is to inspire a generation of young leaders to build their communities back better.

The Youth Cafe as part of the implementing partners in the consortium was part of the youth panel represented by the Executive Director Willice. Here is a snippet of his speech speaking about how youth led research has impacted youth development.

The question posed by Sylvia during the panel discussion being “The Youth Café has been working with partners to produce research relevant to young people such as the more recent Covid-19 impact on youth in partnership with University of Sussex. How do you see youth-led research impacting youth development in a way the more “traditional” research doesn’t? 

Willice’s response: Indeed Sylvia. Greetings to you from Nairobi and it's my singular pleasure to join this distinguished panel. Can I respond to your question by saying that research is an integral part of  our efforts at The Youth Cafe to advance and model youth approaches toward sustainable development. Working with youth as researchers, we have not only increased the credibility of our work but tailored responsive projects that tend to meet the current needs of the community of youth we serve. Apart from that, research has helped us to enfranchise young people as they see themselves as part of the solution, from the frontlines. 

A case in point was the ‘Lockdown Live’: Finding Youth-led Solutions to Covid-19 project that you have just mentioned Sylvia. Implemented by The Youth Cafe in collaboration  with University of Sussex. Selected students from the University and members of The Youth Cafe carried out a series of digital events bringing together 54 youth participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda the UK, and Kenya  to address issues that have emerged  as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

The intention was to help find a coping mechanism for the situation as well as to map out youth-led solutions to emerging crises. Through the project, we addressed what impact the pandemic has had on learning, mental health and health literacy, use of technology and (dis)information, civic space and participation, safety and protection issues, and the immediate future of the global economy.

 Each event in the series involved a preliminary planning event each Week, in which young people (‘panelists’) come together to prepare questions and statements, research and write blogs, and generate ideas on each topic. Followed by an actual event featuring youth panelists alongside experts in identified topics. We saw young people’s ideas, ingenuity, and energy  enriched the project in a special ways-For example, the Youth and Covid-19 series of podcasts, proposed by young people themselves, continue to provide digital convening spaces for youth to facilitate ongoing interactions even as the pandemic evolves. The podcast has played an important role in educating and advocating for youth perspectives with regards to the pandemic.

As a result of this project, The Youth Cafe’s leadership in youth involvement amidst the crisis was recognized and as such took part in COVID-19 Relief Fund disbursement program to over 200,000 marginalized youth. In addition, The Youth Cafe's health information literacy programs won the first position during the UNESCO  global Awards for 2020. Our participating youth featured and continue to feature in various local and national TV and radio interviews to magnify youth voices and promote their meaningful involvement in Post Covid recovery programs.  

At TYC, we believe that if an intervention is designed for youth, it should be designed with them. As such, by joining young people with experienced researchers, The Youth Cafe has benefited from both sides. To sum it up, if you want research recommendations to become actions faster, work with the youth. For more information about the project, I am putting in the chat the links to our final reports.”

Willice also responded to follow up questions that were raised by the audiences. ”How do you make sure that youth participants and researchers are drawn from economically diverse backgrounds?”

Willice: Thank you very much for asking that question. That is an issue we have confronted at The Youth Cafe on numerous occasions. The question of how best to include economically disenfranchised categories of youth. We see it in our research projects and what we have done is to be intentional and deliberate in terms of mapping out the diverse categories and subsets of young people within the targeted communities. We also look into putting their special needs into consideration in terms of planning and budgeting.

We have in the past provided data reimbursements to certain groups of young people in order to take part in the research projects. This has resulted in increased and active participation of these young people in our research projects, products and agendas. So it begins with planning and  budgeting deliberately for this inclusion . As such, we had high numbers of disenfranchised youth participating and enriched our research process in terms of input and acting on recommendations.

Question: How flexible is the youth led approach? And how can results be designed to achieve a variety of outcomes?

Willice: In terms of the flexibility of youth led research, we maximize using the tools at our disposal for use by young people. Most of these tools are digital and youth friendly and are possible to be flexible in certain areas of research such as on the responses and on policy recommendations. We have also seen the flexibility of young people not to generate research and letting it stay on shelves but by moving forward and starting to act on them. Case in point is the podcast referenced earlier and proposed by young people. We see that young people are not able to convene and have their voices heard in the midst of quarantines, lockdowns and all other restrictions. Yet, having a platform which can facilitate creativity of thought and expressions in other ways, they are flexible and not wait for other actors to implement and give life to recommendations coming out of the research. The young people can be able to self implement certain aspects of the recommendations by using the collaborative tools at their disposal not only to generate research but by also disseminate the findings.

The other panelists and consortium members included Mena Ayazi; Program officer on Children and Youth Division at Search for Common Ground and Co-chair at US YPS. Karen Carvajalino ; Co-founder and CEO of TheBiz Nation. Nadia Tepilowoska; Capacity development coordinator at UNOY; All who are also doing extraordinary work in promoting positive youth development!

Here is some of the raw and unfiltered feedback we have gotten so far from the community that joined us during the global launch!

“I am delighted to connect with you through the Youth Excel launch. I am currently pursuing my Doctor of Education and using PYD as my conceptual framework. I am so looking forward to following your work and I hope you are doing well in this momentous time!

— Jennifer- Career and Workforce Development specialist

“Today was amazing during the launch of the Youth Excel program. I was honored to have joined in and I learnt a lot about the program. Kenya is lucky to be among the first countries to implement the Youth Excel Implementation research projects.

— Sammy - Research Assistant

Peris- Student at Kenyatta University: I am passionate about the field of research and data collection. The idea of Implementation research is intriguing and is definitely a game changer for us young people and in the development community when it comes to projects design and implementation. I would like to be involved in the ICON activity that will be taking place in Kisumu.

This event was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of The Youth Café , and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

You can watch the recording of the event here!

For further information, clarification, contributions, and questions please send us an email.