Putting young people at the heart of development:

The Department for International Development’s Youth Agenda

April 2016
 Introduction

We are in the midst of a unique youth bulge where 1.8 billion peoplei are between the ages of 10-24. This
is particularly acute in developing countries where 90% of all young people live ii, with 42% of them in DFID
countriesiii.

At the Department for International Development we are committed to putting these young people at the
heart of our work. Our programming will support young people to make successful transitions to
adulthood, and we will work with young people as agents of social change and as passionate advocates
seeking to shape and influence the world that they will inherit.

Youth and the UK Aid Strategy

In November 2015, the Chancellor and Secretary of State for International Development launched the UK
Aid Strategy. The strategy has four strategic objectives:
- Strengthening global peace, security and governance: the government will invest more to tackle the
causes of instability, insecurity and conflict, and to tackle crime and corruption.
- Strengthening resilience and response to crises: more support for ongoing crises, more science and
technology spend on global public health risks, and support for efforts to mitigate and adapt to
climate change.
- Promoting global prosperity: the government will use Official Development Assistance (ODA) to
promote economic development and prosperity in the developing world.
- Tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable: the government will strive to
eliminate extreme poverty by 2030 and lead the world in leaving no one behind.
It will simply not be possible to deliver on these objectives without engaging young people seriously:
- More than 600 million young people live in fragile or conflict afflicted areas iv and at least 25% of
those affected by the Syria Crisis are aged 10-24v.
- 75% of young people in developing countries are underutilized, either unemployed or in irregular or
informal employment: youth unemployment globally is three times the rate of adultsvi.
- Over 500 million young people live on less than $2 per dayvii, in 2015 it is estimated that there are
nearly 126 million young people, aged 15 -24, who are illiterateviii.

Pushed aside and marginalised young people can struggle to break out of deep rooted cycles of poverty
and their deepening grievances can fuel instability - half of all lifetime mental health disorders start by the
age of 14ix. But we want to work with young people as a force for positive change – as engines of growth,
deliverers of development and changers of social norms.

“I believe in the power of young people to be a force for good in the world. I see this all the time; in my
constituency in Putney, in communities across the UK and around the world - young people are stepping up
to really make a difference. That’s why last year I committed that the Department for International
Development would change the way that we do things, by putting young
people at the heart of our development approach.

In September, we opened our doors to 300 young people for our first ever
Youth Summit - designed and delivered by young people, for young people.
The Youth Summit brought together a diverse group of young people from
across the UK and developing countries, providing a platform for young
people to call on the development sector to take their voices seriously. We
listened. And so 6 months on, we’d like to share our progress and plans
towards putting young people in the centre of our work.” Justine Greening,
Secretary of State for International Development.
Why does youth matter?

Young people make up a quarter of the world’s population. They have the potential to be the answer to
many of the world’s problems. But the challenges are huge:

 200 million young people have not completed primary school. About 60% of those are womenx.
 Young people make up a third of those affected by conflict and disastersxi.
 Globally, 600 million jobs will be needed over the next 15 yearsxii.

We must face these challenges, working with young people to deliver better development.

Agenda 2030

In September 2015 the world adopted a new set of Global Goals for sustainable development – aimed at
eradicating extreme poverty, combatting climate change and fighting injustice and inequality. But Agenda
2030 is ambitious - everyone will need to play their part to ensure the Global Goals become a reality by
2030, and that no one is left behind.

For Agenda 2030 to be successfully realised, young people must be at the heart of implementing,
monitoring and evaluating the Global Goals – without the full participation of young people we will not
achieve sustainable development.

Who are youth?

DFID takes a ‘lifecycle approach’ to youth, defining it as ‘the period of time during which a young
person goes through a formative transition into adulthood’. DFID mostly considers the 10-24 age
range, but recognises that young people outside of this bracket will also be transitioning from
childhood to adulthood.

Taking a lifecycle approach is valuable because it allows us to go beyond defining young people by
age when identifying what it means to become an adult. It allows us to factor in those young people
who are likely to be most excluded because they experience multiple discrimination – for instance
young people with disabilities, LGBT people, girls and women and youth with mental health
impairments.

It also enables us to take into consideration cultural and country contexts, and to examine the
broader social, economic, political, physical, emotional and cultural changes that the transition to
adulthood involves. DFID uses youth and young people interchangeably.
DFID’s Framework

DFID has developed a framework for our youth work, with young people at the heart of development as
change makers, helping deliver development outcomes for all.

Positive transitions

DFID has identified two transitions that are critical in determining whether girls and boys are put on a
positive trajectory for the future, or whether poverty, negative social norms and lack of access to rights are
reinforced, resulting in potentially irreversible losses.

i) Early adolescence ii) From adolescence to adulthood

DFID will work to ensure that girls and boys are DFID will support young people to become
enabled to make safe, healthy and informed equipped with the requisite education, skills,
choices as they transition through puberty into networks and opportunities to transition from
their reproductive years. We will work to adolescent to adult. This will include transitioning
empower young people, giving them the best from education into productive work as well as
opportunity to fulfil their potential. Some key wider societal, cultural and social changes. This
areas for focus are education, sexual and will include considering our wider Economic
reproductive health rights and challenging the Development work, ensuring that this meets the
social norms that form a barrier to a successful needs of young people in our priority countries.
transition to adulthood.

DFID will focus on these two pivotal periods, working to ensure that our influencing and investments
better support young people to make a positive transition into adulthood.
Agents: young people delivering development

Around the world young people are driving social,

political and economic transformations in their Youth as agents in humanitarian response
communities and countries. DFID wants to play a
role in further unlocking the power of young In 2015 young people demonstrated their role
people as development actors, delivering on the both as ‘first responders’ and in building the
frontline and driving changes in harmful social long term resilience of communities.
norms.
In Sierra Leone, DFID’s social mobilisation
We will look for opportunities to support youth- response and focus on community behaviour
led development agencies, youth movements change represented a critical pillar in getting
and young individuals who are bringing about Ebola to zero. Over an 18 month period, 2,000
local, regional and national change. We will work young mobilisers worked in partnership with
towards a DFID where young people are central community leaders to trigger communities to
to all aspects of our work. In the UK we will take their own measures to protect themselves.
support young people to network and collaborate
In Nepal, young people drove community-led
with peers overseas.
disaster
. response in the aftermath of the
DFID has identified three areas which it will start earthquake of April 2015. Thousands of
to explore with young people to build their volunteers helped set up camps and distribute
agency: food, tents, and medicine.
1) Integrating young people into DFID
In Syrian communities where effective
programmes – ensuring they are involved
government structures are absent, early
in design, delivery, monitoring and
accounts suggest young people are playing an
evaluation
active role in community life, in building
2) Enabling young people to deliver
resilience, and in resolving conflict, both inside
development programmes on the ground
Syria and with Syrian refugees in neighbouring
3) Supporting young people to fulfil their
countries.
potential to shift social norms and change
behaviour both of young people and the
wider population

Mohamed Rogers stands in Waterloo cemetery – one of Freetown's safe burial areas for the victims of Ebola.
Mohamed had been a student before Ebola hit Sierra Leone - but the terrible impact of the disease drove him
to take action. He stopped his studies to join a roving burial team in Freetown as a stretcher bearer.
Picture: Simon Davis/DFID
Advocates: young people making their voices
heard

We aim to amplify young peoples’ voices in

Using ICT and mobile technology to improve
decision making, strengthen their participation in
accountability
political and development processes. At a local,
national and international level, DFID will look for
In Uganda, uReport (supported by UNICEF) is
opportunities to provide a platform for young
a mobile phone, text based service designed
voices, enabling them to contribute to the
to give young people a chance to voice their
decisions that will affect them, and supporting
opinions on issues they consider important for
them to advocate for delivery of Agenda 2030.
their communities, encourage citizen-led
DFID has identified four areas which it will start to development and create positive change.
explore for engaging young people as advocates:
Young “social monitors” are sent regular polls
1) Young people making their voices heard
on issues such as health concerns,
by decision makers, with young people
employment opportunities, available services
contributing to service delivery and
in their communities, and receive useful facts
political processes at a local and national
for action and advocacy. Answers are
level
analysed and displayed on a public dashboard
2) Young people holding governments to
which are then mapped according to district
account for delivering better quality
and collated at a national level.
services and improved development
outcomes uReport is considered a simple, inexpensive,
3) Young people having access to and the and effective way to get real-time feedback
capacity to use data and information to on projects in the field and to ensure that aid
hold decision makers to account programs are being targeted correctly
4) Young peoples’ voices being heard on the (UNICEF, 2015).
international stage to influence the
implementation of the Global Goals

Global Advocates for development

In September 2015, DFID opened its doors to 300 young people for its first ever Youth Summit.
Designed by young people, for young people, the Youth Summit provided a platform for young
people’s voices to be heard by decision makers.

Following the Youth Summit, two Youth Delegates went to the UN General Assembly with the
Secretary of State, to represent the views of young people.

DFID wants to support young people to be global citizens – young people who are passionate about
development and advocate for the delivery of the Global Goals. Through International Citizen Service,
we have supported over 20,000 18-25 year olds to volunteer overseas, and our Connecting Classrooms
and Global Learning Programme bring development into the classroom, linking young people in the UK
and overseas.

We will continue to support global citizenship, amplifying young people’s voices and helping them to
be heard at a local, national and international level.
 DFID’s Approach

To successfully put young people at the heart of development DFID is making changes to the way it works
DFID’s
in Youth Team aim’s
our headquarters to inspire
and across our and catalyse
priority change
countries. in how
These we engage
changes with shaped
are being young people acting
by young as a
people
as a focal point and coordinating
across diverse contexts. body. Working closely with teams across DFID, we will:

At the centre
DFID’s Youth Team will drive the youth agenda forwards from the centre as a focal and coordinating
body. Working closely with policy teams across DFID, we will:
- Build the evidence base: the Youth Team - Link up with colleagues: across DFID
is commissioning research and policy areas, we will work to embed the
synthesising the evidence on what works. youth agenda into DFID’s work.
We will move towards youth-led research, - Evolve organisational systems: the Youth
aiming to involve young people in the Team will work to enable young people to
process of developing our policy. participate in our work.
- Build partnerships: the Youth Team is - Support young leaders and global
building strategic partnerships across UN citizens: DFID will work to support young
organisations, the World Bank, Civil people to be leaders at a local, national
Society, the Private Sector and other and international level, and help those
donors, to further the global commitment who are passionate about development to
towards amplifying young people’s voices, advocate for the delivery of the Global
and putting young people at the heart of Goals.
development.

In country offices
The youth agenda is taking root across DFID country offices, with approximately half of our priority
countries already addressing the youth agenda. Country offices will take on the youth agenda in a way
that makes sense for their specific context, but some common themes are:
- Youth Advisory Panels: country offices - Programming: country offices are
are setting up formal youth advisory looking at their programming through a
panels to consult on DFID country youth lens, ensuring that they are
strategy; design, delivery and evaluation adequately meeting the needs of young
of programmes; and DFID’s ways of people.
working with young people. - Youth strategies: working closely with
- Young staff: some country offices are young people, country offices are
setting up graduate and internship developing youth strategies, setting
schemes to ensure that young people are them on course for increasing and
represented in the DFID work force. improving their youth participation.

DFID Nigeria Youth Consultations

DFID Nigeria set-up focal youth group

discussions across six states. They discussed
what young people think are the main
challenges facing Nigeria, which included
insecurity, poverty, drug abuse,
unemployment, bribery, corruption and
education. The reports from each of these
Some of the girls that took part in the DFID
consultations will inform DFID Nigeria’s
Nigeria youth consultation.
youth position paper. Picture: DFID
Conclusion
DFID has made good progress towards our commitment to put young people at the heart of development.
We have developed a clear policy approach and are seeing the youth agenda take root across the DFID
network.

Our vision is one where:

- The opportunities and challenges of the youth demographic are taken seriously and integrated
into the analysis and decision making which shapes how DFID influences and delivers the global
development agenda.
- The voices of young people are more systematically incorporated into the design and delivery of
our interventions and in the monitoring and evaluation of their impact.
- DFID supports the potential of young people to be a powerful force for good – amplifying their
voice, enabling them to be partners in delivering development and supporting them to drive
solutions to some of the world’s most intractable problems.

We will continue to embed this agenda within DFID, working to empower young people locally,
nationally and internationally to be agents and advocates for change, at the centre of Agenda 2030.

We would welcome your feedback. If you would like to share your

views and comments, or ask any questions, please email
youth@dfid.gov.uk to join the conversation.
 References

Front cover photos (clockwise from top left):

- Education is the strongest predictor of marriage age so staying in school is key for Bayush (far left)
and her friends. In partnership with the Government of Ethiopia, the DFID-funded Finote Hiwot
programme is helping at least 37,500 adolescent girls, and indirectly many more, to avoid child
marriage in Ethiopia. Photo: Jessica Lea/DFID
- FGM/C is a powerful social norm that has been carried out for thousands of years. To try and
break the cycle, the Burkina Faso government have included FGM/C in the curriculum to teach
both boys and girls about the consequences of cutting when they’re at school. Photo: Jessica
Lea/DFID
- #YouthForChange was an event for youth, by youth to help take action on girls' rights. It was a
one-day conference that took place on Saturday 19th July 2014, at the headquarters of the
Department For International Development in London. Photo: Russell Watkins/Department for
International Development

References:

i
Estimated figure as of 1 July 2015, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division
(2015). World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, DVD Edition.
ii
UNFPA (2014) State of the World’s population http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/EN-SWOP14-
Report_FINAL-web.pdf
iii
DFID Statistics
iv
UNDP (2016) Practice Note: Young People's Participation in Peacebuilding
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democratic-governance/practice-note--young-people-s-
participation-in-peacebuilding.html
v
UNICEF (2014) http://www.unicef.org/appeals/files/UNICEF_Syria_Crisis_Situation_Report_13Oct2014_.pdf
vi
S4YE (2015) Toward Solutions for Youth Employment: A 2015 Baseline Report
https://www.s4ye.org/sites/default/files/Toward_Solutions_for_Youth_Employment_Full.pdf
vii
UNFPA (2014) State of the World’s population http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/EN-SWOP14-
Report_FINAL-web.pdf
viii
UNESCO (2014) Adult and youth literacy http://www.uis.unesco.org/literacy/Documents/fs-29-2014-literacy-en.pdf
ix
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (2009) Treatment of Children with Mental Illness: Frequently Asked
Questions about the Treatment of Mental Illness in Children http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED507899
x
UNDP, Empowered Youth Sustainable Future, http://bit.ly/1NgLyLt
xi
UNFPA (2015) http://esaro.unfpa.org/news/frontlines-humanitarian-response
xii
ILO, 2012, http://bit.ly/1pFBrFw