Positive Youth Development Illustrative Indicators

Annex E of the PYD Measurement Toolkit

Cover page for 'Positive Youth Development Illustrative Indicators'. In the page is a picture of young men and women wearing chef hats and smiling at the camera. The indicators included within the PYD Measurement Toolkit are designed to be used across multiple sectors and a variety of programs for youth, from sexual and reproductive health to democracy and governance. Often, these PYD indicators serve as intermediate indicators, linking activities from a PYD program to long-term outcomes in specific sectors, such as workforce development and democracy and governance. Two youth-specific Foreign Assistance Indicators (also called “F-indicators”), which are mandatory in USAID programs, and two pilot USAID youth indicators are also included in this toolkit.

Most of the selected illustrative indicators are designed to track change in PYD constructs and generally should be measured pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention and at future follow-ups (e.g. 3 months, 6 months, 1 and 2 years, or longer) depending on the funds and project lifespan.

While research shows that using PYD leads to improved outcomes in health and other areas (see Annex D for background on PYD), more research on PYD effectiveness in LMICs is needed. Use of these indicators in LMICs can provide additional data on how PYD approaches and outcomes can be linked to sector-specific outcomes. For example, by collecting PYD indicators that measure developmental outcomes for youth, evaluators may be able to show that select program activities lead to increased self-efficacy (a PYD construct), which in turn leads to increases in condom use (a health sector-specific outcome). PYD-related outcomes may be the primary outcome of interest for some programs. For instance, increasing self-efficacy among adolescent girls might be the goal of a youth program.

Discuss

Your name