The USAID/DRC Integrated Youth Development Activity (IYDA) was a three-year U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded program that was extended to four years. IYDA was implemented by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), and a consortium of partners: Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Family Health International 360 (FHI 360), and for a time, Souktel.

The primary objective of IYDA was to support vulnerable youth in developing basic assets for resilience, as well as to capitalize on emerging socioeconomic opportunities. IYDA’s strategy was to create inclusive learning and livelihoods pathways for vulnerable youth and to develop youth-serving networks to support those pathways and inclusive economic opportunities. The project worked with existing structures—education and vocational training centers, government officials, the private sector, and local youth-serving organizations. In particular, IYDA worked with accelerated learning programs (ALPs or Centres de Rattrapages Scolaires [CRSs]), vocational training centers (Centres d’Apprentissage Professionnel [CAPs]), community literacy programs, and youth-led and youth-serving organizations (YLSOs).

The purpose of this study is to provide an evaluation of the overall program performance. This performance evaluation seeks to (1) determine if IYDA succeeded in obtaining its program objectives and (2) make some recommendations for future programming.