Tools for what works in youth employment: knowledge translation in practice
This event is part of Agency Learning and Evidence Month from May 2–30, USAID’s flagship celebration of research, evaluation, and learning.
Across all sectors, there is a rapidly growing body of evidence of what works. The challenge is to make this evidence accessible to decision-makers via knowledge translation or knowledge brokering. The range of evidence products includes sectoral databases, evidence maps, evidence toolkits and guidance documents. This session will provide an overview of different evidence products with a focus on youth employment. The youth employment evidence and gap map is a regularly updated evidence product containing over 1,000 evaluations. It includes primary studies – both impact evaluations and process evaluations – and systematic reviews. Evidence may be filtered by features such as study design, country or region, and target population. The session will introduce users to the youth employment evidence and gap map and show users how to find other evidence and gap maps (including a global map of maps, which is currently being updated).
Maps make studies available in an accessible manner. The next step in knowledge brokering are evidence-based decision-making products (EBDMPs) which allow decision-makers to make evidence-informed decisions without having to read the underlying research evidence. International best practice is for EBDMPs to be based on systematic reviews. The session will present evidence toolkits, including a preliminary version of a toolkit for youth employment in Africa. Comparative insights on youth employment interventions in different regions will be presented.
The Global Development Network supports high quality, policy relevant research by developing country researchers. All the work presented in this session has been undertaken in collaboration with research teams in Africa and Asia. The EGM is produced by a team at Makerere University, Uganda, and the meta-analysis underlying the toolkit was undertaken by a team including researchers from South Africa and the Philippines. The map of maps is being updated by a research team from China.
This event is part of Agency Learning and Evidence Month from May 2–30, USAID’s flagship celebration of research, evaluation, and learning. See the 2024 Event Program for more information.