IREX, 2020

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has selected Tech Tribes, as part of IREX’s consortium of talented global and regional partners, to implement the YouthPower Youth Excel program. This global program will empower young people and youth organizations to drive local development by using implementation research and digital leadership skills to strengthen local, national, and global development solutions.

Youth Excel responds to a complex challenge: Too often, young people are marginalized in development, even in programs that seek to empower youth. Adults’ institutions and systems can reinforce power imbalances that hinder youth from leading their own development and effecting change. There is not enough evidence about the factors that make youth programs effective, and youth’s knowledge, skills, and research are often downplayed or dismissed.

The global consortium of the Youth Excel:”Our Knowledge, Leading Change” includes a core group of talented global and regional partners who are all committed to Youth Excel’s principles. Tech Tribes is excited to collaborate with ABAAD, Afrika Youth Movement, Ashoka Youth Venture, Root Change, Search for Common Ground, The Biz Nation, The Youth Café, University of Minnesota, and United Network of Young Peacebuilders.

Youth Excel will support young leaders and youth-led and youth-serving organizations around the globe to conduct quality implementation research—a type of research that focuses on collecting data during a program to improve the program in real time. This research will not only improve youth programs but also generate dialogue between young people and adult decision-makers so that youth and adults can together shape better policies, programs, and development agendas.

Youth Excel will offer funding for thematic, regional, and global implementation research. Youth Excel will also support local partners to conduct implementation research for their youth-focused programs. Each activity will use data and learning to generate dialogue between adults and youth and influence policy and resource decisions.

With our consortium partners, we will engage youth leaders and youth organizations across our networks and learn what research (digital and non-digital) approaches are most effective, how to best engage adults in intergenerational dialogue, how to leverage youth networks for more impact, and which collaborative inquiry approaches create real systems and policy change.