Youth Audit
The quality standards will support donor agencies to mainstream youth throughout their organisation and their activities. They have been developed as a tool which can be used on an ongoing basis by donor agencies and policy advisors when they are engaging in or implementing a range of activities: developing a new programme, assessing a funding application, setting up strategy and addressing gaps in internal systems.
In taking a first step towards youth mainstreaming and using the quality standards, donor agencies are advised to conduct a youth audit; this will enable an assessment of the current status of work with youth. All donor agencies now possess some form of gender analysis/framework63 that is guiding and improving the quality of social inclusion in all aspects of their work. One such example is the Department for International Development (DFID) gender manual, which provides one model for asking the right questions64 of our own organisations: see Box 5 below. Also look at case study 2 for an example of when United Nations Population Fund (UNDP) conducted a comprehensive youth audit.
The audit questions below can be used in two key ways: firstly, to screen concept notes (seeking funding); and secondly, they can be incorporated into social appraisal mechanisms (or pro poor checklists) as practical ways to institutionalise youth mainstreaming.
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Policy and action plans
Leadership
Capacity Youth focal staff/youth champions Is there a designated youth unit/staff member? Since when? What do they do? With what resources? How effectively?
All staff What responsibility do staff have for youth equality issues? What training have they received? Have staff been issued with guidelines on youth mainstreaming? What is their level of knowledge and skill? Is sensitivity to youth issues included in job descriptions/assessed at interview/monitored at appraisals?
Organisation Does the organisation have capacity to learn from past and current activities, and use that learning to inform future interventions?
Programming and accountability
Partnerships (as part of stakeholder analysis, social appraisal, and political appraisal):
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- 63. Such as UNESCO’s Gender Mainstreaming Implementation Framework (GMIF) 2003
- 64. These questions are adapted from DFID ‘Gender Manual – A Practical Guide’ (2008), p. 27. This framework is further elaborated upon in the DFID ‘Gender and Social Exclusion Analysis’ (GSEA) 2008. This focuses on three spheres of peole’s lives: society, state and the market.
