Abstract
In recent years the international youth development field has increasingly acknowledged that purposeful action at the systems level is critical for achieving positive outcomes for youth, sustainably, equitably, and at scale. In 2018 a group of international organizations formed the Youth Systems Collaborative, a community of practice whose aim is to promote international learning on youth systems change efforts. Building from the collective learning of this group, this paper offers a framework for understanding how widespread and sustained positive youth development outcomes can be achieved in low- and middle-income countries. Five enablers that advance systems change are presented: stakeholder collaboration; vision and goals; systems mapping; data, evaluation, and learning; and capacity development, as well as 4 domains within which system change occurs: policies, services and practices, norms and mindsets, and resource flows. Each of these 9 dimensions is illustrated with lessons learned from both U.S. and international youth systems change efforts. The paper concludes with a call to action for diverse system actors to apply these lessons as they support youth to reach their full potential.
Highlights
Those in the youth development field often say: It is not youth who are disconnected; rather, it is our systems that are fragmented
In 2017 a group of international organizations formed a community of practice called the Youth Systems Collaborative
Since systems change efforts often rely on case study methodology to generate knowledge, we developed case studies from our international experience, using a shared framework we call the Youth Systems Framework
Summary
Those in the youth development field often say: It is not youth who are disconnected; rather, it is our systems that are fragmented. There is little coordination among these systems, and other key youth supports, such as peers and families, are often overlooked. This fragmentation leads to gaps in opportunity and services, redundancies, and inequities that are especially felt by marginalized youth: out-of-school youth, the rural poor, and girls and young women. Exogenous shocks, such as economic or political upheaval, violence, or a global pandemic, only underscore these inequities.
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