Taqeem Fund for Evaluation in Youth Employment

The vision for the “Taqeem Fund for Evaluation in Youth Employment” is the creation and application of evidence based policies for youth employment in Africa and the Middle East. The vision is achieved through capacity building and training, the production of impact evaluations – applied research which rigorously assesses the successes of innovative youth employment interventions — and dissemination and uptake of policy advice. While the overall objectives of the first phase of the project (2011 - 2013) remain the same, the new phase of the Taqeem Fund (i.e. Taqeem 2.0) offers a greater focus on sustainability and scale. The work carried out over the past years through a Community of Practice (CoP) of youth serving NGOs serves as a basis for the future engagement with local academic and evaluation institutions. Taqeem 2.0 seeks to achieve three main outcomes: 1. Anchor the “Evaluation Clinic” technical assistance model in local evaluation institutions (direct beneficiaries) conducting research in the field of youth employment and entrepreneurship. The objective is for these institutions to become M&E and impact evaluation “hubs” for youth-serving organizations (indirect beneficiaries) in their regional community. Evaluation Clinics will be the flagship technical assistance model. 2. Produce evidence on what works through high quality impact evaluations. The policy makers and investors will improve their decision making processes because of the evidence built and the knowledge gaps filled on which types of interventions work, which do not, and how. 3. Disseminate policy and programme messages to government, institutions and investors. As the evidence gap shrinks, efforts will be increased to ensure evidence is translated into policy. Key officials within influential institutions and governments will be targeted and highly visible evidence symposiums will be conducted. The Youth Employment Network will manage the initiative building a support coalition of technical specialists, donors, researchers and academics from leading evaluation initiatives who will contribute to the Fund. These include YEN’s core partners the World Bank, ILO and UN as well as like-minded technical partners, International Initiative on Impact Evaluation (3ie), Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA), Swiss Academy for Development (SAD), and BRAC. These partners will collaborate through a Taqeem Advisory Council (AC) who will provide guidance on the evidence base and recommendations about what works on youth employment throughout the project.

Project symbol

GLO/13/31/SCH

Admin unit

YEP

Start date

01/11/2013

End date

30/04/2016

Total allocation

698870

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

698870

Development Partners

Silatech in Qatar

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

More and better jobs for inclusive growth and improved youth employment prospects