Evidence

Collecting evidence about what works

Oxfam is committed to capturing and transparently communicating about the progress and results of our combined efforts. Together with our partners in the four Empower Youth for Work countries, we will collect credible evidence on what works and what doesn’t work.

What evidence?

• We are regularly collecting data from young people, businesses and communities.
• We will undertake internal and external evaluations and have built in strong learning mechanisms to continuously improve our work throughout the programme duration.
• We will conduct strategic research on issues crucial to programme success.

Why?

By using data and evidence from multiple levels and sources, we gain more insight into EYW’s contributions and successes. The evidence presented on this page also enable us to fine-tune or redirect strategies where needed, as to effectively reach the goals in our Theory of Change.

How?

In the true spirit of an Oxfam Youth programme, we are actively looking for ways to maximise the active, meaningful participation of young men and women in the collection of different types of evidence. So far, young people were trained to collect and interpret survey data for our baseline. Our youth reporters also regularly and track their daily experiences in the form of short videos or articles.

Results & impact

EYW has developed rigorous surveys that enable us to reliably measure the higher-level outcomes and ultimate impact of the EYW programme. Our baseline report will soon be available on this page.

Quantitative information will be complemented and checked against more in-depth qualitative data collected through stories and action research conducted by young people in youth organisations.

Research

Research is an important aspect of the EYW programme. EYW is closely connected to two of Oxfam’s Knowledge Hubs, which are flat, network-like structures targeted at creating, sharing and spreading knowledge with the whole Oxfam Confederation. The hubs contribute to exciting learning and research trajectories that will help the EYW programme, Oxfam, and beyond to sharpen programme strategies and strengthen our implementation on the ground.

Knowledge Hub for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Agriculture

EYW supports this Knowledge Hub to generate additional insights on changing social norms in the economic sphere. To do this we will collaborate with the broader sector networks BEAM and SEEP. A practitioner learning group will gather online for a series of sessions with representatives from the private sector, NGO community, think tanks, grassroots organisations and more to share and discuss social norms in the economic sphere: what are they, how can we diagnose them, and how can we design strategies to change them?

In this video, you can find out what social and gender norms were found to be most critical to young women and men in Bangladesh.

Knowledge Hub for Governance and Citizenship

Together with Oxfam’s Youth and Active Citizenship Learning Community we are exploring how young people can successfully influence policies and their implementation. We have looked into the latest findings and thinking within current literature and the development community on how young people organise to effectively influence public policy. What is shifting, what roles have youth played in recent successful influencing, and where exactly do we as (I)NGOs come in.

Check out the most recent literature review related to youth influencing or the webinar recordings to find out more.

Learning

We learn through critical discussions with partners, young people and key stakeholders, through the revision of existing evidence and by collecting additional information.

EYW has a multi-level approach to learning, with regular reflections and reviews taking place in each country and a yearly global event attended by selected representatives from partners, youth and Oxfam. Together, these moments will trigger valuable new insights strategic to our work.

E-Motive

The E-Motive approach offers a systematic peer-to-peer learning exchange experience consisting of 6 consequent steps. The learning exchange programme is tailor-made, combines face-to-face exchanges with online tools, and connects professionals and solutions that have the power to truly generate impact. All the chosen professionals have the potential to be inspiring change makers, and all the selected solutions have a proven track record. The aim of the exchanges is to create a space of trust and openness, in which professionals will be surprised, excited and motivated to develop a new perspective on how to approach their problem differently.