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Evaluating Youth Interventions
Volume II, Number 5
June 2007
Youth development projects aim to improve the lives and livelihoods of young people around the world. Interventions for youth are often multi-sectoral in nature, ranging from job- and life-skills development to programs for better health and nutrition. Rigorous impact evaluation is key to producing the knowledge base required by policymakers and practitioners to choose among different options, and implement the most cost effective projects. This note outlines some approaches to producing evidence of what works in the context of youth development projects, and looks at expanding the set of outcome indicators to more fully capture the effects of these projects on the welfare of young people around the world.

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Conditional Cash Transfers: The Next Generation - A case study of Mexico's Oportunidades Program
Volume II, Number 4
March 2007
Faith and faith institutions can be a powerful force in the lives of young people. In light of increasing engagement between faith institutions and global development programs, this note highlights both actual and potential faith-based development activities that directly involve—and benefit—youth. It acknowledges the special sensitivities around the role of faith in development, but also argues that the long and rich experience of faith communities working with young people—particularly with the most disadvantaged—calls for a deeper understanding of the impact of their interventions and of the value added they may bring to designing youth development policies and programs.

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Building Bridges through Faith: The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Youth Development
Volume II, Number 3
February 2007
Faith and faith institutions can be a powerful force in the lives of young people. In light of increasing engagement between faith institutions and global development programs, this note highlights both actual and potential faith-based development activities that directly involve—and benefit—youth. It acknowledges the special sensitivities around the role of faith in development, but also argues that the long and rich experience of faith communities working with young people—particularly with the most disadvantaged—calls for a deeper understanding of the impact of their interventions and of the value added they may bring to designing youth development policies and programs.

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Preparing Youth for 21st Century Jobs: 'Entra 21' Across Latin America and the Caribbean
Volume II, Number 2
December 2006
The entra 21 program demonstrates that youth from low income families in Latin America benefit from short-term job training, especially when combined with life skills, internships and job placement services. They develop technical and personal competencies, build social connections and, most importantly, enter the job market with decent entry-level jobs. What makes entra 21 unique is its implementation in 18 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean through 32 executive agencies, most of which are NGOs. This diversity of contexts enables us to demonstrate whether projects with similar elements generate strong youth outcomes. The evidence to date indicates it does.

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HIV/AIDS Prevention among Youth: What Works?
Volume II, Number 1
November 2006
Young people are at the heart of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Not only are they disproportionately represented in terms of new infections, but they are also key to overcoming the disease. Effective HIV prevention efforts that focus on youth are crucial to reversing the pandemic. The World Bank is one of the largest official financiers of HIV/AIDS programs in the world, with over $2.7 billion committed for HIV/AIDS prevention, care, support and treatment since 1988. A recent review of Bank projects related to HIV/AIDS (1999–2004) reveals that over 40% include specific youth components, and virtually all include youth as a target group. This note summarizes the growing body of evidence of what works to prevent HIV/AIDS among youth in developing countries.

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Improving Employability for At-Risk Youth: The Dominican Republic's Youth Development Project
Volume I, Number 7
June 2006
Poverty traps youth with insufficient education, life skills or job skills, making the transition from school dropout to the workplace difficult, and perpetuating the cycle as their children are then raised in poverty. Providing life skills, technical skills, an internship, and a second chance at formal education can enhance the employability of poor youth. This issue of YDN presents the Dominican Republic’s Youth Development Project, a $30 million investment to improve the job—and life—prospects of young Dominicans.

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Youth Conservation Corps: Employment and Environment
Volume I, Number 6
May 2006
Engaging young people in environmental service projects is an innovative way of achieving several priority objectives through one single intervention. A well-designed Youth Conservation Corps can provide youth with skills that enhance their employability, protect or restore critical ecosystems, and create a pro-conservation citizenry. This issue of Youth Development Notes profiles Youth Conservation Corps interventions in developed and developing country contexts and offers some guiding principles on effective program design.

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Youth in Community-Driven Development
Volume I, Number 5
April 2006
Community-Driven Development (CDD) approaches present an effective means to involve young people in local development decision-making, giving them voice and influencing power, with benefits for themselves and their communities. This note highlights the potential of CDD for young people and provides guidance on developing CDD operations with a youth focus.

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Risk & Protective Factors in the Lives of Youth: The Evidence Base
Volume I, Number 4
March 2006
Youth outcomes are directly affected by a range of risk and protective factors. If properly identified, these factors can be used as a signal for policy interventions to increase the likelihood of a positive transition to adulthood. Research has demonstrated that several of these factors have a greater impact on reducing risky behaviors and in promoting positive youth development than others. This Note outlines a framework for identifying risk and protective factors, and focuses on those which have demonstrated a particularly strong effect on youth in a range of longitudinal studies: i) in school attendance; ii) the degree of school "connectedness"; and iii) the sustained presence of caring adults in the lives of young people.

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Preventing Youth Risky Behavior through Early Child Development
Volume I, Number 3
February 2006
Investing in Early Child Development (ECD) – and the parenting skills that necessarily accompany it – may be one of the most effective means for policymakers to reduce youth risk-taking behavior. While research abounds on the positive long term impact of ECD programs on school achievement and other human capital development, more recent longitudinal studies also point to important impacts on reducing the risk of early pregnancy, criminal activity, violence, and substance use as young people move into their adolescent and young adult years. This is particularly evident for those investments which target the poor.

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Youth Service: A Strategy for Youth and National Development
Volume I, Number 2
December 2005
All too often youth policies and interventions are designed to deliver services to young people, failing to view youth themselves as important assets in delivering services to others. Youth service programs empower young people to play an active role in development while gaining the experience, knowledge, and values necessary for employment and active citizenship. Around the world, service programs are enabling young people to build sustainable housing, fight HIV/AIDS, and improve literacy rates through tutoring programs. These efforts challenge portrayals of youth as victims of poverty or problems to society and place them instead at the forefront of promoting development in their communities.

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Youth In Post-Conflict Settings
Volume I, Number 1
November 2005
Youth development is an emerging focus in World Bank work across many sectors, yet much remains to be learned. This issue of Youth Development Notes examines the unique challenges confronting youth living in post-conflict settings: demobilization, reintegration, employment generation, emergency education, as well as voice, inclusion and community participation. The note highlights lessons from the literature and from the field on how to facilitate the simultaneous transitions that youth face, from conflict and childhood, to peace and adulthood.