Supporting Youth at Risk A Policy Toolkit for Middle Income Countries
This Policy Toolkit is produced in response to a growing demand from government clients and partners for advice on how to create and implement effective policies for at-risk youth. The Toolkit highlights 22 policies (six core policies, nine promising policies, and seven general policies) that have been effective in addressing the following 5 key risk areas for young people around the world.
Youth unemployment, underemployment, and lack of formal sector employment
Early school leaving
Risky sexual behavior leading to early childbearing and HIV/AIDS
Crime and violence
Substance abuse
The Toolkit also includes five additional notes (Moving from a Wish List to Action) that present strategies and tools for turning these policy recommendations into a well-designed and well-implemented youth portfolio.
The objective of this Toolkit is to serve as a practical guide for policy makers in middle-income countries—as well as professionals working within the area of youth development—on how to develop and implement an effective policy portfolio to foster healthy and positive youth development.
These six policies have an established track record in preventing disadvantaged children and young people from engaging in risky behavior and, thus, should form the basis of any country’s youth portfolio. We recommend that governments of middle-income countries should adopt and implement these policies on a large scale.
These nine approaches focus on helping those affected by risky behavior to recover and return to a safe, productive path to adulthood. Young people in this category range from school dropouts to the incarcerated and are more difficult to reach than others in their age group. Although not as many of the interventions in this category have yet been evaluated, there is sufficient evidence to enable us to make some recommendations in the following 9 areas.
Section IV: General Policies with a Disproportionately Positive Effect on Youth at Risk
These seven policies address critical risk factors at the community and macro levels, but also have been shown to be particularly effective at reducing risky behavior by young people and should therefore form an essential part of an overall strategy to reduce the number of youth at risk.
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