Youth Talk - Empowering Young People through Media in Mali, Central African Republic, and South Sudan

"Beyond enabling youth journalists to produce high-quality radio programs, the project also benefits them by fostering motivation, entrepreneurialism, agency and success..."

This report shares the results of the final evaluation of Youth Talk, a project that sought to empower youth in three conflict-affected countries in Africa to produce radio programmes that contributed to peace-building in their countries. The project was implemented by Search for Common Ground (Search) in the Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, and South Sudan between 2019 and 2022 and was funded by the Bezos Family Foundation.

Youth Talk had three interconnected objectives:

1. To amplify the voice and agency of young people around each country's critical social and political issues related to building lasting peace;
2. To strengthen mutual understanding and collaboration between youth and older adults; and
3. To capture and share learning and tools with donors, policymakers, and practitioners.

To meet these objectives, Youth Talk trained young journalists across the three countries to report on local conflicts and burning social and political issues, as well as to create radio programmes to help people find common ground. It also facilitated intergenerational dialogues to increase mutual understanding and to gain the support of parents and the general public around issues raised by young people (see Related Summaries below for more information).

The purpose of the final evaluation was to assess the impact of Youth Talk and its contribution to empowering young people in the three countries. The evaluation methods included secondary data collection involving a desk review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, a quantitative community survey, and a quantitative youth journalists survey.

Related to each objective, the findings highlight the following:

• Amplifying the voice and agency of young people around each country's critical social and political issues related to building lasting peace (Objective 1) - The project empowered hard-to-reach youth by providing them with a range of transferable skills they have been able to use both within and beyond the project. According to the report, this outcome was due to an inclusive and context-sensitive selection process of youth journalists and relevant, participatory capacity-building sessions. There was evidence of youth journalists creating their own initiatives and acting as mediators in conflicts between friends or in their family.
• Strengthening mutual understanding and collaboration between youth and older adults (Objective 2) - Evidence from the evaluation suggests that the programme strengthened mutual understanding and collaboration between youth and older adults. Across all three countries, the project's activities have led to a shift of perceptions, as both qualitative and quantitative data reveal improved relationships between youth and adults, including within families. In particular, the consultative workshops were instrumental in breaking barriers and providing opportunities for open conversations between young journalists and community members.
• Capturing and sharing learning and tools with donors, policymakers, and practitioners (Objective 3) - The emphasis on producing and sharing knowledge about the programme is a best practice that will inform future programming beyond Search. In particular, the production of a guide on engaging and empowering hard-to-reach youth via youth-led programming, documenting the project's best practices, will maximise use of the project's learnings and inform practitioners.

The evaluation also looked at the use of Search's new safeguarding and child protection measures, which had been developed as part of Search's new policy and were piloted in this project. It found that the roll-out and institutionalisation of the safeguarding guidelines at the level of the whole organisation was a success. Ninety-nine percent of trained youth believe that Search treated them with dignity and respect through implementation. However, the report notes that, while considerable progress has been made in raising awareness about safeguarding among Search staff and programme participants, there is room for improvement.

With regard to sustainability, the evaluation found that youth journalists demonstrated increased confidence and have acquired transferable skills as a result of their participation in Youth Talk, including public speaking, advocacy, awareness raising, leadership, and collaborative skills. Moreover, adults' perceptions of youth have undergone a significant positive shift. Both of these developments suggest that attitudinal and behavioural change brought about by the programme is sustainable. Initiatives beyond the scope of the project, started by youth journalists in Mali and by listeners in South Sudan, also demonstrate the sustainability of programme impacts.

The report concludes with recommendations for each country. The following are some of the overall recommendations highlighted in the report:

• Programme design:
  • Design the programme collaboratively with implementing partners and strategic partners. This process is important, as it can take time for partners to understand the project.
  • Increase the emphasis on engaging with policymakers to yield greater impact on the inclusion and representation of adolescents' needs in discussions on peace processes.
  • Consider the most appropriate priority groups for long-term impact of the radio activities and future programming, and build this focus into the theory of change and/or logframe.
  • Develop radio programme content to enhance creativity by including multiple segments, with an emphasis on radio stations that have a high youth listener base.
• Safeguarding:
  • Conduct a thorough capacity assessment of Search staff's experience of/ability to work with adolescents from low-education backgrounds and different abilities and languages.
  • Tailor the training curriculum and support services offered in order to ensure Search staff are trained to handle young people with complex, acute needs.
• Sustainability:
  • Allocate greater funding to growing two-way partnerships with universities, media houses, and other private sector organisations to strengthen the sustainability of programme benefits.
  • Support the establishment of a physical space for youth to organise and meet.