From data to evidence for Youth-led localisation of Sustainable Development Goals
November 6, 2024 | 17:00 - 18:30
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Summary
Our networking event aims to present lessons and reflections on putting youth first for data driven urban change through local action which impacts global sustainable development agendas. We aim to present our case reflecting on our lived experiences through The Evidence to Action (E2A) project, which is a Fondation Botnar initiative, a Swiss philanthropy keen to contribute to data driven youth led change in cities. The E2A project is set up as a meta-learning program with the purpose of reimagining evidence building practices in the development sector across intermediary cities to generate learning on how projects create change from young people’s perspective. The project offers a comprehensive strategy to systematically produce knowledge from the perspective of young people and other key stakeholders on ‘what works’ or ‘what does not work’ for enhancing youth wellbeing in complex urban landscapes. The E2A Framework is grounded in the tradition of Participatory Action Research (PAR), and learning where community members become equal stakeholders, by transforming their own skills and capacities while challenging social inequalities based on the learnings and knowledge they collectively produce. The E2A framework offers six Strategic Actions to initiate evidence building, five evidence building Principles and five Domains of Change to understand and map change as it takes place throughout project lifecycle. The Domains of Change are serving as a common instrument for mapping systemic change across all Fondation Botnar Cities programs in intermediary cities. It offers high-level guidelines for operationalising the framework, adopting a participatory action research and learning approach to evidence building to inform policy and programmatic action. The E2A Framework aims to reinforce organisational learning processes in order to achieve Fondation Botnar’s ambition of transforming from a “grant maker to a change maker” through systematisation of evidence building, and knowledge production and by cultivating spaces and practices of consistent learning throughout the project monitoring and evaluation process to ensure downward accountability. The event will bring multi-sectoral partners and practitioners from Global South to reflect on: 1. Barriers encountered on the ground for mobilising young people for evidence building while addressing the contextual social conditions as well as power dynamics, and the emergent solutions & proven strategies 2. Use of digital technology to overcome these barriers 3. Capacity building success stories that demonstrate youth led change 4. Exploring new narratives of defining success that centre lived experiences of young people using SDGs as a frame of reference
Objectives
- Present the E2A Framework as a meta-learning tool for setting up systematic evidence building practices at the local level that aspire to flip the traditional power structures: reflections from global south partners. - Demonstrate the need for a comprehensive approach to evidence building for any development program. A case of supporting the global south partners in the field with capacities to generate and leverage evidence for their local benefit and address inequalities to enable transformation - Share the PAR-L approach for enabling youth to be evidence builders and empowered to influence and shape local to global agendas - Advocate for the Development Sector to focus on learning as central and complementary to M&E and not secondary/peripheral. - Share case studies of localised empowerment and community action that is based on leveraging technology, while prioritising young people and their lived experiences to promote downward accountability. The purpose is to firmly situate use of technology as an adaptable tool in service of the goal of empowering young people, and not as an outcome itself. - Promote the need for evidence that is fit for context and valuable for communities to be leveraged to bring change at the local level, an aspiration aligned with the UN’s call for localisation for achieving SDGs