The Issue – Based Collaborative Network (ICON) was a project by Youth Excel in partnership with Lake Hub Foundation under the USAID and IREX program. This was a comprehensive data-driven research study whose main objective was to enhance Youth Work Readiness by promoting engagement between Higher Education Institutes, Private and Public Sectors in Kisumu County, Kenya. The program aimed to empower young people and youth organizations to use Research-to-Change to strengthen local, national, and global development solutions. Youth Excel supported young leaders and youth-led and youth-serving organizations around the globe to conduct quality implementation research; used data and learning to improve their own cross-sectoral, positive youth development (PYD) programs; synthesized data and learning; and engaged in inter-generational dialogue with champions so that together youth and adults could shape and advance data-informed development policies, agendas, and programs.
Purpose: Youth Excel strengthened youth-led local development by building capacities of youth-led and youth-serving groups to conduct quality implementation research/ Research-to-Change strengthening local systems through inter-generational dialogues for collaborative learning, advocacy, and partnerships with diverse stakeholders.
Youth Alive was one of the ICON participants.
Goals and Objectives
The project aimed at:
- Improved performance of local Youth-led and Youth serving partners in implementation research to strengthen PYD programming
- Improved engagement by relevant local and national stakeholders in Youth-led implementation research to support PYD outcomes
- Improved synthesis, dissemination, and integration of findings from research into programming among local YL/YSOs and other non-traditional partners
After several months of hard work conducting research about how to enhance youth work readiness in Kisumu, Kenya; Youth Excel’s Issue-Based Collaborative Network (ICON) participants present their main findings to key stakeholders in the community at the #YEDataSummit22. Through youth-led locally developed research, youth-led and youth-serving organizations have identified key aspects to address to enhance youth work readiness in Kisumu and Kenya. The knowledge products produced by ICON participants include recommendations to enhance the livelihoods of persons with disabilities (PWDs), women and other key identity groups.
