A Pathway For Action, Sustainability, Results, Learning, and Adaptation. The Youth Cafe has a theory of change, that uses techniques which match their tolerance for "planning" and "execution". They've worked to develop an outcome map, a visual diagram that depicts relationships between their strategies and intended results. The result includes both short- and longer-term outcomes and also reflects changes at different levels, such as individuals, organizations, systems, and communities. Each map looks different, depending on the organization's unique needs and preferences. They've incorporated the views of young people, youth-led and youth-serving organizations, and experts so that our map reflects young people's view of how change occurs. Additionally, They have documented the assumptions that underlie our initiative, including philosophies, principles, and values; ways to work together; community context, and other assumptions upon which we have based our change effort. These assumptions are presented as a succinct narrative statement.
Introduction Much has changed since The Youth Café Limited was founded nearly a decade ago. Bolstered by grassroots knowledge, The Youth Café is dedicated to reducing youth deprivation and socio-economic, and political empowerment. Today, they are actively working on a number of cross-cutting issues. Their eight priority areas are: 1)
Culture, Arts and Sports; 2)
Governance and Political Inclusion: Accountability; 3)
Governance and Political Inclusion: Remittances; 4)
Peace and Security 5)
Education and Vocational Skills; 6)
Business, Job Creation and Entrepreneurship; 7)
Universal Health Coverage; and 8)
Environmental Preservation and Climate Change. By using Thematic Working Groups methodology to power our goals, these themes provide an organizing structure that underpins the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of our initiatives. The Youth Cafe acknowledges that problems afflicting young people in Africa today are easier to recognize. Typically, they are pressing, cannot be ignored and the dream of eradicating them fuels the energy and passion within The Youth Café to make a difference. How can our interventions or programs actually lead to lasting changes? What type of evidence indicates progress? Which strategies are most effective to achieve the desired results? These are the reasons why The Youth Café needs a roadmap for change, now more than ever. Instead of bridges, avenues, and freeways, their map illustrates destinations of progress and the routes to travel on the way to achieving the aforementioned. The map also provides commentary about assumptions, such as the final destination, the context for the map, the processes to engage in during the journey, and the belief system that underlies the importance of traveling in a particular way. The map is their "
theory of change."
Structure In this theory of change, they use techniques that match their tolerance for "planning" and "execution". They have worked to develop an outcome map, a visual diagram that depicts relationships between the organization's strategies and intended results. This result includes both short- and longer-term outcomes and also reflects changes at different levels, such as individuals, organizations, systems, and communities. Each map looks different, depending on The Youth Café's unique needs and preferences. We have incorporated the views of young people, youth-led and youth-serving organizations, and experts so that their map reflects young people's view of how change occurs. Thus, they have generated two products as part of their theory of change work: •
An outcome map •
A list of assumptions about the change they seek. Principles The Youth Cafe Principles have been developed by over 1,500 of our members drawn from the East- and the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Sahel Regions coordinated by The Youth Cafe Secretariat. The principles are a call to action for governments, civil society, private and public sector, bi- and multilateral and knowledge institutions to invest in the prospects of young people and to work in partnership with young people. These principles call upon organizations to recognize and invest in an inclusive manner and specifically in the opportunities of youth - recognizing the unique challenges they face and ensuring that no young person is left behind.
Type of Changes Mapped Positive Youth Development initiatives typically encompass myriad strategies, interventions, and activities. Some are planned, clearly defined, staffed, and funded – for example, an awareness-building campaign or
community mobilization effort. Others may be spontaneous, emergent, informal, or sporadic, such as networking, leadership development, or network/coalition building. As an organization, we are cognizant of the fact that we need to have the relevant resources and investments to ensure that the activities/ interventions take place accordingly. Such resources include funds, networks and our knowledge, and thus we refer to them as inputs. Our outputs are the immediate results of our activities and they are necessary for achieving the outcomes. They are positive indicators that the outcomes are on track.
Activities The Youth Cafe focuses on eight different thematic areas/activities. Each thematic area has distinctive inputs, outputs, and outcomes. One of their activities is on Education, Skills, and Technology. Their aim is to create opportunities for young people to develop employability skills and competencies including numeracy and literacy, “21st century skills” like critical thinking, communication skills, digital/media literacy skills, and adaptability to take on future challenges and opportunities in society while increasing their adaptability in the era of the fourth industrial revolution and access to high-quality job opportunities.
Outputs Most youths have access to knowledge, information, and health care including; correct perception of their risks on HIV; increased knowledge on sexual behavior; the need to resist forced sex from a partner(s) including having multiple intergenerational sexual partners; and drug use during sexual intercourse that compounds the vulnerability of young people to HIV.
Leverage: Outcomes Their LEVERAGE: Outcome Areas And Outcome Statements/focuses on different changes such as improving The Youth Cafe and other Youth-Led and Youth serving partner organization abilities to finance their own economic and social development by promoting a comprehensive Agency approach to help the organizations mobilize public revenues and expend resources effectively, transparently, and with accountability, while creating the enabling conditions for private investment.
Population-level Outcomes Their aspiration on Changes in Universal Health Coverage is to provide key education opportunities such as access to knowledge, information, and health care young people need including; correct perception of their risks on HIV; increased knowledge on sexual behavior; the need to resist forced sex from partner(s) including having multiple intergenerational sexual partners; and drug use during sexual intercourse that compounds vulnerability of young people to HIV.
Impacts: organizational Outcomes One of their outcome areas is Changes in knowledge/skills which goes with the outcome statement to enhance youth-centered capacity to generate, collect, synthesize, and disseminate evidence and learning powered by youth-friendly dissemination platforms (digital and physical) that ensure seamless knowledge transfer to enhance young people's employability and capacity for leadership and development of 21st-century skills and competencies.
How The Changes relate to The Youth Cafe’s core capacities The Youth Cafe's core capacities are the central guides that enable our powerful strategies to become actualized. Our core capacities represent our beliefs and our deeply held values for development. They understand that lasting change is created through unique opportunities for unique problems facing different societies. They work in youth development is geared towards forming outstanding ideals that separate the organization from others. They truly believe that our building blocks will continue to impact the change we seek to see in youth and youth stakeholders. All the projects that The Youth Cafe handles are founded on the capacities we have established and continue to strengthen. These capacities include our administrative structures, professional and social networks, knowledge base, and leadership.
Outcome Map: Their Goals, Strategies, and Impacts Creating a picture of how different types of outcomes relate to each other helps clarify what The Youth Cafe intends to do. They use the “outcome map” as a tool to depict what they expect will happen as a result of their initiatives, strategies, activities, and programmatic efforts. Using an outcome map, they have visually laid out The Youth Cafe's pathway of change. Their outcomes are “mapped” in a causal sequence, although we understand that change is typically more complex than a simple cause-and-effect relationship. In some cases, our outcomes occur sequentially, while other times they occur simultaneously. The Youth Cafe's outcomes sometimes occur independently from each other or are highly interrelated. They may result from a single strategy or multiple ones, leading to common goals or separate ones.
So-That Chain In order to create an outcome map that helps to clarify the connection between all outcomes – those describing impact, influence, and leverage – they have created a “so that” chain. The “so that” chains reflect the work of building core capacities as well as implementing specific strategies, activities and program actions. Impacts, influence, and leverage outcomes are achieved when The Youth Cafe's core capacities are developed and functioning well. They took our first strategy listed and created a "so that" chain based on the following question: "They do X strategy so that y results are realized for The Youth Cafe or young people?" The answer is the direct outcome or result of the strategy. They repeat the procedure until all the four strategies have been linked to the goal.
“So-That' Chain: 1 To build partnerships, and scale-up potential, partner with young people to build a better, more resilient Africa while linking the region and the world, our projects must, whenever possible, have a multi-stakeholder and cross-sector approach where they draw concrete links between younger and older generations on one hand, and Africa and other regions on the other, enabling exchanges and relevant content for all generations, building networks, and coalitions, including cooperation with “unusual” or underutilized actors such as those in the private sector and media players(mainstream and digital), and sharing costs with other actors whenever possible as well as mutual learning, maximizing synergies to avoid duplications and jointly searching for solutions.
"So-That' Chain: 2 The Youth Cafe's projects should be based on research, learning, and adaptation, be data-informed using accessible data collection and analysis techniques, have solid and innovative evidence methods; be documented and regularly monitored and evaluated to determine changes associated with them. Ultimately, we hope to create spaces for reflection and constructive feedback loops, and to generate new project ideas, and adapt their processes and materials based on lessons learned.
'So-That' Chain: 3 Projects at The Youth Cafe should have an effective strategy for sustainability and self-reliance. This includes building sufficient technical capacity, skills, and competencies for diversified revenue and funding streams to act as agents of their own development, and nurturing relationships with and searches for future potential partners in coordination with our advisors and Partners.
"So-That" Chain: 4 To address the needs, build the agency, advance gender-responsive, and rights-based approaches to youth development programming. This includes developing the capacity of young people/rights holders(target groups) in all their diversity around the world to claim their rights, and duty bearers(government institutions) to meet their obligations. The Youth Cafe recognizes that unequal power relations and social exclusion deny people their human rights and often keep them in poverty.
Assumptions and risks Articulating their Assumptions. While The Youth Cafe's outcome map offers a visual sketch of the pathways to achieving their outcomes, their work is embedded in a context. They acknowledge that it's helpful to complete the story by articulating the assumptions that influenced the map's design. Core assumptions that underpin The Youth Cafe Theory of Change explains why and how the steps in their Pathway of Change diagram enable the achievement of empowerment for young people.
Conclusion The Theory of Change is a necessary tool for the development of an organization, and the transition of inputs and activities to outputs, outcomes, and impacts. It creates a shared understanding of the changes that take place in an organization and the parties involved in that process. This detailed document is developed by relating all the aspects of the organization that direct them to their ultimate vision and mission. The Youth Cafe understands the importance of managing change in an organization as the guide towards achieving the goals set ahead. Impact changes at the organizational and population-level drive the organization to a defined future effect in youth development. The impact changes anchor the transformation requirements, designs, and processes to our desired state.
Glossary of terms Throughout the Theory of Change, they use certain words, terminologies and phrases that are unique to The Youth Cafe. ==Governance and Leadership==