Indicators of Economic Opportunities for Youth in the Arab World

Project Summary

RAND assisted Silatech, a non-profit organization focused on enhancing Arab youth employment and engagement, in the development of indicators to help the organization track and improve its operations and maximize positive impacts on the lives of Arab youth. RAND provided practical recommendations on the management of the system as well as a set of guiding principles for implementation.

Background

In 2013, RAND was approached by Silatech, an independent, non-profit organization based in Doha, Qatar focused on enhancing Arab youth employment and engagement, to support the development of indicators as part of its efforts to put in place a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to track progress against the organization's goals.

Silatech's objectives are to build connections between young people and promote opportunities for employment, enterprise, and civic engagement as well as to employ research and analysis, and influence public policy and public mindset towards the benefit of youth welfare and well-being. Based on a theory of change developed by Silatech, the organization has focused on microfinance and technical support to microenterprises; online content delivery of career guidance and employment matching; small and medium-enterprise (SME) support and development; and civic engagement to meet its goals. Silatech pursues its portfolio mainly through international, regional, and local partnerships with NGOs, governments, international organizations, as well as through direct financial and technical support to youth, youth-serving organizations, and other intermediaries, all key levers to "unlocking wider impact" of its initiatives.

With such a breadth in programs, it is important to create a system of indicators that can track progress toward the end goal of creating economic opportunities for the young.

Goals

RAND and Silatech collaborated to build a robust set of indicators to track Silatech's progress and impact, and developed the design of a "dashboard" for clear, timely communication of this progress and impact.

Results

RAND began with a logic model framework that specified a set of organizational objectives, which became the basis for which indicators were identified and selected. RAND provided practical recommendations on the management of the system as well as a set of guiding principles for implementation, drawing on best practices. The system is being utilized by Silatech to track and improve its operations and maximize its positive impacts on the lives of Arab youth.