Projects

Youth Excel – Youth Represent

6 February 2022

Overview

In July 2021, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX)” has allocated $73 653.89 to the Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption (CERC) to implement the “Youth Excel” project in Kinshasa.

Launched on July 19, 2021, in Kinshasa and implemented by the CENTRE DE RECHERCHE SUR L’ANTI-CORRUPTION with technical support from the SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND,  Youth Excel is a 13-months Project that supports young leaders and youth-led and youth-serving organizations in Kinshasa to conduct quality implementation research; use data and learnings to improve their own cross-sectoral, positive youth development programs; synthesize data and learning; and engage in intergenerational dialogue with adult decision-makers so that together youth and adults can shape and advance data-informed development policies, agendas, and programs.

QUICK FACTS  
  • IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH is a mixed-methods approach to collecting data during program implementation to improve implementation. Implementation research helps teams learn how to adapt tested programs to new contexts, scale and achieve cost-effectiveness, and strengthen impact.
  • Youth Excel addresses USAID’s, IREX’s, and CERC shared imperative to empower young people to solve local, national, and global development challenges using data-driven and research-based approaches.
  • Youth Excel confronts barriers that youth face in leading development, including the lack of a broadly credible research and evidence base for youth programming and other obstacles that prevent youth from influencing decisions about policy and funding in their societies.
  • Youth Excel will build the global knowledge base on cross-sectoral youth development, support USAID’s Global LEAD initiative, expand USAID’s Youth Lead network, and advance USAID’s Journey to Self-Reliance agenda on sustainable local development.
                 GOALS  
  • Diverse youth in Kinshasa create and lead data-informed, inclusive youth development at local, national, and global levels. 
  • Youth-led and youth-serving programs strengthen their ability to gather and use evidence about their programs to strengthen and expand their impact.
  • Youth in Kinshasa disseminate learning from their implementation research efforts so that the evidence can inform programs and policies.
  • In Kinshasa, youth and adults use data as an inclusive intergenerational language to collaborate and inform decision-making.
  • Youth-led and place-based networks facilitate collaboration between crucial development stakeholders, including public, private, and civil society actors, to expand development impact.
            PROJECT ACTIVITIES  
  • SUPPORT YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS AND NETWORKS: Support youth-led and youth-serving organizations and youth-led, issue-based collaborative networks in Kinshasa to address local development issues through implementation research.
  • STRENGTHEN SKILLS: Build youth’s skills in digital leadership, data leadership, and advocacy.
  • BE INCLUSIVE: Prioritize gender and social inclusion and use power equity tools to ensure that every activity is inclusive.
  • SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH: Strengthen networks of youth researchers in Kinshasa to support implementation research activities.
  • STRENGTHEN INTERGENERATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS: Work through issue-based collaborative networks and data summits to facilitate dialogue between youth and adults.
  • ENGAGE THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS: Build partnerships to support youth-led data and learning.
  • PROMOTE RESEARCH: Synthesize and disseminate youth’s evidence and learning.
  • SUPPORT ADVOCACY: Leverage youth-led research and adults’ support to influence development agendas and policies.
                RESULTS ACHIEVED IN 2021  
  • 10 youth-led and youth-serving organizations, including 1 LGBTQI-led organization and 2 organizations led by People Living with Disability selected to form the Issue-Based Collaborative Network (ICON) in Kinshasa.
  • 6 CERC staff members trained in Positive Youth Development, Implementation Research approach, and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion.
  • 20 participants from 10 ICON participants organizations trained in Implementation Research approach and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion.

Students Acting for Accountability and Quality Education

6 February 2022

Project – Overall objective: Secondary schools in which all students can – and – do successfully demand accountability from the educational institutions/officials they rely on.
Donor: Global Partnership for Education
Grant Agent: OXFAM IBIS

Budget: USD 858,942
Period: January 2022 – June 2024


Specific objectives :

  1. By the end of 2024, 50 senior education officials, 6 civil society organizations and 10 parliamentarians are working closely with CERC to embed anti-corruption and accountability protocols in the education sector;
  2. By the end of the project, 2250 (14–19-year-old) students engaged and supported to become active agents of positive change championing anti-corruption and accountability behaviour and to demand that education reforms meet their needs;
  3. By the end of the project, supported 150 secondary schools embed Integrity Clubs to ensure long term sustainability of anti-corruption and accountability efforts in the education sector;
  4. Student-led advocacy and campaigns attract wider support and demand for anti-corruption and accountability measures in education

Summary

This project responds to the impact that corruption and lack of transparency is having on young people’s access to education and motivation to participate civically in their communities. 

Part of the solution to the lack of transparency in education is to have students more involved in education. They can help generate data, as, without data, the learning crisis remains invisible, goals cannot be set, and policy efforts cannot be guided or monitored for impact. 

Working with secondary schools, this project focuses on the delivery of the DRC Education and Training Sector Strategy 2016-2025  reform in 6 municipalities of South Kivu and 6 municipalities of Kinshasa with the goal for students, especially girls, to receive accountable, inclusive and equitable quality education services.

We will do this by ensuring that (a) Students, teachers, and parents can successfully demand that the reform meets students’ needs; (b) Integrity Clubs (ICs)  is established in the education system. (c) Education authorities are committed and have the capacity to implement quality change, and d) the approach to transparently consult and collaborate is institutionalized in South Kivu and Kinshasa and replicated across DRC.

CERC will train 2250 14-19-year-old students in Kinshasa and in South-Kivu, to monitor the implementation of the DRC Education and Training Sector Strategy 2016-2025, specifically monitoring the delivery of education services and infrastructures and working together with education officials and other key stakeholders in order to drive improvements for vital education services accessed by Congolese youth.

Improving accessibility of education infrastructure and improved quality of education services will lead to better education outcomes for youth, which directly tackles an underlying cause of poverty and inequality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition to bringing improvements to education services, the project aims to improve responsiveness and accountability from education service providers, encouraging an open and transparent education system that is receptive to students’ needs.