The EU-CoE youth partnership has supported knowledge-based youth policy development in a variety of ways, including by organising thematic events and training on developing youth policy, publishing “Youth policy manual”, youth knowledge book on cross-sectoral youth policy and “Youth policy essentials”, organising the MOOC on youth policy.

The dimension that has been less in the focus is the evaluation of youth policy implementation and impact, key to improving the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of planning and delivery of youth policy at different levels. The mid-term evaluation of the current EU youth strategy and the series of international reviews of national youth policies undertaken by the Council of Europe youth sector serve as examples. The future strategy of the Council of Europe youth sector is also being designed with attention to evaluation of the change it brings. When quality is ensured, demonstrating the positive impact of youth policy and sound management of resources dedicated to youth are also prerequisites for sustainable social and political support, giving way to allocating needed resources.

Initial scanning of EKCYP and the EU Youth Wiki data shows there is little emphasis on this aspect, hence the proposal to bridge the gap. The topic was also discussed at the 2018 annual meeting of EKCYP correspondents.

Purpose

Based on the principle of promoting knowledge based youth policies, the activity aims at supporting those involved at diverse levels in youth policy design and implementation in evaluating it, in order to enhance youth policies’ relevance, effectiveness and impact. In particular it will look at the role of research in evaluating, and refining, youth policies. Using big data, mentioned at the 2018 symposium on young people, social inclusion and digitalisation, may be considered in this context.

Expected outcomes

• Analytical paper on conceptual considerations and practical ways of proceeding with evaluating youth policy at different levels, and the roles of the diverse stakeholders
• Collection and analysis of good practice examples of evaluating youth policy at various levels
• A new edition of “Insights” – comparative analysis of models and approaches to this topic based on contributions from EKCYP and the EU Youth Wiki
• An updated version of the “Youth policy manual”, considering the conclusions of the process, if relevant also other hands-on tool(s) facilitating the work of those involved in evaluating youth policies