Impact

Our Impact to Date 

Opportunity Youth (OY)

The figures above represent GOYN impact across its nine communities since 2020. As a network, we are extremely excited about our impact to-date. In addition, GOYN communities increased their impact by 65%[1] in 2022, reflecting the scale that can be reached when communities are working collaboratively to design locally-driven, youth-centered solutions to youth unemployment.

Youth Employment Ecosystem

459 organizations are currently part of GOYN Collaboratives. These independent organizations – drawn from the civil society, private and public sector – participate in working and advisory groups, implement activities, and lead and participate in ecosystem research. Membership within existing GOYN collaboratives grew by 70% in 2022.

Figure 1 Collaborative members by stakeholder grouping

Collaborative members rate highly the value of being part of GOYN collaboratives. In 2022, over 90% of GOYN collaborative members reported ‘good’ or ‘very good’ value being part of the GOYN Collaborative. Over 80% reported ‘good’ or ‘very good’ impact of GOYN on their organization’s way of working. And similarly, over 80% reported ‘good’ or ‘very good’ GOYN impact on the local youth ecosystem.

“(The GOYN Collaborative has done) good work in building internal capacity of local organizations, especially those which are youth led and work towards improving the quality of life of OY.”

Collaborative member, GOYN Mombasa

Youth engagement and leadership is a core GOYN pillar. Each GOYN community has an established Youth Advisory Group (YAG), made of current and former Opportunity Youth from the community.

YAG members organize events, participate in intervention design, and play strategic advocacy roles for collaborative organizations. Youth Advisory Groups report high levels of youth participation and engagement across all GOYN communities.

“In 2022 we had an initiative to work with 50 young people from the peripheries, seeking to encourage OY’s participation in themes on the municipal agenda, preparing them to act in public leadership guidelines from a legitimate place of speech, taking the agenda of Productive Inclusion Youth and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from the peripheries. This group became our YAG.” 

GOYN São Paulo

Watch the GOYN Mexico City Youth Manifesto

Each GOYN community also has a Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (known as a “Steering Committee”), which brings together senior representatives of the key ecosystem stakeholders (public sector, private sector and civil society) and Opportunity Youth to guide and inform the GOYN strategy in the community.

Systemic Shifts in Youth Employment

Systemic change takes time, and can be difficult to capture. In each community, GOYN is working to change mindsets by promoting more positive narratives around OY, to influence policies and practices related to OY, and to increase funding flows in support of Opportunity Youth. Some examples of early successes in this area include:

  • GOYN Barwani successfully demonstrated a one-stop solution ‘Youth Hub model’ which was adopted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. The government plans to replicate the model to 107 blocks from 2022-2023, and will potentially scale to all 52 districts by 2023-2024.
  • GOYN São Paulo produced two seminal OY reports that influenced the city’s municipality to set up a new $3 million entrepreneurship fund to train 10,000 young entrepreneurs by 2024.
  • GOYN Mombasa partnered with the largest association of building and construction artisans to map opportunities and placements for OY. The employers reported “seeing themselves” in the OY, and playing a more mentoring role towards placed OY.
GOYN Communities have raised over $4 million to support economic pathways for Opportunity Youth.

Confidence in the GOYN Approach

Since its launch in 2019, GOYN has grown by 3 communities every year . GOYN global partners and Anchor Partners have, together, mobilized a total of $22 million from new and existing funders who believe in GOYN’s innovative placed-based approach to creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for Opportunity Youth. GOYN will grow by 3 more communities in 2023, and 20+ communities by the end of 2024.

See GOYN’s Community and Global Partners here

[1] Average growth across all Opportunity Youth Outcome Indicators

“For a long time, I sat alone at home thinking ‘why does nobody think about us?’ Now I realize my story is powerful; I read the newspaper, I am networking, I talk to leaders and other young women about how to start a business, I want to be an example to others.”

– Fatma Mubarak, GOYN Mombasa Youth Advisory Board Member

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