Outcome Evaluation of Latin American Youth Leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health Program

Since 2004, the Public Health Institute through its Youth Leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health Program (GOJoven) has been supporting the development of young leaders to catalyze social change to improve and expand sexual and reproductive health (SRH) choices, services, policies, and programs for youth in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Internal evaluation and monitoring have shown significant increase in leadership and adolescent SRH skills, capacity and commitment of young leaders and local organizations.

In 2011, The Summit Foundation commissioned a retrospective external evaluation of GOJoven from 2004-2011 that employs a robust mix of quantitative, qualitative, and participatory methods, including: 1) Review, integration, and analysis of internal project monitoring and evaluation data; 2) Systematic document analysis; 3) Surveys of participants and organizations; 4) Focus groups and interviews with country-level staff, and youth and organizational project teams; 5) Interviews with adolescent SRH and rights opinion leaders and bellwether organizations; 6) Elements of the “Most Significant Change” (MSC) technique, which involves the collection, discussion, and selection of “stories of change” concerning key program outcomes.

This evaluation, to be completed by June 2012, aims to: • Increase understanding of outcomes associated with GOJoven at multiple levels (individual, organizational, community, and national/regional); • Create a body of evidence that can inform the design and implementation of other multi-national SRH and rights youth leadership development programs

External evaluations are effective and useful in identifying key impacts of and promising practices from multi-year multi-country SRH youth leadership programs at the individual, organizational, community and national levels.