The youth, peace and security (YPS) agenda is prime for a bold step to move forward. It requires a change in mindset of how we think of impact and how we quantify that impact. Measuring the right impacts changes the narrative and puts power where it matters—in the hands of young people locally, something critical in understanding the role of young people in preventing violence and sustaining peace.
Assessment should be based on the needs and priorities of recipients of assistance rather than just the understandings of what outside actors and experts believe is necessary. Assessing local youth-led peacebuilding interventions provides the necessary evidence to shape better policies that impact everyday people’s lives.
WHAT IS SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Social Return on Investment (SROI) can be an incredibly powerful way to understand the value (social, economic, and environmental value) created by different kinds of locally rooted impacts young peacebuilders are shaping in their communities. SROI is an approach to measuring and understanding the past or future impacts of an intervention experienced by a community and other key stakeholders including the funders and policy makers.
The SROI results can provide answers to a very important question asked by decision makers: “What is the long-term value from these services?”
The SROI measures change in ways that are relevant to the people or organizations that experience or contribute to it.
It tells the story of how change is being created by measuring social, environmental, and economic outcomes and uses monetary values to represent them. SROI is about value, rather than money. Money is simply a common unit and as such is a useful and widely accepted way of conveying value. And therefore, SROI is a story about change, on which to base decisions, that includes case studies and qualitative, quantitative and financial information.
Currently, there are no standard indicators, standard methodologies, or cost-effective tools young people or the international community can use to understand and measure youth-led individual or collective efforts to prevent violence. The SROI approach has the potential of influencing the YPS field writ-large. But the SROI methodology has not been tested within the broader YPS space. This is one of the leading reasons for proposing a proof of concept approach.
The overall spirit and intent of the SROI in #Youth4Peace strategy is to secure broadscale buy-in of the approach and methodology among key #youth4peace stakeholders. This global strategy will unfold in three phases:
- Phase 1: Proof of Concept: We are currently at this stage and have selected to create a proof of concept by assessing the impact of youth-led peacebuilding efforts in Kenya.
- Phase 2: Pilot Proof of Concept: Once proof of concept has been completed, processes reviewed and validated by stakeholders, we propose to pilot the approach and methodology in up to 3-5 additional countries in approximately 12-16 months.
- Phase 3: Scaling: Once proof of concept has been piloted in 3-5 countries and processes validated and key lessons learnt documented, we will adopt those lessons toward scaling the SROI approach in up to 30 countries. These 30 countries could align with those countries adopting and implementing national youth, peace and security strategies ensuring the SROI strengthens national strategy implementation efforts.
Phase 1: SROI in #Youth4Peace in Kenya
In Kenya we plan to develop a proof of concept to assess the social value created by youth-led peace and security efforts using the SROI model. The proposed SROI for #Youth4Peace analysis will help quantify the effect of youth-led peacebuilding-oriented efforts on: (1) their peers – young people, (2) their communities, (3) various state & local institutions, (4) the private sector and (5) other stakeholders the youth groups and others deem are appropriate. Funded by USAID, Search for Common Ground in partnership with University of Southern California, NORC at the University of Chicago are leading a coalition of partners, including the National Youth Council of Kenya, to develop a proof of concept in the country.
Specific objectives:
- Develop an overall approach to SROI (building upon existing internationally-recognized methodology for SROI) for youth-led peace and security interventions with tailored guidance that can be accessible and replicable by a variety of stakeholders in conflict settings.
- Develop and test a youth-supported range of inputs, outputs and outcomes which have the greatest effect on peace that are more solution focused than problem focused.
- Quantify the social return on investment associated with different youth-led peacebuilding programs by comparing costs with benefits, which may include but not be limited to direct and indirect costs of peace compared to mitigation costs of violence reduction.
- Quantify the social return on investment of interventions to youth, their communities, State Institutions and the private sector at a national level.
This project aims to provide evidence for policymakers, donors, international NGOs, and youth themselves who make broader decisions about funding and programming, and to provide empirically based evidence of the impact young peacebuilders have on their communities and themselves.
Are you in Kenya and Want to be Involved?
Please click here to complete our project mapping survey so that we can make sure your youth-led projects implemented in the past 5 years can be included.
APPROACH AND METHODS
PROPOSED DELIVERABLES
- Desk Review for the shortlisted projects
- A SROI Model for each intervention that also includes: (a) Theory of Change diagram for each intervention up to five in total and (b) Preliminary Impact Map for each intervention
- A SROI model and report for collective impact based on multiple projects in each County, if multiple projects are selected by the stakeholders.
Deliverables will be submitted to the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse and made available for the public.
TIMELINE
The project is scheduled to be completed by June 2022.
PARTNERS SUPPORTING THIS STRATEGY
Search for Common Ground has convened the following organizations to consider collaborating and collectively advise and shape the strategy. They include; African Union Youth Peace & Security Division, Alliance for Peacebuilding, Commonwealth Secretariat, Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network, National Youth Council of Kenya, The World Bank, United Network of Young Peacebuilders and the US Agency for International Development. This group will serve as part of an Expert Advisory Group to support the Lead Research Team.
PROJECT MANAGERS
Saji Prelis, Co-Chair, Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security & Director, Children & Youth Programs, Search for Common Ground. Mr. Prelis has over twenty years’ experience working with youth movements and youth focused organizations in conflict and transition environments in over 35 countries throughout the world. In 2010 he co-founded and has been co-chairing the first UN-CSO-Donor working group (Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security) that helped successfully advocate for the historic UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (in 2015) Res 2419 (in 2018) and Resolution 2535 (July 2020). Prior to joining SFCG, Mr. Prelis was the founding director of the Peacebuilding & Development Institute at American University in Washington, DC. Over eleven years at the university resulted in him co-developing over 100 training curricula exploring the nexus of peace building with development. Mr. Prelis received the distinguished Luxembourg Peace Prize for his Outstanding Achievements in Peace Support. Mr. Prelis obtained his Master’s Degree in International Peace & Conflict Resolution with a Concentration in International Law from American University in Washington, DC. Mr. Prelis will serve as the overall project manager and subject matter expert on youth, peace and security.
Adrienne Lemmon, is the Director of Institutional Learning at Search for Common Ground, overseeing the quality of global design, monitoring, evaluation, research and reflection within the organization. Her work in M&E supports peacebuilding teams to reflect and share lessons learned about the ways they impact conflict and realize institutional and normative change to build cohesion. A sociologist by training, she’s worked with in-country staff to tailor research methods to fit complex contexts while maintaining the rigor necessary for reflective practice. Adrienne’s doctoral research focuses on post-conflict reconstruction and political participation in Burundi. She is skilled in both qualitative and quantitative methods, with experience in conflict assessment, media research, and research on marginalized groups (including children, female heads of households, ex-combatants, and prisoners). Ms. Lemmon will provide specialized technical assistance with methodology, indicator shaping as it relates to youth and peacebuilding.
Judy Kimano, Kenya and Swahili Coast Director, Search for Common Ground. Judy Kimano is a peacebuilding specialist with 16 years of progressive experience with multi sectoral programs with specialization in public policy development, advocacy, and youth. She has specialized expertise in the design and quality assurance of conflict prevention and peace building programs; working with communities and States to enhance healthy citizen participation for improved governance and stability. Experience in mainstreaming of crosscutting themes including youth and human rights. She has led conflict transformation efforts along the Swahili Coast- Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique working with non-state partners, State partners and development agencies to build societal infrastructure for enabling lasting peace. Judy is with Search for Common Ground based in Kenya. Ms. Kimano will provide country level support including do no harm and peacebuilding expertise and represent Search at all public events inclusive of Theory of Change workshops, validation and final results showcase events in Kenya.
Shubha Kumar, directs education and operations at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH), the Master of Public Health Online Program, and is Associate Professor at the University of Southern California. She is one of the first scholars worldwide to specialize in SROI Analysis, a framework that can be used to measure and improve social impact, and she frequently consults and speaks on this subject. She also designed the first online training on SROI Analysis and is a board member of Social Value United States. Dr. Kumar’s previous experience includes working as a chief operating officer to launch and direct an international humanitarian NGO focused on emergency and humanitarian response and she has also consulted to various domestic and international private and public agencies in the areas of strategic planning, monitoring & evaluation, capacity building & training, and health systems strengthening. Her professional experience and research focus on strategic planning, management, and evaluation. She possesses an educational background in healthcare management and years of practice and innovation in social impact industries, including healthcare, higher education, and international development. Dr. Kumar will lead the SROI evaluations and development of all project outputs.
Sara Olsen, MBA, MSW (CEO & Founder SVT Group). The idea that one day it would be possible to assess the social value created or destroyed by any investment was the impetus for Sara Olsen to found SVT Group, the first firm specialized in impact management, in 2001. SVT is a “best for the world” certified B Corporation that designs and implements systems to measure, manage and communicate social and ecological impact, and to use them to identify direct streams of previously hidden value for client organizations. SVT systems have assessed the social and environmental value of over $9.4B across a variety of asset categories for clients including Yo Yo Ma, the Global Fund for Women, and CalPERS’ Environmental Investment Advisor. Ms. Olsen’s career began as a high school teacher and then social entrepreneur in afterschool programs in disinvested, primarily African American communities in the Mississippi Delta and Chicago, where she also obtained a master’s degree in clinical social work with a focus on children. Recognized twice as one of America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs by Bloomberg Businessweek, Sara has directly trained over 7000 individuals in impact management skills; is director and methodology co-chair for Social Value International (SVI), “the professional home for people working to change the way society accounts for value”; and is founding board member of Social Value United States. She has served as SVI’s delegate to the Impact Management Project and as a moderator of the Harvard Business Review’s Idealab on Managing Impact. While obtaining her MBA at UC Berkeley, Sara co-founded the Global Social Venture Competition, which from 1999-2019 helped spark and accelerate thousands of social ventures worldwide. Ms. Olsen will co-lead the SROI evaluations and development of all project outputs.
CONTACT
Interested in joining this partnership to learn and co-create/ Join us. Please contact Saji Prelis: [email protected]
