Youth Employment Programs - Independent Evaluation Group

of students and interns visiting the World Bank and to interns from theOrganization of American States and the Washington Center for Internshipsand Academic Seminars. The presentations focused on encouraging youth toparticipate in discussions and share their experiences.Responses from Social Media OutreachDuring the three-month outreach campaign, IEG’s posts on the FacebookWall reached over 600,000 people, according to Facebook Insights. 2 IEG alsoreceived over 50 comments, which were synthesized into the “I, L and E”categories examined by the study. In addition, three polls garnered around750 votes. Comments came from users in Afghanistan, Canada, Colombia,Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zambia, Uganda, andthe United States.Although IEG reached out to youth groups and organizations workingwith youth, it is not possible to confirm the age or nationality of peopleresponding to the outreach efforts unless it is stated in their social mediaprofiles. However, the general demographic on IEG’s Facebook page betweenJanuary 1 and March 26, 2012 was predominantly comprised of people 18–34years old. Males were the majority. Most users came from Pakistan, Egypt,India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and the United States.The outreach methodology and tools reached only literate individuals withInternet access and those who speak English. Nevertheless, it was a usefulway to gather the opinions and experiences of youth. It also made theevaluation process more transparent and accessible and created interest inthe evaluation before completion. Overall, the responses were in line with thefinding that youth unemployment is a big issue across the world.Data gathered from social media were analyzed, triangulated with othersources of data, and incorporated into this report to illustrate the findings.Below is a summary of some of the comments received by question and topicposed on social media sites.Skills and TrainingQuestion: Do you think most youth lack the business skills and connections tobecome successful entrepreneurs?Summary of responses: Most youth have the business skills to becomesuccessful entrepreneurs but lack connections and financial empowerment. Atthe same time, more needs to be done to create better training opportunitiestargeting marketable skills for youth.IEG also conducted a poll asking whether youth lack business skills andconnections to be successful entrepreneurs. This poll generated 185 responsesof which 209 said “Yes,” and 76 said “No” (figure G.2).Appendix G: Social Media Outreach Goals, Methodology, and Results 165