Commonwealth Youth Development Index

14 Commonwealth Youth Development Index: National and Regional Toolkit
Analysing the status of youth in-country against the objectives in
the National Youth Policy is a priority of the Indian government.
In particular, the YDI was to be ‘youth centred’, with the many
different groups of youth across the country being acknowledged.
Following consultation with youth and relevant stakeholders
across the country, five domains were selected as the most
important to measure: Health, Education, Work, Amenities and
Participation. Participation information was only available in
some of the regions, so two indexes were created: one based on
four domains and all areas and one on five domains with limited
areas included. Separate indicators were also created based on
gender, to highlight the often-large gap between the sexes in the
different domains and states.
By highlighting the difference in performance of the states and
the attributes of those states, it is hoped that policy-makers and
programme planners can focus their attention and resources on
the areas most in need.
Malaysian Youth Index
In putting together the Malaysian Youth Index (MYI), the
Malaysian government took the lead with the objective ‘to monitor
and determine the status of youth well-being so as to be in tandem
with the overall national development’. Experts in economics,
psychology, sociology, media and communications, and human
development assisted in identifying local relevant issues.
Data collection was done using sample surveys of 15–40 year olds
across the country. The MYI included 36 indicators over eight
domains, which were designed to monitor the implementation
of the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment
(PAYE). Health, identity, self-potential, media penetration,
leisure time, deviant behaviour, self-development and social
relationships were the domains deemed most important to youth
development in Malaysia.
The results of the MYI showed the different levels of performance
across the domains, e.g. that the youth surveyed performed very
well in the health domain, but had a lot of room for improvement
in leisure time – allowing policy resources to be targeted at the
lower-scoring domains.
Brazil Youth Index
UNESCO Brasilia Office has been studying youth in Brazil since
1997 and has had a focus on many youth development topics