Final evaluation of YouthSave Initiative

The YouthSave initiative was a five-year youth savings and financial education programme aimed at 12 to 18-year-olds in Canada, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Nepal. It was implemented by a consortium of four partner organisations (Save the Children, CGAP, New America and the Centre for Social Development and Washington University in St Louis) through partnerships with commercial banks and research institutions in each country.

YouthSave had a substantial research, learning and advocacy agenda that was intended to inform youth-based savings products and policies in and beyond its target countries.YouthSave was one of the first long-term programmes that had been funded by the foundation.

Genesis was contracted by the MasterCard Foundation to conduct a final evaluation of the YouthSave initiative. The purpose of the evaluation was to document the achievements of the initiative, highlight the lessons learnt during the programme so as to further contribute to the youth savings evidence base, and inform the MasterCard Foundation's approach to the funding and programming of long-term, multi-country programmes and partnerships.

The research methods included a review and synopsis of key documentation, participating in the YouthSave Learning and Exchange Conference in Toronto in March 2015, interviews with 97 stakeholders and focus-group discussions with young people in each of the four countries.

The evaluation questions were analysed and reported according to five thematic areas which had been identified by the consortium as priority learning areas. While the evaluation captured the achievements of YouthSave, it provided insight into the design and implementation of large, complex programmes by a consortium of partners that had informed the foundation's funding and programming strategy.

During the evaluation the team also revisited YouthSave's “theory of influence”. This is the creation of knowledge and information to achieve broader systemic impact for youth. It also identified the need for the programme's learning agenda to be taken further and to be disseminated at a country level. Since the evaluation, the YouthSave partners have achieved a high level of dissemination and held dialogue workshops in each of the project countries.