The Global challenges Research Fund (GCRF) addresses the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world. Youth, Voice and Development is a research project that aims to support more effective integration of youth concerns and voices into development research and interventions, in order to enable the achievement of the SDGs. The project creates a critical space for learning about what works for responding to young people’s needs and promoting youth voices through research in Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) countries.

Phase one drew on work conducted for a Changing the Story and British Council collaboration on ‘Youth, Voice and Development’ with the purpose of mapping connections and identifying areas of synergy and mutual learning between youth-focused projects and programmes. A report containing the project findings can be found here. Phase two will build on the foundations of phase one in the context of PRAXIS, which aims to consolidate learning across GCRF projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), to amplify their impact and policy relevance, and to champion the distinctive contribution that Arts and Humanities research can make to tackling urgent development challenges.

Phase two will look more widely across the entire GCRF portfolio of projects and will focus on the three GCRF strategic challenge areas that resonate most clearly with those from phase one: conflict and peace building; education; and resilience - with an emphasis on building resilience for adolescents and young adults through sustainable livelihoods, coping strategies and political engagement. Inclusivity will be a cross-cutting theme in phase two of YVD.

The project will take participatory approach, including a survey, key informant interviews and discussions via a community of practice and online learning events.

The intended outcomes include an increased understanding of the value of youth-related research among a broad set of stakeholders that will include policy makers. Outputs will include an online report that will be grounded on quantitative data sets, qualitative evidence and case studies. An accompanying audio-visual tool such as a film or online presentation using infographics will be produced and disseminated. The Changing the Story youth board will be involved in informing and reviewing the research and outputs.

Resource Archive

Search or browse the resource archive for films, reports, toolkits and other resources produced by the Changing the Story and its commissioned projects.