How innovation in education can support youth for a better future.

Today is International Youth Day 2024, and the theme this year, ‘From Clicks to Progress’, highlights how digitalisation is transforming our world, offering unprecedented opportunities to accelerate sustainable development.

Digital technologies such as mobile devices, services, and artificial intelligence are instrumental in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Data generated from digital interactions supports evidence-based decision-making. With profound impact across economic, social and environmental dimensions, digital technologies and data contribute to at least 70% of the 169 SDG targets, while potentially reducing the cost of achieving these goals by up to $55 trillion.

There are 1.2 billion young people, aged 15 to 24, living across the world today. Young people form a disproportionate majority in many of the countries in which GIF invests - and they can be a crucial force for development when provided with the conditions, knowledge and opportunities they need to thrive.

Young people are leading the charge in digital adoption and innovation, with three-quarters of those aged 15 to 24 using the internet in 2022, a rate higher than other age groups. However, disparities persist, particularly in low-income countries and among young women, who often have less access to the internet and digital skills compared to their male counterparts. While there is an urgent need to enhance digital inclusion, youth are largely recognised as “digital natives,” using technology to drive change and create solutions. As the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaches, the role of young people in digital innovation is essential for addressing global issues.

Training youth to pursue opportunities for social change

Since our launch in 2015, GIF has funded numerous innovations working to provide support and opportunities for young people across the developing world, ranging from innovative digital technologies to entrepreneurial training programmes. 

One of GIF’s earliest investees, Educate!, partners with young people, schools, and governments in sub-Saharan Africa to deliver entrepreneurship training, mentorship programmes, and business clubs that help to equip young people with the necessary skills to succeed in today’s economy.

Youth unemployment remains a significant challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, where young people are twice as likely to be unemployed as any other age group. Educate!’s innovation is based upon the abundance of evidence showing strong associations between soft skills and employment outcomes, particularly for young girls who may face additional discriminatory barriers in employment, as well as internal barriers relating to gender-based aspirations and beliefs about leadership.

Educate!’s innovation is a gender-blind leadership and social entrepreneurship programme delivered in the last two years of secondary school by practically-trained youth mentors. It teaches leadership and entrepreneurship to encourage young people to innovatively pursue opportunities for social change, as well as to creatively address social needs.

With the help of a total of $600k from GIF, Educate! expanded their innovation to an additional 250 schools across Uganda. A GIF-funded RCT showed that, four years after the programme, Educate! graduates had gained soft skills such as creativity, grit, stress-management, and self-efficacy, and were more likely to complete high school.

Adaptive learning software helping young people learn more effectively

Educational Initiatives pioneered Mindspark, a digital adaptive learning tool proven to drastically improve maths and language scores.

In India, an overwhelming proportion of young people cannot read at their age-appropriate level, despite primary enrolment rates of over 95%. Personalised teaching can help students catch up, but it is challenging for teachers to tailor learning to each individual child since class sizes are often large.

EI’s Mindspark software delivers personalised instructions to students in a regular classroom setting. It benchmarks the learning level of each student and customises material to help each student progress. It can be deployed through computers, tablets, and smartphones, and is functional both online and offline. 

Evaluations found students using Mindspark saw a two-fold improvement in Mathematics, and a 2.5 fold improvement in language learning. GIF’s 2017 grant was crucial in helping EI to integrate Mindspark into government schools in the northern Indian province of Rajasthan. 

EI highlights the impact that can be achieved through youth digital connectivity.