Adolescent and Youth Policy - The Experiences of Colombia, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua

This report describes the social, economic, and political context surrounding policy formulation in Colombia, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua as well as the key social actors involved. Also illustrated are the processes by which selected youth policies were developed and lessons learned, as derived through a process analysis and an examination of resulting policy frameworks, laws, policies, and infrastructures. This study has been guided by four objectives with a general aim to present regional trends and patterns in youth policy formulation and implementation: - To encourage the conceptualization of a new framework for promoting adolescent and youth health and development throughout the Latin America and Caribbean Region. - To better understand the application of legislation, public policy and national plans on behalf of adolescents and youth so that the lessons learned in one country may lend guidance to other countries undergoing similar processes. - To support evidence-based advocacy that utilizes information derived from empirical and evaluative findings to target a broad set of social actors at the local, national and regional levels. - To assess and make recommendations for process improvements in the organization, management and evaluation of comprehensive policies and programs promoting adolescents and youth. This work was not intended as an academic exercise but as a participatory assessment, based on available information and with the participation of local partners. It aims to contribute founded information to encourage more informed decision-making in the social processes of policy formulation and implementation on behalf of youth. This often means that the processes of policy research, such as data collection and analysis, consensus building, formulation of recommendations and problem solving are just as important as the outputs themselves, which include recommendations, models or tools for policy formulation and implementation and policy documents.