programme priorities, several considered skills development and a few considered access to finance, social services and social protection. A considerable share of the CPDs (42 percent) also addressed the issues of youth in poverty, informality, violent extremism and migration in their situational analysis but also in some programme priorities. Youth in climate change was also mainstreamed in some CPDs, in the form of support to green jobs for youth, or natural resource management and biodiversity consideration to improve youth well-being. Surprisingly, none of the regional programme documents137 and sampled CPDs referred to the UNDP or United Nations youth strategies. Youth mainstreaming at the programming level has been facilitated by the UNDP “Youth-GPS”.138 It has provided direct technical and policy advisory services and financially supported some catalytic and strategic interventions at country level (for example, the formulation of proposals under the Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative, funded by the Peacebuilding Fund), while advancing regional priorities on youth. Overall, UNDP had a unique advantage in promoting youth empowerment and has leveraged its strengths and drawn on its multidisciplinary approach to position itself globally in this area. Youth mainstreaming has yet to be fully integrated across regional and country strategic documents. Youth are still essentially included as part of a broader category of vulnerable groups.
4.2 INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS Finding 13. Staff and resources. UNDP has set up a dedicated institutional architecture to support youth empowerment. The effectiveness of the structure is affected by the lack of dedicated human resources for economic empowerment in the youth portfolio to facilitate cross-fertilization, the limited institutionalization of the youth focal points at country level, the “upon request” nature of support provided by the regional structure and the absence of clear financial mechanisms in support of the global youth team. A global youth team was created in 2014 and is located within the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support governance team at headquarters. Since its creation, the global youth team has remained small in size, composed of one staff member and Junior Professional Officers funded by Member States (one in 2016-2017 and in 2019 and two in 2020-2021). In terms of functions, the youth team’s role has become increasingly central and strategic. It has an internal corporate role in providing policy and programme support139 as well as technical guidance. It also supports the coordination of youth issues with headquarters and regional colleagues to integrate these issues in all thematic areas. It is important to note that the UNDP youth strategy did not establish a responsibility matrix across thematic clusters, nor has one been developed since. The reporting line of the global youth team remains at the level of the governance cluster.140 The coordination and youth mainstreaming were affected by the absence of dedicated focal points141 and expertise on youth across thematic clusters. The youth team also provides support in partnership-building and resource mobilization efforts and develops and maintains global knowledge management platforms and communications.142 It under-
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Draft regional programme documents for Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and Latin America and the Caribbean (2018-2021), submitted to the Executive Board in 2017. The Youth-GPS focuses on three priority areas in alignment with the UNDP Strategic Plans, specifically: (i) enhanced civic engagement and participation of youth in decision-making and political processes and institutions; (ii) increased economic empowerment of youth; and (iii) strengthened engagement of youth in resilience- and peacebuilding. In 2021, the team established a GPN roster of 160 vetted youth specialists who may be rapidly deployed to support country offices. The global youth team is however part of the Bureau’s expanded management meeting. It includes the lack of human resources with dedicated focus on economic empowerment as part of the youth portfolio. This include SparkBlue, Yammer and The Loop, a recently launched newsletter on UNDP youth empowerment.
CHAPTER 4. ASSESSMENT OF THE UNDP STRATEGIC APPROACH AND INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
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