Without having up-to-date and reliable community level data on the life and wellbeing of young people locally, it is impossible to develop an effective youth policy that would meet the actual needs and wishes of young people. But what can be done when such data is lacking?
Jaime Nadal, UNFPA Representative to Ukraine
Today is the International Youth Day. And this is a great opportunity to talk once again about how to get young people in Ukraine to thrive and to realize their full potential. Why is this important? Almost every third Ukrainian is a young person. They are already shaping the future of the country. Youth is the key resource for the development of any city or community. And that is why it is important for every local government to create favourable conditions for the life and development of young people in the community.
We are pleased to note that more and more Ukrainian communities are aware of this and seek to develop their own youth programs. Decentralization makes it even easier, as local budgets have increased and communities are now more independent in decision-making. As they say, just do it!
But how to make sure that this or that youth program is really effective, useful and addresses the issues that the young people are really concerned about? Communities often face a systemic problem - a lack of reliable data on which to build what we call youth evidence-based policies, which are based on the up-to-date and complete data on the composition of young community members and their current needs and wishes. Large cities, such as Lviv or Mykolayiv and Vinnytsia, conduct their own sociological surveys, but they also do not provide a comprehensive picture of the wellbeing of young people locally: they are often fragmented and not focused on young people. Therefore, it becomes problematic to single out useful outcomes for youth policies from them. In addition, any such survey cannot be completely objective, as we still do not understand the general composition of the youth population in each individual community, and therefore we cannot generate a completely representative sample for sociological surveys.
Such a gap could be filled by a population census, but it has not been conducted in Ukraine since 2001. Since then, demographic statistics have inevitably accumulated many errors, the composition of cities and communities could have changed significantly and this must be taken into account. The Unified State Demographic Register and other sources of administrative data are not yet ready as sources of information for the census. The use of anonymous administrative data from electronic registers for population statistics is quite possible and promising, but this requires improvement and updating of the methodology of their formation, collection and processing. We hope that by 2030, Ukraine will go all the way, and then, both conducting the census and obtaining the data at the community level will be much easier. Currently, the United Nations Population Fund continues to recommend the Ukrainian authorities to conduct a nationwide census based on traditional personal surveys using modern data collection and processing technology, as this is the only opportunity for politicians and officials to obtain information directly from people about how they live. In particular, from young people.
And while the need for data remains, UNFPA together with the M.V. Ptukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine developed an easy-to-use online tool for determining the Youth Wellbeing Index (YWBI), which allows not only to comprehensively assess the status and characteristics of youth wellbeing in a city, but also to establish a dialogue between the authorities and young people. In other words, by participating in the YWBI determination surveys, young people become actively involved in the development of their home communities. And this is one of the main advantages of the YWBI.
Another distinct feature of the methodology is that the YWBI is a composite indicator: it combines the data obtained directly from youth surveys with municipal statistics, namely with 17 different indicators, such as the number of university or school students, the composition of population by age categories, the number of politically involved young people, unemployment rate and others. With this methodology, we get the most objective, focused perspective of young people’s wellbeing locally - a database that municipalities have lacked so far.
Our online platform automatically determines the general YWBI for the city, as well as sub-indices by seven important aspects of youth life and wellbeing: education, health, economic opportunities, participation in political life, participation in public life, information and communication technology, security and safety. Then, the municipalities have to do their part. They process the YWBI data and further use them as a guide for developing effective youth policies, where young people really need them. In the future, quarterly or annual determination of the YWBI will help to objectively monitor the implementation of these policies and measure real changes in the lives of young city residents. The use of a standardized YWBI determination methodology also enables objective analytical comparisons of the situation in different cities.
Any city or community with a population of more than 20,000 can use the developed methodology and online platform free of charge for conducting surveys on the youth wellbeing in the city, as well as for their own surveys on any topic relevant for the city. To do so, they simply need to contact us, UNFPA Ukraine.
Currently, the YWBI is determined in 10 cities of Ukraine, and about ten more cities are to join the initiative by the end of the year. The YWBI is currently used in Kremenchuk, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Mariupol, Melitopol, Kherson, Dnipro, Ternopil, Lutsk and Odesa.
Kremenchuk was the first city to determine the YWBI using our methodology back in 2017, therefore we can already see how the tool helps municipalities set the stage for young people to thrive. That’s how it was. As a result of YWBI determination in 2019, it became clear that Kremenchuk youth considered Security and Safety the most problematic aspect of their wellbeing – the corresponding indicator was 0.3 (the worst value is 0, the best – 1).
After receiving disappointing results, the city authorities together with youth organizations took part in the All-Ukrainian Public Budget of Poltava Oblast with the Safe City project. The Project was the winner in the competition and the city received 13 million hryvnias for Project implementation. The Safe City project envisages a set of activities aimed at installing the video surveillance cameras in the streets, at problematic intersections of city roads, at the city’s entry and exit points, at roundabouts and in crowded public places. A Situation Center has also been established in the city. It receives the data from installed video cameras. The situations, events and incidents taking place in Kremenchuk can be followed online. Through the use of the video surveillance system in the city, the full video recording and registration of events taking place is carried out, the information is transmitted to the Situation Center, where the decisions are made on the appropriate response. If necessary, there is interaction with law enforcement agencies, emergency staff or doctors. This helps to reduce the number of emergencies, offenses, deaths and injuries, as well as to increase the level of crime detection. Currently, the implementation of this project is ongoing and video surveillance cameras are being installed in secondary education facilities.
Already in 2021, we saw that the city’s security and safety sub-index has had positive dynamics. This means that both the objective indicators of the city’s security based on municipal statistics and the perception of safety by Kremenchuk’s youth have improved. And this is another advantage of the YWBI - the opportunity to monitor the indicators in time series in order to understand where policy change is working, and where - there is room for improvement.
The benefits of the YWBI were also appreciated in Lviv, where youth policy received a significant boost in 2018, when the city won the status of “youth capital” of Ukraine. And the following year, the city began to determine the Youth Well-being Index.
IT is high, security is low. How did the YWBI help improve the youth policy in Lviv?
Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv
We have a very cool youth crowd in Lviv. Every year more and more young people want to come to Lviv, and we strive to make the city fit for them. That is why we have recently intensified the youth policy in the city.
It started in 2018, when Lviv became the “youth capital” of Ukraine. At the same time, we established ‘Molodvizh’, a center for non-formal education for young people. But we lacked the data on which to effectively base our future policies. Therefore, in 2019, we joined the Youth Well-being Index.
Through the YWBI, we obtained quality analytical information, and now it is easier for us to plan for tomorrow. And in the context of youth, this is extremely important, because young people are the driver that keeps the ancient city of Lviv alive. If young people feel they can thrive, prosper and realize their dreams and aspirations here, then Lviv will have a future.
We regularly conduct surveys in Lviv and determine the index of happiness of Lviv residents. But it was the YWBI that allowed us to immerse in the youth environment. 400 people took part in the survey. The results were both satisfying and at the same time surprising.
Lviv is a recognized IT hub, so it is not surprising that the ‘Information and Communication Technology’ indicator was 0.97.
Education is 0.72. Although the universities are quite autonomous, the municipality also contributes to the efforts aimed to make young scientists stay in Lviv and work for the good of the city and join our cool crowd. To do so, we award a monthly scholarship to 10-20 talented scientists.
However, the indicator of youth participation in political life was lower than the other indicators, namely 0.54. Personally, I was surprised by the result, although I guess I know the reasons for that: unfortunately, today, young people cannot find the politicians that could flame them up. And even if young people go into politics, they still have a bit old-school way of thinking.
However, after obtaining the YWBI results, the city began discussions on each of the sub-indices, and special attention was paid to the low engagement into political life. It was important for us to analyze in detail and understand why this indicator turned out to be the lowest, what was the reason for such answers of young Lviv residents and what can be done to address it.
We understand that this is not a one-off thing that can be offered. So we started working systemically. We established Youth Centers, such as Molodvizh, in each district. At the same time when we analyzed the situation in more detail, we realized that such Centers should be established in each residential area.
To date, we have 20 such Centers that work almost around the clock. Those are libraries that we have replenished and turned into media and communication centers. This is a great resource that young people can use for their own development. We are launching them only now, because the pandemic forced us to postpone it.
Our goal for the future is very simple: to have 40 cool Media Centers and to have 40 cool Youth Centers. I think that would significantly raise the level of public participation and political activity of the Lviv youth.
We will soon see whether our policy is effective, as from now on, we plan to determine the YWBI annually. We would like to use the platform for even more in-depth research, and the methodology allows us to do so.
However, it should be kept in mind that young people cherish freedom and independence and want their voices to be heard and their opinions valued. Young people will be active when they create something together. Therefore, our main objective is to make young people the participants in effective processes, positive change. And the YWBI provides an opportunity for that.
I was also puzzled by our security and safety indicator, which was 0.56. We still need to find out the root causes of the fact that young people do not feel as safe in Lviv as we would like them to. We plan to hold several focus groups in order to take a deep dive in the issue. After all, Lviv is a fairly safe city. But there may be some things that go unnoticed. And it is important for us to find them.
We managed to engage local businesses into measuring the YWBI too. Here’s how it works: local companies can place their promo codes on the platform that is used for surveys. So every young citizen who takes part in the survey gets discounts for goods and services.
12 companies have already placed their promocodes on the YWBI platform. This includes both local Lviv businesses and national brands. As a partner of the YWBI project in Lviv, every business opens new markets and attracts young clients as well as creates an image of a socially responsible business. A pleasant “side effect” of a cooperation like this lies in engaging more youth in their home town development! It’s a win-win situation.
Traditional sociological surveys often cannot give us the answers we need. Instead, the YWBI allowed us to understand exactly what the young people in Lviv are concerned about. We will continue to use the YWBI to improve our youth policies, because we want Lviv to become the center of youth life in Ukraine and a reference for youth policies Worldwide.
