A Children-Youth Development Index (CYDI): a Tool for Assessing the Effectiveness of Youth-Oriented Policies in Africa

Ousmane FAYE, Laboratoire D'analyse Economique Et Monétaire (larem), Université C. A. Diop (UCAD), Dakar
Ibrahima Diallo, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar
Gilena G. Andrade, UNICEF-WCARO
Waly Sene, UNFPA-WCARO

The strong pledge of African leaders to harness the Demographic Dividend (DD) has triggered the necessity of constructing a children-youth index that highlights the countries’ progress towards achieving this commitment. This index will seek through time to follow and monitor how well development policies incorporate the way children and young people gain access to education, health, nutrition, employment and other opportunities. This paper develops a realistic tool that could help measure and monitor children and youth development in West and Central Africa (WCAR) in a sufficiently plausible and consistent manner. Thus, the index we propose encompasses areas and variables that better reflect the concerns of young people in Africa. Indeed, an indicator of children and youth development that is comprehensive, comparable, African in scope and timely is much needed for monitoring the progress towards reaping the DD benefices.