The State of the Nigerian Youth (SONY) project is an attempt to document the experiences of Nigerian youth and project their perspectives on important national issues. The youthi.ng portal has been created as a platform for sharing information on youth research, policy and practice in Nigeria. The aim of the platform includes collating, organising, analysing and disseminating youth development research and policies in a wide range of areas related to youth, while also capturing their voices through invited contributions.
Youth, aged 15 to 29 constitute around 40 per cent of the Nigerian population. This group faces some of the most severe challenges across a diverse range of issues including: health, education, economic opportunities, limited space for political and civic engagement.
Worse still, effective planning of youth development programmes and related policies are impeded by the paucity of disaggregated, reliable and timely data at national and sub-national levels and a lack of understanding of what matters to them. More so, available data are not adequately disseminated. The situation also affects the monitoring and evaluation of youth policies, as often there is no baseline data on which to measure progress.
SONY aims to bridge this gap by providing collating and disseminating available research and providing analysis on youth development, policies and programmes in Nigeria. The work will be conducted in cooperation with data generating government institutions, non-profits and development partners.
The goal is to contribute to youth well-being, through the production and dissemination of knowledge that will facilitate effective planning and policy design that will enhance their optimal functioning and development.
Visit http://www.youthi.ng for more.