Youth-led data collection on the Sustainable Development Goals

A young person records data Frontline AIDS/Sydelle Willow Smith/2017

Key information

  • Organisation: Education as a Vaccine (EVA)
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Region: Western and central Africa
  • Stage of innovation: Stage 3: Pilot
  • Type of innovation: Accountability innovation: new way of holding duty bearers to account

Summary of intervention

Commitments governments have made to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an important route for advocacy. Many activists in the HIV response track progress towards the relevant SDGs as a way to hold governments to account and to push for further action. Data is essential for this work, but data relating to progress on the SDGs for young people and adolescents is often missing and young people’s voices are often excluded from SDG advocacy work.

To address this EVA, in collaboration with the Nigerian National Bureau of Statics (NBS), has built the capacity of 50 adolescents and young people from across 12 states in Nigeria to design a comprehensive data collection plan, which will be used to provide evidence on the status of the SDGs in Nigeria in relation to adolescents and young people. The training aimed to motivate adolescents and young people to take ownership of data collection on the SDGs. It has strengthened built their skills in data collection and analysis and using data to track the implementation of the SDGs. The scheme has also improved the connections between young advocates with the NBS and the Federal Ministry of Health, Education and Youth.