Understanding Young People's Livelihoods: Role of Youth-Led Research

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Youth-led research has an increasingly important role to play in shaping more effective, inclusive and future-ready youth employment and livelihoods policies. As young people navigate rapidly changing labour markets shaped by digitalization, artificial intelligence and the green transition, policymakers and practitioners need timely, relevant and context-specific evidence to understand emerging opportunities, challenges and aspirations. 

This policy brief from UNICEF's Generation Unlimited and Qatar Fund for Development explores how youth-led research can strengthen the evidence base for youth livelihoods programming and policy. While young people are often engaged as research participants or “consultees”, they are less frequently recognized as researchers in their own right. Yet young researchers bring valuable lived experience, local knowledge and unique perspectives that can help identify overlooked issues, generate richer insights and ensure that evidence reflects the realities of diverse groups of young people.

The brief argues that youth-led research, when supported by appropriate skills development, mentorship, ethical safeguards and institutional backing, can complement conventional research approaches and contribute to more responsive and effective solutions. It also showcases different approaches to youth-led research and highlights the enabling conditions needed to ensure that evidence generated by young people meaningfully informs policy dialogue, programme design and decision-making. 

Ultimately, investing in youth-led research is both an investment in better evidence today and in building the capacities of a new generation of researchers, evaluators and change-makers tomorrow.