The MTN Foundation, in partnership with Trialogue, launched the MTN Awards for Social Change in 2019, to encourage and reward good monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practice in the non-profit sector. A total of R1 million prize money was awarded to winning non-profit organisations (NPOs) in each of the three categories, as well as a fourth bonus award winner.
gold Youth Development Agency was the winner in the medium NPO category (R300 000 prize)
The gold Youth Peer Education Model was established in 2004 to train peer mentors, in order to improve school results and social behaviour among grade nine to 12 learners in 21 disenfranchised schools in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. The programme also aims to create internships, employment and income-generating opportunities for youth from the disenfranchised communities in which the programme is run. In the last financial year, gold Youth Development Agency, which has an annual turnover of R8.9 million, spent R8.5 million on the programme.
Peer educator training sessions are hosted weekly for 1 164 participants, community upliftment projects aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals are run in the 21 partner schools, 315 work shadow experiences for peer educators and alumni are facilitated, and one ‘emerging market engagement’ workshop is hosted per province, annually.
Peer education methodology, delivering quality education under difficult circumstances and HIV-prevention were researched in great depth, the learnings of which informed the programme design, curriculum and programme indicators. The design of the model draws on global best practice and is constantly refined with evidence-based learnings from 153 communities in southern Africa. All gold stakeholders, including interns, peer educators, programme graduates, social franchisees, youth from target communities and government representatives are engaged in curriculum revisions.
M&E findings are shared with all team and board members using the balanced scorecard approach. Quarterly reviews measure progress against indicators and all programme activity targets are assessed. Findings are used to inform programme and strategic refinement. M&E findings are also shared with external stakeholders, including directors of social franchisees, and decisions are taken to improve the programme as needed. Evaluation findings are shared with all stakeholders, including funding partners.
Judges’ feedback
“The gold model uses peer education and mentoring to effect change. The programme is well designed, informed by academic research and was piloted before extended rollout. gold Youth has well-established M&E practices. M&E evidence is continuously used to assess the needs of communities and has been used to scale the operations of the organisation. It is also used to hold the organisation accountable to its stakeholders.”
