Nearly one-third of Indonesia's population consists of young people. To achieve national development goals, the demographic dividend resulted from this transition must be utilized. Investing in youth, especially in areas such as education, health, participation and leadership, employment, entrepreneurship, and gender equality, will unlock the potential of the demographic dividend.
The Indonesian Government used the Youth Development Index (YDI) in the 2020–2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) to assess the success of youth development. The YDI is still expected to support policymakers, specifically in designing youth development policies for the upcoming 2025–2029 RPJMN. The Index can be the basis for advocacy for better youth policies, programs, and directions in Indonesia’s 2025–2029 development plan. However, there are proposed improvements for the current YDI to make it more relevant in measuring the quality of youth development in the next RPJMN period.
SMERU, supported by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Ministry of National Development Planning, revisits and updates the YDI to strengthen the Index’s role in underlying policies, programs, and directions for youth-related issues in Indonesia over the next five years. To accomplish this, the research team will engage in the following activities:
- Develop the updated methodology and indicators of the Indonesia’s YDI and identify areas that need further attention to improve youth development outcomes
- Provide the latest data and interpretation of the national YDI and its linkage to the upcoming technocratic concept of the 2025–2029 RPJMN
- Exercise backcasting and forecasting of the YDI with updated indicators and methodology
- Facilitate serial meetings with key stakeholders
The study employs a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. Both methods are carried out simultaneously in each stage of the Index review.
The qualitative method includes conducting in-depth interviews, intensive and focused discussions with stakeholders and experts, and literature review. Meanwhile, the quantitative approach employs statistical tests to assess the accuracy, validity, and reliability of data. The approach also includes quantitative data processing and modeling index values using linear projection methods.
The stages of developing the Index in this research are as follows:
- Refine the definition and scope of the layers and domains that make up the IPP
- Finalize the indicators
- Determine the domain and indicator weights
- Set maximum and minimum value for each indicator
- Testing the index calculation
- Disaggregate the Index to the district/city level
After finalizing the Index calculation, we proceed with projecting YDI’s value for 2025–2029.
