Case Studies

Case studies will be a key part of the Companion Guide and feature in all three parts of the Guide. They will be used to illustrate a certain issue/ application of a tool kit for the reader by sharing a ‘real’ example of a situation.

As we put together our case studies we will be sharing some of our original research, and the final case studies, on this site.

See this link for some initial Case Study Examples 28-12-08 (2)

See this link for a case study on children in Sierra Leone who are not in formal education.

See this link for a case study on youth parliaments.

See this link for a case study on young people as leaders.

Generating Case Studies

We’ve put together a process for collecting case studies for donors and Civil Society Organisations who would like to  showcase their work in the Guide. You will find more details below.

Style of the Case Studies

These should be specific situations, where a challenge or problem arose and a successful solution in the form of a response or initiative was put in place. As such they should be ‘action’ oriented – with the presentation of the response to a situation or context. It should not simply be a description of a way of doing things.

They should be interesting and make people want to read them – short, snappy titles, stats to break up narrative and they should be ‘real’ with ample pictures, quotes, names of people and places involved etc. Wherever possible the scale of positive impact should be enphasisied.

Types of Case Studies

Case studies will vary in size and structure depending on what it is being used for. Generally there will be 2 types of case study. Illustrative case studies will be shorter and provide a snapshot picture of a situation (primarily to be used in Part 1 and collected by the SPW Youth Team). The second type of case studies will be more detailed, longer and provide further information on how a particular situation was managed i.e. focusing on how an initiative was conducted (primarily to be collected for Part 2 through SPW and other organisations).

Channels for collecting Case Studies

Case studies for the Companion Guide will be collected in the following ways:

• Through the country level Youth Participation Officers (who will be researching relevant literature & SPW Archives and Experiences)
• Through other Organisations Archives and Experiences (predominately for Part 2 detailed case studies)

Length and structure of case studies

Illustrative case studies will be between 200 – 250 words and have the following structure:

• Title: 8 – 12 words
• Description of the situation and context – relating to the country and particular situation being addressed – est. 50 words
• Description of the initiative/response put in place – highlight the role played by young people – est. 75 words
• Analysis of the outcomes of the initiative/response – using quotes will add impact to this section – est. 75words
• Organisation where the case study was generated and/or the person spoken to – 3 – 5 words

Detailed case studies should be between 500 – 750 words and have the following structure:

• Title – 8 – 12 words
• Description of the situation and context – relating to the country and particular situation being addressed – est. 125 words
• Description of the response/initiative put in place – highlight the role played by young people – est. 100 words
• Analysis of the success and outcomes of the initiative – using quotes will add impact to this section – est. 150 words
• Analysis of the challenges of the initiative – est. 100 words
• Description of the learning points generated from implementing this initiative – est. 100 words
• Organisation where the case study was generated and/or the person spoken to – 3 – 5 words

Collecting case studies

1. The Project Manager for the Companion Guide will discuss with you regarding the subject area for the detailed case study.
2. The Project Manager or a member of the Youth Team will then direct you to the case study template, which you can download here Template for detailed case studies 30-12-08 (2).
3. The template will then be used to assist you with gathering the data for the case study – it should be typed and emailed back to the Youth Team with any supporting documents.
4. The Youth Team will then shape the template information for the Guide. They may the contact you to check that it represents what was initially recorded during the information gathering.

Key Tips

• Make the case study ‘real’ – use quotes from people involved, name the people involved, name the area (village, region etc)

• Gather more information than you need (both primary and secondary) it will be easier to reduce words when editing than to increase words at this stage

• Gather and send any supporting materials for the case study – this will help when checking facts at a later stage

• Statistics and quotes will be useful to emphasise the impact of the initiative