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1. Political Commitment to Evidence-Based Youth Policy

2. Cooperation between policy-making and research

3. National Statistics and available data sources

4. Budgetary Allocations supporting research in the youth field

Political Commitment to Evidence-Based Youth Policy

Although there is no exact equivalent of the notion of “evidence-based youth policies” in French, experimentation and scientific assessment of public policies and the empirical evidence-based approach both exist and have been increasingly developed in France since the 1980s, in particular in the field of youth policies.

Experimentation is regarded as a new tool for public action, necessary if we are to transform it and make it more effective, and assess the impact of various youth schemes before universalising them. Created in 2008, the Youth Experimentation Fund (Fonds d’Expérimentation pour la Jeunesse – FEJ) is intended to finance experimental programmes aiming to foster “pupils’ academic success, contribute to equality of opportunities and improve lasting social and professional integration of young people under twenty-five years of age”.

Youth policies are also analysed and assessed by the National Institute for Youth and Non-Formal Education (Institut national de la jeunesse et de l’éducation populaire – INJEP), which is an observatory and resource and expertise centre whose mission is to “contribute to improvement of knowledge in these fields by production of statistic and analyses, observation, experimentation and assessment”.

Cooperation between policy-making and research

INJEP – National Institute for Youth and Non-Formal Education

Cooperation between research and the public authorities finds concrete form in the action of the INJEP – National Institute for Youth and Non-Formal Education, under the aegis of the Director of the DJEPVA, which “draws up analyses via the carrying out of research, studies and assessments, and produces statistical data, in collaboration with the SSP_ Public Statistical Department, in the fields of youth, non-formal education, community life and sport”.

FEJ – Youth Experimentation Fund

Cooperation between research and policy-making also found concrete expression in 2009 with setup of the FEJ – Youth Experimentation Fund ( Fonds d’Expérimentation pour la Jeunesse), to finance “innovative actions in favour of youth, implemented at a limited level and assessed”.

The Article 25 of  the law n° 2008-1249  of december 2008  is at the origin of the FEJ which seeks to support experimental youth schemes. Experiments consist of limited implementation of an action or scheme to be tested out before it is mainstreamed.  The FEJ aims to finance experimental programs aimed at promoting the academic success of students, contribute to equal opportunities and to improve sustainable social and professional integration for young people under the age of 25.
 

n total, between 2018 and 2020 (last data available), 40 projects were funded and supported by the fund, of which ten new experimentations that should produce observation results in 2024.

The FEJ is overseen by a Management Committee that sets major guidelines and general themes, and is chaired by the minister of Education and Sports. Its secretariat and animation is provided by the INJEP which also prepares and selects calls for projects and coordinates the regional and national animation of the selected experimentations.

The FEJ works through the launch of national calls for projects reserved for associations, public or private structures proposing "an innovative action or to contribute to reform existing systems to make them more effective".These actions are then evaluated by expert structures in qualitative and quantitative evaluation: university laboratories, research centers or even evaluation firms. The evaluation is funded by the FEJ.

Assessment plays a major role in the social experiment initiative promoted by the FEJ. It is carried out by an independent external body and may be 100% financed by the FEJ. Assessment of experimental schemes must enable decisions to be taken on their effectiveness (in other words, their ability to achieve goals), and therefore on whether or not to mainstream them.

The FEJ’s main focuses include :

• school dropout,
• professional integration,
• accommodation,
• healthcare,
• local and international mobility,
• civic commitment ( most experiments bear on youth commitment),
• discrimination.

Among these projects, the experimental  Regional platforms for European and international mobility (“Plateformes régionales de mobilité européenne et internationale”) were extended in 2015-2016 to the whole of France following a call for projects launched by the Ministry responsible for the youth via the FEJ : the FEJ has funded 17 experiments bearing on international youth mobility. Implementation and assessment of these projects on mobility provided a good deal of useful knowledge in such areas as governance and accompaniment of young people, and they have consequently been extended to a number of regions.

In 2023, the EYF launched two call for projects on boy-girl equality awareness campaign in extracurricular time, and on the guidance for young people participating in a national universal service (service national universel – SNU).

National Statistics and available data sources

The French State has a  SSP – Public Statistical Department (Service Statistique Public) that regularly produces data as a basis for drafting public policies. It develops indicators enabling assessments of French society and its population’s demographic, economic, social and environmental situations. The key text as far as public statistics are concerned is Law no.51-711 of 7 June 1951.

The Public Statistical Department is made up of the INSEE – National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, and others SSMs – Ministerial Statistical Departments.

INSEE  (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies)

INSEE is one of the ministry responsible for of the economy’s General Departments; it is tasked with collecting, analysing and disseminating information on French society across the country, and carrying out annual surveys.

INSEE has no specific youth division, but, through its focuses on such themes as work, school education and higher education, and surveys carried out in certain areas by its regional departments, it collects information on young people’s living conditions. Such is the case with its Portraits of Youth (“Portraits de Jeunesse”) , which are statistical studies (regular reports) bearing on young people’s social conditions in given regions.

SSM – Ministerial Statistical Department

Each ministry also has its own SSM – Ministerial Statistical Department, which may produce data on ministry policies as seen by young people. Data collected on youth bears essentially on education, school dropout, employment, accommodation, health and student mobility.

In addition, since 2016, the DJEPVA and INJEP, in partnership with the Research Centre for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (Centre de Recherche pour l'Étude et l'Observation des Conditions de Vie – CREDOC), have carried out an annual survey, the Youth Barometer (Baromètre Jeunesse), among over 4 000 young people between 18 and 30 years of age living in France, to obtain qualitative information on youth.

Within the Ministry of Education and Youth, the "Surveys, Data and Statistical Studies" mission (MEDES) is responsible for producing and disseminating public statistics on youth, popular education, associative life and sport.  (See Evaluation and monitoring of public policies).

To this list should be added other public institutions that produce and disseminate data on youth: the Caisse Nationale d'Allocations Familiales (CNAF), the statistics office of the Observatoire de la Politique de la Ville and the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Qualifications (CEREQ), which collaborates regularly with the Institut National de la Jeunesse et de l'Education Populaire (INJEP). 

The data collected on youth mainly concern education, school dropouts, employment, housing, health and student mobility..

Budgetary Allocations supporting research in the youth field

It is difficult to estimate total sums allocated to research on youth, as the research budget also finances such bodies as higher education institutions, as the CNRS – National Centre for Scientific Research, the ANR – National Research whose areas of study do not necessarily include youth.

According to the 2022 financial programme "Youth and associative life" of the 2022 finance law, the public means allocated to the INJEP and to the Fonds d'expérimentation pour la Jeunesse for the production of data and the realisation of studies aiming at "enlightening public decision making through the production of data, the realisation of studies and the conduct of rigorously evaluated experiments, amount to 1 million euros.

Source :  Programme 163  « Jeunesse et vie associative ». loi de finances 2022,