This brief presents the lessons learned by The Biz Nation during their first experience using Youth Excel's Research-to- Change approach to strengthen their online learning programs for youth in the Dominican Republic.The Biz Nation is an organization with a social approach developed to promote productive education online and provide better income generation opportunities. The organization was founded by the Carvajalino Sisters (Karen, Daniela, and Stephany) in 2018 and offers learning opportunities around diverse income-generating topics such as technology, marketing, professional development, entrepreneurship, and business.
Youth Excel is a USAID funded global program that will work with youth and youth organizations to use implementation research to strengthen local, national and global development initiatives. The Biz Nation is part of the Youth Excel consortium and supports the program activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through Youth Excel, The Biz Nation designs implementation research projects to inform decision making program advancement. As a part of its first year with the Youth Excel consortium, The Biz Nation designed and used implementation research as a tool to inform decision making for a program providing training on income-generating digital marketing skills for at-risk youth from different communities in the Dominican Republic.