The Youth Cafe is Africa’s largest convening community of professionals harnessing youth advocacy, policy, and research for social impact, with over 3,500 member organisations and over 947,000 individual members aged between 18 to 35 virtually from every country in Africa. We have a monthly digital reach of 1.4 million across our platforms and engage monthly through over 260,000 touchpoints. 

The Youth Cafe headquarters in Kenya serves as the regional office for sub-Saharan Africa (RO SSA), project implementation, coordinating sub-granting in the region, and developing new partnerships, innovative programs, and local engagement with strategic partners and young people. The office works with grassroots, national, regional, and global stakeholders.

Since the year 2012, The Youth Cafe has made significant progress in its quest to achieve its goals through several partnerships and collaborations with public and private organisations, with more than 162 projects from service contracts, consultancies, and accountable grants completed over the years. They represent all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 22 countries in Africa. 

Our strength lies in the unrivalled diversity of our team, comprising a group of highly talented, determined, and enthusiastic people who come from all backgrounds and think that genuine change is possible.

Our solution-oriented methodology aims to establish a connection between the growth we want to see among young people from historically underprivileged communities and the investment world.  We advocate for change in how young people are treated in developmental projects and work together with them to come up with solutions that address their needs in order of priority. 

Key to our ethos is the belief that investing in youth is a precondition for accelerated inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Our vision is to promote youth-led strategies for achieving transformative change, social fairness, innovative solutions, and sustainable development.  We seek to create a world based on the shared values of equality, justice, universality, inclusiveness, respect for human rights, diversity, and environmental integrity.

The Youth Cafe shares its Annual Impact Report based on the Social Return on Investment methodology.  The average Social Return on Investment ratio for The Youth Cafe is 1:12, meaning that an investment of $1 delivers a $12 value in terms of positive social impact.

Our expertise cuts across 8 sectors: sports, arts & culture, peace & security, education, skills and technology, environmental conservation & climate change, governance & political inclusion, universal health coverage and business job creation & entrepreneurship.

We have experience cutting across four major roles; advocacy, capacity development, grant administration and development action. Over the years, these areas have contributed to local,  national, regional and international development and received numerous awards for their youth empowerment and participation advocacy. We have also been featured on various global media platforms like the BBC, The Guardian and local media, including the Daily Nation, The Standard and Business Daily.

Our work centres on enriching the lives of young people by modelling and advancing youth-led and rights-based approaches to foster young people’s civic efficacy, community resilience, sustainable development, and equitable society, as well as proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress, and inspiring transformative change by utilising innovative research, policy, and advocacy actions. 

Our model includes a Theory of Change which is complemented by a set of principles, including building a more relevant, sustainable, and effective enabling environment for education and work systems for young people that recognise their rights and will; Involving young people at all levels in decision-making processes that will affect their lives; Partner with young people to build a better, more resilient world for all generations; and frame youth programs on a gender-responsive Rights-Based Approach (RBA), implying that young people are considered as ‘rights-holders. In addition, our work is underpinned by policies on Environment & climate justice and gender equality and equity. 

We are committed to championing and empowering African youth to take active leadership roles in their communities and countries. We believe that believing in and equipping youth with solid leadership foundations, business and entrepreneurial skills, civic leadership, and public management frameworks is the foundation for the change that Africa deserves.