The Youth Cafés Principles

The Youth Café Principles have been developed by over 1,500 of our members drawn from the East- and the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Sahel Regions coordinated by The Youth Café Secretariat. The principles are a call to action for governments, civil society, private and public sector, bilateral and multilateral and knowledge institutions to invest in the prospects of young people and to work in partnership with young people.

These principles call upon organizations to recognize and invest in an inclusive manner and specifically in the opportunities for youth people- recognizing the unique challenges they face and ensuring that no youth is left behind.

These youth-led Principles constitute the voice of young people and mark The Youth Café virtual consultations, which focuses on the prospects of young people in Africa, in cooperation with international partners.

Principle 1

Build a more relevant, sustainable, and effective enabling environment for education and work systems for young people, that recognize their rights and will.

  1. Prioritize inclusive access to education as a means of and to social justice, enabling the participation of young people in society and the exercising of their rights.

  2. Ensure education systems respond to changing job markets and demand, providing young people with the key skills that will ensure their employability such as soft skills, critical thinking, and adaptability.

  3. Invest in and create inclusive access to digital tools and learning systems that will support the education and skills development of young people, ensuring that they will not get further left behind by advancements in technologies.

  4. The private sector and governments should take responsibility for the creation of decent work for young people by creating opportunities such as; paid traineeships and mentoring, and access to finance for all young entrepreneurs.

Principle 2

Involve young people at all levels in decision-making processes that will affect their lives.

  1. Partner with young people as leaders and experts at all stages of policymaking, including the follow-up and review of policy implementation to ensure accountability.

  2. Create inclusive platforms and shared safe spaces (both digital and physical) for young people to inform policies and programs that impact their lives.

  3. Address structural and legal barriers, and negative perceptions of young people that prevent the participation of young people in decision-making processes, ensuring opportunities to engage young people are widely accessible and adapted to their specific needs. 

  4. Support youth-led programs that are working to promote and ensure more accountable, responsive, and inclusive governance at local and national levels.

Principle 3

Partner with young people to build a better, more resilient world for all generations.

  1. Ensure young people’s knowledge and insight informs youth development efforts at all levels.

  2. Partner with and trust young people to participate and lead interventions and development efforts, providing adequate resourcing and support to strengthen their capacities and the impact of their work.

  3. Invest in youth-led initiatives that are at the forefront of responding to community challenges and particularly those organisations that provide support to the most marginalised and vulnerable youth.

Principle 4

Frame youth programs on a gender-responsive Rights-Based Approach (RBA), implying that young people are considered as ‘rights-holders’.

  1. Young people have legal entitlements, and government institutions are not mere service providers but duty-bearers, who are under an obligation to deliver on young people’s human rights. 

  2. Development cooperation should contribute to the development of the capacities of ‘rights-holders’ to claim their rights and ‘duty-bearers’ to meet their obligations. Programs and projects, therefore, need to assess the capacities of rights-holders and duty-bearers and develop the appropriate strategies to build these capacities. At the heart of the RBA is the recognition that unequal power relations and social exclusion deny young people their human rights and often keep them in poverty. 

  3. The approach puts a strong emphasis on marginalized, disadvantaged, and excluded groups (such as women, children, persons living with disabilities, minorities, or indigenous people).

  4. Actions and programs respect the principles of dignity and non-discrimination, the rule of law, and good governance, and should take into account the participation, buy-in, and accountability to local populations, especially youth and women. 

  5. The projects are rooted in gender equality. Gender equality and women’s empowerment must be addressed through concrete, tangible, and measurable elements. All projects contribute to the implementation of relevant African instruments.