The Youth Cafe was honored to partner and speak in the Pan African Youth Assembly; a digital event objectified to bring youth to the decision table to help co-create key regional policies that enable and accelerate innovation across Africa on the 9th and 10th of June 2022. 

The Pan African Youth Assembly is part of Project Jollof, a transformational initiative that helps young people unleash their power through co-creation, community, capacity building, and peer learning to increase community and youth leaders' participation in policy-making processes by strengthening knowledge, understanding, and civic engagement.   

“Africa could take a generation to recover - H.E. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda.

The assembly was organized by I4Policy, which supports public policy co-creation at scale. The Foundation has developed a new ontology of policy-making, pioneering new technologies for collective decision-making.

The Foundation has facilitated policy reform processes to accelerate entrepreneurship in more than a dozen countries across Africa.

Our team has trained government and ecosystem leaders in more than 20 countries and supported a movement of more than 220 innovation hubs in 48 African countries to co-create an authentic and inclusive vision for digital transformation.  

Some of the Pan African Youth Assembly partners include Meta, The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Atlas For Development, Consortium Jeunesse Sénégal (CJS), The Youth Cafe(TYC) provided their overwhelming support towards achieving its transformational initiative in increasing community and youth leaders' participation in policy-making processes by strengthening knowledge, understanding and civic engagement. 

This Assembly is in line with The Youth Cafe’s work on governance and political inclusion (accountability), intending to increase advocacy for political stability and effective management to ensure there is a transparent, democratic, and accountable environment by; creating an enabling environment for active participation and meaningful engagement of the young people and encourage the exercising of their civic rights and responsibilities in the society to ensure transparency and accountability; increasing partnership with young people as leaders and experts at all stages of policy-making, including the follow-up and review of policy implementation to ensure accountability.

Most recently, The Youth Cafe has worked to develop the Kenya Youth Manifesto, which is a mandate from young people to political leaders and political parties, elucidating the various challenges in social, economic, and political pillars that are key to the Kenyan young people and providing valuable insights into the priorities, vision, interventions, actionable recommendations, and youth roles as directly articulated by the youth.

It is a model that should guide political parties toward fulfilling elective promises and governance, offering progressive leadership that takes Kenya into its future.

The mission of the Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 is to amplify the voices of young people as active and influential stakeholders in the civic, democratic, and economic spaces in Kenya, which envisage making Kenya the best country to be in as a young person by bolstering a youth-centric, resilient, sustainable, and inclusive development.

The Pan African Youth Assembly included; a digital platform to enable Youth to connect, learn and co-create, in addition to an advocacy platform to share initiatives, innovative models, and good practices; keynote talks to get inspired, and thematic discussions to interact with experts and leaders; peer workshops to engage in activities to learn and develop practical skills; a consultation platform, engaging youth African across the Continent on a policy paper; a policy paper to support Youth Advocacy; a youth label-friendly, in partnership with Consortium Jeunesse Senegal.

The first day of the event was focused on youth engagements from different parts of the continent, with various keynote speakers highlighting their work on advocacy and innovative models and good practices that they have undertaken in their respective countries regarding youth civic engagement in decision-making. Mr. Hatim El Otmani, the founder of Atlas for Development, led the first session on the capacity for action. 

He highlighted the different approaches that have been undertaken in Morocco concerning young people’s engagement in decision-making.

His work has been focused on how we can push young people to be part of the decision-making process via multiple programs, including the 2063 Academy, and how we can bridge the generational and trust gap between young people and seniors by implementing and leading intergenerational dialogue, and also the volunteering service a vital component for learning and acquiring soft and hard skills.

The second day’s discussion was started by Aniya Hamilton, a master's student at The Paris Institute of Political Studies, who talked about digital transformation. She highlighted that most of the youth within the African continent is not a part of policy-making that directly impacts them.

They do not have opportunities in policy-making, leading to a lack of confidence and accountability. She also mentioned that improving the current digital landscape in Africa will increase trust in political systems, economic growth, and enhanced safety and security, among others.

Actions of governments and private sectors in relation to digital privacy and the digital economy were mentioned. 

The Youth Cafe’s Executive Director spoke on the second day about the Kenya National Youth Manifesto. He highlighted that The Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 had been prepared for and by the youth of Kenya.  It seeks to place Kenyan youth issues prominently on the national development agenda in Kenya. The manifesto reflects the views, aspirations, and perspectives of young people in Kenya.

It is drawn from national and international instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights (to which Kenya is a signatory and which affirms that all human beings are entitled to social rights), the chapter on the Bill of Rights in the Kenyan Constitution of 2010 (which provides for the enjoyment of economic and social rights under Article 43 1 (a-f) on six sectors), the East African Community Youth Policy, the African Youth Charter, and the World Programme of Action for Youth, as well as on guidelines, tools,  standards, and research developed by non-governmental organizations and academic institutions.

“The Kenya Youth Manifesto is divided into two (2) parts. Part I - Introduction provides some background information on the Manifesto, including its purpose and the processes used in developing it. Part II - Call to Action highlights key thematic issues under three broad pillars; Economic, Social, and Political.  Economic matters directly impact the ability of youth to generate and benefit from income-generating streams.

Social problems include those obstacles currently preventing societies from working optimally. Political issues illuminate the common barriers to youth involvement in politics. The content of each pillar moves from examining and identifying key challenges in each pillar to providing recommendations and homegrown solutions. “-Willice Onyango, Executive Directo, The Youth Cafe.

The actions recommended in the Kenya Youth Manifesto are directed toward specific stakeholders in youth development, including government, civil society, the private sector, United Nations agencies, donors, the international community, and young people, among others.

Thus, all stakeholders need to recognize that investing in youth calls for cooperation, institutional support, and sustaining youth-serving relationships across society and the different spheres of governance.

The youth taking part in the Assembly also made several recommendations on youth engagement, one of which was an investment in youth-led activities and programs. The Entrepreneurship Policy Toolkit (EPT) was launched, and a micro workshop was conducted.

The Entrepreneurship Policy Toolkit (EPT) is meant to serve as a learning resource meant to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in diverse nations and encourage young people to be aware of the toolkit and young policymakers to be involved in this learning resource to help policymakers.

Rising energy costs and food bills mean many young people cannot afford to pay for their membership. But as a partly member-subscription-funded youth organization, we rely on the support of those who can manage it. Please consider showing your support for positive youth development today, so we can reach and engage with the youth and marginalized populations in our different programming.

This means thousands more young people across Africa can access opportunities through innovation and become inspired to take meaningful action. And act as a heartfelt reminder of the continental’s potential.

Unlike many organizations in resource-rich countries, The Youth Cafe is pan-African,  youth-led, youth-serving, and has no shareholders. Just the determination and passion for implementing a broad range of cutting-edge positive youth development programs that utilize innovative research, policy, and advocacy actions and deliver high-impact global reporting. 

Work like this is critical to harnessing today’s youth bulge as an opportunity for development and economic growth,  vital for democracy and fairness, and to demand better from the powerful.

We’re proud to have more than 11,000 supporters in 72 countries. Will you join them? Every contribution, big or small, powers our youth programs in tight economic times and sustains our future. Support The Youth Cafe for as little as $1. Consider monthly contributions. Thank you.

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Our motivation is to see every young person and African youth organization benefit from The Youth Café towards a sustainable, entrepreneurial, and innovative future by connecting them to new ideas, skills, and people.