The Youth Café (TYC) is a trailblazer in youth empowerment in Kenya, utilizing Participatory Budgeting (PB) to drive accountability, transparency, and good governance. Through its innovative PB approach, TYC has successfully mobilized over 76,000 young people across 12 counties, empowering them to take part in crucial budgetary decisions. With a staggering $3 million USD allocated through this process, TYC has set a new standard for how public resources can be managed effectively and ethically when young people are at the helm. This initiative not only empowers youth to influence public resource allocation but also transforms them into vigilant custodians of government accountability, ensuring public funds are directed toward community-driven solutions.
The Youth Cafe Speaks At International Republican Institute's Participatory Budgeting Workshop
The participatory budgeting workshop on 20th July 2020 was organized by International Republican Institute (IRI) and hosted by People Powered organization. IRI is a non-partisan and non-profit organization based in Washington DC focusing on increasing freedom and participation in policy development. The organization came up with the Generation Democracy network which covers more than 70 countries in helping them understand government and political systems. The mission of People Powered is to expand people’s power to make government decisions, by supporting organizations and governments that are building participatory democracy around the world.
How Can We bridge The Inequality Gap? Lessons From Ford Foundation's New Strategy For Eastern Africa | The Youth Cafe
The Youth Café, upon invitation, had the opportunity to attend the Ford Foundation Strategy launch, held on 30th January 2020 at Radisson Blu Hotel, Nairobi-Kenya. The theme of the event was, bridging the inequality gap. This event saw convergence of several partners spanning from representatives of civil society and private sector, to government representatives, in order to discuss the widely growing inequality in the society, with a keen focus on the young people. Corruption was explicitly mentioned as a major reason for inequality.