Latest News And Updates
OGP Global Summits historically provide an opportunity for representatives of government, civil society, and others to exchange experiences, best practices, and progress on open government initiatives and implementation. This will be the 8th OGP Global Summit; previous Summits have been held in the Republic of Korea (2021), Canada (2019), Georgia (2018), France (2016), Mexico (2015), United Kingdom (2013), and Brazil (2012).
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 has seen an extraordinary period of growth, learning, and innovation, particularly in the critical areas of anti-corruption and good governance. Since our finding, we have witnessed a growing recognition of the pivotal role that youth play in driving accountability, transparency, and governance reforms across Africa. Amid ongoing challenges such as economic instability, the global shift towards digital activism and the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kenyan youth have been disconnected and disengaged with political processes and electoral participation, and this has caused widespread apathy among young voters. Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC is collaborating with youth serving organizations (YSO’s) to provide young people with a forum to fully and effectively deal with issues important to them during the electioneering period. The Youth Café is part of the Youth Coordinating Committee (YCC) working with the IEBC to drive voter education and enhance the voters registration drive.
The Kenyan youth have been largely excluded from meaningful political participation in the past. Hence, leading up to the 2022 general elections, The Youth Café and partners are collaboratively writing Regional/County Youth Manifestos that will eventually feed into a National Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 (KYM 2022) to outline the views of the nation's youth and demand to be given equal chance and supported to actively participate in the forthcoming general elections.
International Republican Institute, The Youth Café and partners are working on a project aimed to enhance the skills of Kenyan youth to gain influence within the political establishment and to serve in civic and political leadership roles. To accomplish this, the project will hold a series of capacity-building training to increase the technical skills of Kenyan youth to successfully participate in the party primaries and contest in the elections.
The Youth Café recently made and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding agreement with GiveDirectly Inc., thereby forming a partnership between the two organizations. The purpose of this partnership is to contribute to enhanced economic empowerment within identified locations of Nairobi and ultimate eradication of poverty which in turn will positively impact the lives of the beneficiaries and communities. This program focuses on the disbursement of emergency grants (cash grants) by GiveDirectly to people mainly living in informal settlements in Kenya in which The Youth Café currently works. As a result of this partnership, thousands of youths have been able to benefit from this program where they each received a disbursement of $30 for 4 months.
The continued lack of transparency and accountability by the Ministry of Health and other government agencies charged with managing public resources during this crisis has led to reported cases of embezzlement of commodities including donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and misappropriation of public funds meant to procure PPEs and support social protection programmes.
