The Youth Cafe in partnership with AIESEC is organizing a youth month; the largest youth-centered event in Kenya. Youth Month is an annual event organized by AIESEC in Kenya founded in 2022, where the Country Managers, members, and youths in general from all over the country meet to build new projects, network, learn new skills, ensuring we solve the problems youths in the country face. 

AIESEC is a global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential. It is a global youth-led organization striving to achieve peace and fulfillment of humankind’s potential by activating leadership qualities in youth through learning from practical experiences in challenging environments.

Made up of 9 universities, AIESEC in Kenya boasts of diversity and richness of togetherness that is still growing over the last 52 years. 

AIESEC is even more relevant today as young people in the country have the opportunity to develop themselves through cross-cultural internships and volunteer experiences across the world so they can make a positive impact on society.

The youth month will contribute to the achievement of The Youth Cafe’s strategic goals which have always been to facilitate increased impact and expanded global, regional, and country-level action to address the needs, build the agency and advance the rights of young people in all their diversity in Africa and around the world, and to ensure their engagement and participation in the implementation, review, and follow-up of Sustainable Development activities as well as other relevant national, regional and global agendas and frameworks.

Young people are at the frontlines of the struggle to build a better future for all. Therefore, it is important that they are included in decision-making and given appropriate opportunities for work and to innovate. 

Today, there are 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, accounting for 16 percent of the global population. By 2030, the target date for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that make up the 2030 Agenda, the number of youth is projected to have grown by 7 percent, to nearly 1.3 billion. 

As youth are increasingly demanding more just, equitable, and progressive opportunities and solutions in their societies, the need to address the multifaceted challenges faced by young people (such as access to education, health, employment, and gender equality) has become more pressing than ever. Youth can be a positive force for development when provided with the knowledge and opportunities they need to thrive. 

In particular, young people should acquire the education and skills needed to contribute to a productive economy; and they need access to a job market that can absorb them into the labor force. The present generation of youth has the potential to create a paradigm shift in sustainable development.

Although young people face barriers to their own development and inclusion, they are poised to help foster a community in which all persons not only youth are included and have equal opportunities. 

The youth month aims to bring youth up to date with current industry realities and trends through workshops and talks from key industry leaders. The Youth Cafe and AIESEC working together will create a wellspring of experiences where the influence of youth empowerment comes alive. 

The Youth Month will be conducted in July 2022 where we will be driving conversations and opportunities to and for the youth. The event will be conducted on 9 campuses including the University of Nairobi, Strathmore University, Moi University, Catholic University Of Eastern Africa, Daystar University, Chuka University, and United States International University, etc, and is designed such that every campus will have the event run for a week and in one month all the 9 campuses will have experienced the event. 

As youth are our biggest talent pool, the desire to create a creative youth-centered platform was inspired; right there at the largest youth event in Kenya in 2022. Imagine if 50% of all the youth who experience youth month have this experience?

Many will portend that the challenges facing the youth need solutions of scale, increased investment, innovative solutions, and long-term strategy. The challenge with this view ignores how big a problem access and awareness of current solutions amongst the youth is. 

How then can we drive awareness and access? The youth month will be an accelerator for university-going students to access programs, platforms, and initiatives designed to contribute to solving some of the major challenges facing young people including mental health issues, substance abuse, reproductive health, empowerment opportunities, unemployment, climate change, burnout, financial intelligence, lack of affordable housing, lack of skills for the job market among others. 

Most of the current programs, platforms, and initiatives need more visibility to achieve impact hence, Youth Month. Moreover, it will be an experience where life-changing insight and information will be shared with the youth. Enabling them to gain a key understanding of how to position themselves for the opportunities being made available by Global Trends. 

The impacted challenges will include empowerment opportunities, unemployment, financial intelligence, burnout, lack of skills for the job market, and high cost of living.

There is a need to concentrate on developing young people’s talents and engage them in innovative practices for reasonable economic advancement. Talent does not cut off innovativeness but instead improves it and the young have a considerable measure of vitality that can be put to great utilization. 

Young people of Africa are dynamic, forward-looking, and best positioned to find innovative solutions to local challenges through the use of science and technology. Empowering talent development and innovation ought to be enhanced. Furthermore, they are deeply embedded within their fabric. 

Their knowledge, reach and innovative solutions are essential if sustainable development is to be realized. When young people are empowered with the knowledge of their rights and equipped with leadership skills, they can drive change in their communities and countries.

In this regard, the event will focus on 5 key areas including talent; the youth will be given an opportunity to discover, participate and be mentored on talents, work; the youth will be mentored on various methods of upskilling and ways to access work opportunities and the future of work-centered dialogs, innovation; young people will be mentored on creating the largest innovation experience in Kenya for Youth by driving understanding and live innovation experiences, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); will involve engaging youth in the largest discourse about the SDG's by youth in Kenya, and leadership; will involve shaping youth to understand the power of their voice as leaders of today. 

The event will therefore be centered around creating a physical experience where university students across the 9 universities will be able to showcase their talents, network, and learn from the workshops covering topics on the future of work, self-employment, and financial literacy.

To successfully conduct the youth month, we strategize to expose more university students to youth empowerment and mentorship programs for them to leverage and create themselves opportunities, ensuring they step up and play their roles as key agents of social change, economic growth, and technological exploration. Furthermore,  we will raise awareness of the value of volunteering and financial literacy. 

Volunteerism is an opportunity for youth to work through real challenges and make meaningful change as well as inspire a sense of citizenship and helps youth find pathways to meaningful education and work. These transformative experiences encourage them to confront moral dilemmas, investigate solutions, and employ innovative thinking. 

On the other hand, financial literacy focuses on comprehension of how various financial systems work. Access to financial and social assets is a key contributing factor to helping youth make their own economic decisions and escape poverty. Providing young people with financial services and education promotes entrepreneurship and emphasizes sustainable livelihoods.

Youth month provides an opportunity to empower, raise awareness and achieve great impact with the number of youth reached in the 9 campuses and foster community resilience, propose innovative solutions and drive social progress and invest in the youth.

The event will amplify The Youth Cafe’s work on education, skills, and technology; business, job creation, and entrepreneurship,  where we work to create opportunities for young people to develop employability skills and competencies including numeracy and literacy, soft skills, and critical thinking, communication skills, digital/media literacy skills, and adaptability to take on future challenges and opportunities in society while increasing their adaptability in the era of the fourth industrial revolution and access to high-quality job opportunities as well as create a business incubation program and a start-up capital to support the young people who have great business ideas but lack the financial means to kick off their businesses while providing training/mentorship opportunities for young people to leverage and create self-employment and job opportunities for other young people.

The Youth Café works with young men and women around Africa as a trailblazer in advancing youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, social equity, innovative solutions, community resilience, and transformative change.