The Challenge
Africa's youth have not been spared by the COVID-19 pandemic
African governments are having to deal with the critical issues of disrupted education systems, reduced access to essential goods and services, increased poverty, food insecurity, and exposure to violence, abuse, and exploitation. They are also having to deal with vaccine access, uptake, and distribution in the context of weaknesses in health systems exposed by the pandemic. But these governments are yet to address growing concerns about authoritarianism and the mismanagement of COVID-19 funds and the allocation of resources meant for interventions in health, education, and infrastructural development. Corruption, represented in the lack of transparency and accountability during the pandemic, is affecting inclusive and sustainable recovery for youth and other marginalised groups.
Young people, who constitute about 65% of Africa’s population, have exhibited a high appetite for leading the way in continental pandemic recovery efforts. Many young people have exemplified themselves as active agents in the fight against COVID-19 by volunteering as frontliners in essential services, while others are constantly innovating to meet the emerging demands for essential products. The challenge for all is to embolden young people to escalate their contributions to the African recovery agenda by spearheading a network of local catalytic solutions, supported by regional advocacy and policy influencing. There should therefore be no recovery efforts on the continent without the youth.
MISSION
Youth Take Lead in COVID-19 Recovery
YOTA (Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa) and Restless Development have launched the Africa Youth Partnership for an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic through which we are engaging, supporting and empowering young people to put their ideas into action and play a leading role in the recovery. Through this work, we are engendering increased attention to and investment in addressing the critical issues of social and economic inequality that have been escalated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As duty bearers and stakeholders at local, national and continental levels act decisively in response to young people’s voices and engagement, the African recovery agenda becomes more inclusive and equitable.
Thanks to funding from the Ford Foundation, we are escalating youth action for an equitable recovery across Africa, with a focus on ten pilot countries in 2022, namely Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In these countries, we are pursuing a three-prong mission, as follows:
a. Improve the capacities and skills of youth-led organisations and young innovators to develop and implement policy accountability frameworks and offer solutions, enabling them to better connect, collaborate and self-organise towards evidence-based advocacy for an equitable pandemic response and recovery on the continent;
b. Support youth-led organisations and young innovators to produce collective reviews and evidence of the performance of national and regional COVID-19 recovery programmes and to offer their own solutions; and
c. Amplify youth voices in policy spaces to influence national and regional policies, programmes and budgets in favour of more equitable and inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
STRATEGY
As we work to achieve our mission, we are cognizant of the fact that no one strategy or set of activities will succeed. We know that the pandemic itself is changing course, sometimes with new variants and therefore new challenges for duty bearers. As the pandemic evolves, so will our strategy. Therefore, no aspect of our work is cast in stone – we are continuously reviewing the partnership programme strategy to ensure that we are able to provide the most useful support that young leaders need in order to take up their rightful place in the recovery agenda of their countries and of regional bodies.
Over the course of 2022,
our strategy includes:
- Establishing Youth Task Teams to spearhead youth-led accountability:
We are creating 10 national task teams drawing on broader youth constituencies to formulate youth-inclusive COVID-19 policy actions and lead multi-stakeholder engagements. With training, coaching, technical and financial support, these task teams are conducting youth-effectiveness analyses and exploring accountability gaps in socio-economic recovery efforts.
- Curating online platforms to promote youth innovation:
We are hosting hack-a-thons and supporting teams of youth to deploy the human-centered design to create 100 innovative solutions in education, health, vaccine equity, etc. by the end of 2022. The youth innovators are receiving a mix of expert advice, networking, tools and other opportunities to make their solutions thrive. The best ideas from each pilot country also receive start-up funding.
- Creating the African Youth Panel to spearhead regional advocacy:
Constituted from among the national youth task teams, the panel spearheads youth engagement by creating campaigns at the continental level to draw attention to young people’s need for vaccination as a pathway towards economic opportunity and budget advocacy for improved allocations to the youth cause. Regional action plans focus on trade, resilience, education, among others, and target the AU, Africa CDC, AfCFTA, AfDB, ECOWAS, SADC, EAC, etc.
- Supporting engagement of Africa’s youth in global recovery processes:
Throughout 2022, we are facilitating the Africa Youth Panel’s participation (virtually and/or in-person) in key international and regional platforms and convenings, including speaking roles and hosting side events at AU, AfCFTA and AfDB, HLPF, Youth Connekt, GenU, to amplify youth voices.
PARTNERS
The Africa Youth Partnership for an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic
is funded by the Ford Foundation and implemented by Restless Development and
YOTA – Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa.
The Ford Foundation is an independent, non-profit grant-making organisation. For more than 85 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. As a foundation dedicated to protecting and advancing human welfare, it is working to address the evolving impacts of COVID-19 around the world and to promote an equitable recovery.READ MORE
Restless Development is a global agency for youth-led development, with a vision for 2030 to enable young people to demand and deliver a just and sustainable world for all. At Restless, we know that young people want to have a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect them, to have access to resources and the skills to pursue a decent sustainable living, to have full control over and access to information on their sexual rights, and to be recognised as leaders in preventing and solving the world’s challenges. These four goals, demanded by young people globally, are enshrined in Restless Development’s global organisational strategy. READ MORE
YOTA is an ECOSOC-accredited NGO that works with partners towards a just and sustainable world where every young person has an equal opportunity to succeed. For almost two decades, the organisation has worked to empower Africa’s youth to escape poverty and transform their lives. In line with its Agenda for Youth Transformation, YOTA adopts a people-centred approach to youth transformation that involves increasing youth capabilities to better position them for work and participation in society, expanding opportunities to help youth apply and strengthen those capabilities, and enabling youth to leverage the support of institutions. READ MORE
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