“The Youth Cafe serves as a transformative and empowering force capable of showing ways of bringing Africa and the rest of the world closer in a win-win partnership, improving youth welfare and revitalizing communities.”
A-decade of action in 2D video! More than 2 million young people reached.
Our Portfolio of current programs
A cross section of The Youth Cafe staff at our offices.
OUR MISSION
TOWARD A YOUTH-LED AFRICA!
The Youth Café strives to enrich the lives of young people by modelling and advancing youth-led and rights-based approaches to foster young people’s civic efficacy, community resilience, sustainable development, an equitable society, as well as proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress, and inspiring transformative change by utilizing innovative research, policy, and advocacy actions.
OUR VISION
“To advance youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, gender equity, innovative solutions, community resilience, and transformative change.
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THE YOUTH CAFE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE GOALS
“The Youth Cafe strategy has 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 around the world, and to ensure their engagement and participation in the implementation, review and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as other relevant global agendas and frameworks.”
How does the youth cafe make a difference?
As a unique youth initiative
In Africa seeking to foster community resilience, propose innovative solutions, drive social progress, youth empowerment and inspire political change.
As a mobilizing force
that achieves results in partnerships with governments, international organizations, religious, United Nations, civil society groups, corporations, youth and foundations.
As a catalytic action-driven initiative
that implements and supports innovative projects on the ground.
As a global bridge builder
Bringing youth closer to youth programming by engaging member states, regional, continental and global organisations, and opportunities that address issues pertinent to African youth.
As a convener
Facilitating inclusive, accessible and empowering digital and physical spaces for youth(including marginalised youth and young women) to meaningfully engage with different institutions through supporting and promoting structured mechanisms of engagement and feedback.
As a creative amplifying laboratory
that seeks to advocate for and foster innovative, impactful and progressive policies that promote youth participation and engagement at national, regional and global levels.
“So I want to say particularly to the young people here today, Kenya is on the move. Africa is on the move. You are poised to play a bigger role in this world-as the shadows of the past are replaced by the light that you offer an increasingly interconnected world. And in the light of this new dawn have to learn to see that we are connected, our fates are bound together.
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There were 1.2 billion youth aged 15-24 years globally in 2015, accounting for one out of every six people worldwide. By 2030, the target date for the sustainable development goals, the number of youth is projected to have grown by 7 per cent, to nearly 1.3 billion. 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 in a productive economy, and they need access to a job market that can absorb them into its labour force.
Young people receive a range of conflicting and confusing messages about sexuality and gender on a daily basis. We believe that a thorough and high quality curriculum-based sexuality education programme can help all children and young people navigate these messages, and develop positive norms about themselves, about relationships and about their health as well as responsible citizenship.
Youth are an underestimated but growing force on the international stage. Almost half the world's population is under the age of 25 and nearly a quarter are aged 12 to 24. Of those aged 12-24, nearly 40% live on less than two dollars a day. Youth employment is in crisis according to the ILO, which estimates that some 75 million are out of work as of 20122. That accounts for 41% of total global unemployment, and is not likely to recover until beyond 2016.
The crucial role of young women and men in advancing intercultural dialogue and understanding is increasingly recognized within the global development agenda. Recent events in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in other regions of the world, clearly demonstrated that today’s large youth population, driven by a need for change, can shape social, economic, political and cultural life. In addition, the current economic crisis, as well as increases in migration, is changing the discourses on identity and integration.
With many competing demands for scarce funds, countries often do not fully recognize how critical young people are to their national economies, societies, and democracies – both today and in the future – and consequently make too few public investments in programmes to harness their productive resources.
They can be a creative force, a dynamic source of innovations, and they have undoubtedly, throughout history, participated, contributed, and even catalyzed important changes in political systems, power-sharing dynamics and economic opportunities.
In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 165,000,000 children under the age of 5 were stunted, 101,000,000 children under 5 were underweight (too light for their age), while 52,000,000 children under 5 suffered from wasting (too thin for their height). Faced with such figures, it is clear that ensuring enough and good quality nutrition from an early age is a priority for a healthy, productive world population.
Culture has the power to transform entire societies, strengthen local communities and forge a sense of identity and belonging for people of all ages. As a vector for youth development and civic engagement, culture plays an essential role in promoting sustainable social and economic development for future generations. Youth can act as a bridge between cultures and serve as key agents in promoting peace and intercultural understanding.
Today, grave violations are committed against children and youth in over twenty war-affected countries from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to Latin America. Girls and boys are killed, maimed, orphaned, abducted, deprived of education and health care, sexually violated and left with deep emotional and physical scars.
Youth with disabilities often face marginalization and severe social, economic, and civic disparities as compared with those without disabilities due to a range of factors from stigma to inaccessible environments. As countries look towards the post-2015 era to ensure poverty reduction and equitable development, it is essential to ensure that all youth have equal opportunities to become productive and contributing members of their society and enjoy all rights and privileges of citizenship, including youth with disabilities.