A more youth-responsive and inclusive society across Africa and Europe.
AU-EU Youth Voices Lab – Power of the Collective is a four-year EU co-funded initiative, part of the AU-EU Youth Lab, implemented by a consortium of five partners with youth-led and youth-informed expertise: Oxfam, Restless Development, Search for Common Ground, Youthmakers Hub, and ComDev Africa. The initiative works at continental level across all 54 African countries and 5 African regions, with in-person activities in 15 Intervention Countries, 14 in Africa, including Kenya, Tunisia, Senegal and Ghana, and 1 in Europe, Belgium, where it engages the African Diaspora as key connectors.
The change we want
An inclusive society where young people have real skills to advocate for their concerns, and institutions that are equally equipped to listen and respond. Youth Voices Lab supports that shift by building stronger intergenerational partnerships, so that youth voices and institutional decision-making move forward together rather than on separate tracks.
How we are making it happen
The initiative develops activities along two interlinked pathways: the Youth Journey, which equips young people with skills to advocate for their concerns at local, regional and continental levels, and the Institutional Journey, which works in parallel with institutions and decision-makers to integrate youth concerns into more inclusive governance.
We are connecting young people through the AU-EU Youth Voices Lab App, a mobile app co-created with 10,000 young people based on consultations about their priorities and needs, and the Youth Voices Third-Party-Funding Mechanism, which provides microgrants to local youth-led groups to strengthen their advocacy, research, capacity building and action plans. We also run youth advocacy training, the Youth Power Hackathon, and support for youth representatives to take part in influential decision-making spaces.
Human rights, gender justice, diversity and inclusion, care, well-being and safeguarding, and power-shifting run across all these actions.
Who we work with
Change is only lasting when young people and institutions build it together. Youth Voices Lab works closely with its five implementing partners and with decision-makers, institutions and stakeholders across Africa and Europe, especially the African Diaspora in Belgium. As part of the AU-EU Youth Lab, the project operates in synergy with the AU-EU Youth Action Lab, building on the strength of past EU-AU initiatives to deepen its overall impact.
