What is the AU-EU Youth Voices Lab Project?
The AU-EU Youth Voices Lab – Power of the Collective is that seeks to co-create a more youth-responsive and inclusive society in Africa and Europe. It began in March 2024, funded by the European Commission in collaboration with the African Union, and is implemented by a five-member consortium comprising Oxfam Intermon, Restless Development, Search for Common Ground, Youthmakers Hub, and Makesense Africa.
The programme aims to support young people aged 15–35, particularly those living in hard-to-reach communities, while also engaging civil society organisations and decision-makers from the African Union (AU), European Union (EU), national governments, and the private sector.
The programme has a continental footprint, operating across 15 countries: 14 in Africa; Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and one in Europe (Belgium), which serves as a strategic hub for engaging the African diaspora as key connectors to EU decision-makers.
The programme is delivered through two interconnected pathways. The Youth Journey strengthens the capacity of young people to influence the AU–EU partnership by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and platforms to advocate for issues affecting their communities. The Institutional Journey supports decision-makers to strengthen youth participation and develop more inclusive, youth-responsive policies and processes. These pathways are guided by a Youth Advisory Board, comprising young leaders from the programme’s intervention countries, who provide strategic advice to the consortium and help assess the programme’s relevance and impact at community level.
Key Components
- The Youth Voices Lab App, a mobile app co-created with 10,000 young people based on consultations about their priorities and needs, acts as a platform where young people and youth-led organisations can access resources, training, connect with each other and share opportunities. It gives free access to hundreds of materials in several languages.
- The Youth Voices Third-Party Funding Mechanism provides microgrants ranging from €1,000 to €10,000 to youth-led groups to support their work on advocacy, research, training, and accountability processes.
- Youth-led research, hackathons, advocacy and accountability efforts raise awareness about the issues young people are facing, the solutions they suggest, and hold duty-bearers to account, at the AU, the EU and national levels.
- Youth-led audits of institutions investigate how the voices of young people are integrated in the AU, work with AU officials on the partnership needed with young people, and promote intergenerational dialogues connecting young people across Africa and Europe.
Where Does the Restless Development Uganda Hub Fit?
The Uganda hub sits at the centre of Restless Development’s implementation of the AU-EU Youth Voices Lab, coordinating programme delivery across five country hubs, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Sierra Leone. From Kampala, the team drives the connective tissue of the programme: managing grants, hosting continental research and keeping youth voices moving from the ground to the global stage.
Restless Development Uganda Hub contributes to the programme through the following:
- Managing the continental grants portfolio and ensuring compliance across Lot 1 grantees: The Youth Voices Third-Party Funding Mechanism provides microgrants to youth-led groups from intervention countries and the youth diaspora to support local and continental advocacy through research, training and accountability mechanisms.
- Youth Power Hackathons bring young people together to collaborate and generate bold, innovative solutions to shared challenges.
- Support to youth representatives to join intergenerational and cross-continental decision-making spaces, from national forums to the African Union and European Union.
