We bring together the expertise of specialists from various sectors of youth development support (Democracy. Human Rights and Governance; Education, Research and Social Services; Economic Growth; Health and Well-being; Agriculture, and Environmental Sustainability; Talent Development and Innovation parliaments, etc.) on joint programs in which we apply our in-house methods for creating youth engagement and behavioural changes. The Youth Cafe and its members’ programmes focus on West, East, North, Central, and Southern Africa. The Youth Cafe is currently implementing the following select projects. Get in touch with us for more information.
The Global Democracy Coalition (GDC) Forum 2025 African Regional Dialogue, led by The Youth Café in collaboration with regional GDC partners, will convene a diverse group of democracy advocates, civil society leaders, policymakers, and youth representatives. Set for March 28, 2025, , celebrating the intersection of democracy, environmental justice, and human rights. This unique timing amplifies the event's focus on the critical intersection between democratic resilience and environmental stewardship, rooted in Africa’s pressing socio-political and ecological challenges.
The African Union-European Union Innovation Platform (henceforth: AEIP or Platform) builds a network of African and European stakeholders strengthening links between innovation ecosystems in an inclusive and collaborative manner, ensuring equal benefits (as per the CONNECT destination of the Horizon Europe 2023-2024 Work Programme). The AEIP will be driven by the members of the consortium, many of whom collaborated successfully before on the Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership, an EU-funded initiative that paved the way for the AU-EU Innovation Agenda.
The "Voices United" project aims to address the systemic marginalization of rural youth and women-led civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kajiado County, Kenya. By providing tailored digital advocacy training, networking opportunities, and leadership development, the project seeks to empower 1,000 youth and young women, helping them to actively contribute to governance and policy processes.
The project delivers a large-scale social media campaign alongside focused schools engagement in four countries, reaching more than 50,000,000 direct beneficiaries. The target countries are diverse, but they have a common need to strengthen resistance to risky, irregular migration. Many young people grow up in environments that encourage them to invest in offers from smugglers and traffickers.
The Digital Media Literacy and Youth Civic Reasoning in Kenya project empowers youth to combat misinformation, particularly during elections. By equipping young people with skills in fact-checking, online safety, and social media verification, the project promotes informed civic engagement and strengthens democracy. Key to the initiative is our Youth Media Literacy Handbook, supported by dynamic workshops, grassroots training, and community forums.
The Sauti ya Vijana Nairobi Project seeks to encourage the establishment of receptive, open, and accountable leadership. The main goal of this project is to organize a roundtable with the theme "Building youth-adult partnerships in local governance" that will bring together 40 young people from various youth organizations to debate local governance issues across all sectors as a community of practice. The County Youth Advocacy Handbook will be developed, designed, and distributed as part of this project using the case studies. The handbook will include 30 case studies from our mapping exercise in Nairobi County, mobilizing youth groups to create local networks that link citizens to leaders through a presentation workshop on the advocacy handbook's case studies and a meeting of the youth network, hosting four podcast shows on a quarterly basis to involve youth, leaders, and other relevant actors, and holding consultative policy discussions with political youth leaders and important stakeholders.
The Youth Café initiative focuses on fostering youth engagement in civic and political spaces. By creating inclusive platforms for dialogue and collaboration, it aims to amplify young people’s voices and empower them to drive change within their communities.
The Shamiri Model: Implement the Shamiri intervention, focusing on cultivating a growth mindset, gratitude practices, and value-aligned actions to reduce mental health problems and improve overall well-being.