Date: November 8–9, 2025
Location: Dakar, Senegal

The Youth Café will participate in the Global Financing Facility (GFF) x CIVIC Platform Civil Society Coordinating Group (CSCG) Introductory Workshop, scheduled to take place from November 8 to 9, 2025.

The workshop marks the official introduction of the two consortia selected through the GFF x CIVIC Platform competitive process that attracted close to 300 applications from civil society and youth-led organizations globally. Following rigorous evaluations by GFF and CIVIC experts, two winning consortia were chosen to lead work under two key pillars of engagement.

The session will outline the objectives, coordination mechanisms, and implementation roadmaps for both pillars:

• Pillar 1: Strengthening Civil Society Engagement and Community Voice in Domestic Resource Mobilization.
  This pillar aims to empower civil society and youth organizations to monitor and advocate for greater and more transparent domestic investments in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N).

• Pillar 2: Scaling Community-Led Solutions for Adolescent Health and Nutrition.
  This pillar focuses on supporting civil society innovations to improve access, equity, and outcomes in adolescent health and nutrition services through community-driven and system-integrated solutions.

The Youth Café is part of the ALIGN Consortium (Advancing Local Innovations for Adolescent Health & Nutrition through Governance and Networks) under Pillar 2, alongside Action Against Hunger (ACF) and the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN).

Within the consortium:

• Action Against Hunger (ACF) serves as the legal prime, fiduciary manager, and technical lead.

• The Youth Café (TYC) leads on youth mobilization and co-creation, ensuring youth voices remain central throughout program design and implementation.

• Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) serves as the knowledge management and evidence lead, facilitating documentation and dissemination of learnings through global platforms.

The upcoming workshop will bring together consortium members, civil society representatives, and youth-led organizations to align on objectives, coordination mechanisms, and early milestones for implementation. It will also include discussions with CSCG members on subgranting criteria, inclusivity, competitiveness, and sustainability strategies.

The Youth Café looks forward to contributing to this important convening as part of its continued commitment to advancing youth leadership, evidence-based advocacy, and sustainable solutions in adolescent health and nutrition.