The Africa–Europe Innovation Platform (AEIP) has launched the Youth Innovation Playbook in collaboration with The Youth Café, a new resource to help young innovators and entrepreneurs across Africa and Europe transform bold ideas into sustainable action.
The Playbook was developed through an extensive co-creation process involving researchers, entrepreneurs, innovation practitioners, and reviewers from over seven countries across Africa and Europe. More than 100 young innovation stakeholders contributed insights through surveys and validation workshops to ensure the resource remained practical and firmly youth-centred.
Created with young people, rather than simply for them, the Playbook reflects diverse perspectives and lived experiences from multiple countries while prioritising the empowerment of underrepresented groups.
To ensure the Playbook responded to real-world challenges, the AEIP and The Youth Café organised a six-day virtual validation workshop series bringing together youth leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, researchers, and innovation stakeholders from across Africa and Europe. Participants tested the Playbook’s tools and practical application while providing structured feedback that informed its final design.
The Playbook aligns with key continental and global frameworks, including the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024), and the AU–EU Innovation Agenda. These frameworks recognise youth innovation and cross-continental cooperation as essential drivers of sustainable development.
How to use it
The Playbook follows a simple three-step approach: identifying challenges, assessing capacities, and selecting actionable “plays” to implement solutions. Each section includes practical assessment tools, adaptable toolkits, and real-life case studies from Africa and Europe that users can apply within their own contexts.
Users gain access to a curated collection of more than 40 case studies and practical toolkits that have proven successful across Africa and Europe, covering areas such as entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, collaboration, sustainability, and youth empowerment.
The Playbook is designed for multiple audiences:
Young innovators and entrepreneurs can use it as a step-by-step guide to grow their innovation capacity and design community solutions.
Youth business support organisations can use it as a facilitation guide for workshops, utilising ready-to-use activities and templates.
Policymakers and funders can access evidence and impact indicators aligned with AU-EU metrics to support informed investment in youth empowerment.
The launch of the Playbook reflects the AEIP’s broader commitment to strengthening Africa–Europe innovation cooperation and supporting young people as co-creators of solutions to shared innovation challenges.
The Youth Innovation Playbook is now available for download.