Willice Onyango, The Youth Cafe Executive Director at The Global Democracy Coalition Forum working groups. Photo Credit: Lara Herbinia
The Youth Cafe (TYC) is pleased to join the Global Democracy Coalition (GDC). The Global Democracy Coalition is a multi-stakeholder alliance of democracy organizations from around the world committed to advancing and protecting democracy worldwide and influencing the Summits for Democracy and the Year of Action. The Youth Cafe is committed to advancing and protecting democracy.
The Youth Cafe works to increase advocacy for political stability and effective governance to ensure a transparent, democratic, and accountable environment. The Youth Cafe’s programs aim to increase youth participation in political and civic processes in Kenya and Sub-saharan African countries. The Youth Cafe also advocates for innovative, impactful, and progressive policies that promote youth participation and engagement at national, regional, and global levels.
We also work as a catalytic action-driven initiative that implements innovative projects on the ground that facilitate the achievement of our goals. The Youth Cafe engages the youth through; Connecting and Convening by creating spaces and platforms for different groups of young people to connect, deliberate, share, and learn about topical policy issues that affect the development of tactical spaces and platforms are used to enhance young people's engagement and collaboration with the government, the private sector, etc.
The Youth Cafe works on influencing institutions, policies, legislation, and funding practices to enhance young people’s participation in political and civic processes. We do this through continuous engagement with policy actors and institutions and collaboration with diverse civil society and development partners. TYC participated in the Summit for Democracy in Costa Rica and gave significant input on practical recommendations to boost youth political and civic engagement.
The Youth Cafe also spearheaded the development of the Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 which benefitted from immense support from various organizations, groups, and individuals. The formulation of the manifesto was preceded by 8 Regional Consultative Forums which brought together youth and youth leaders from the 8 regions in Kenya. 83% of the provisions of the manifesto were adopted by the ruling (Kenya Kwanza) government that assumed power in August 2022.
The Africa Youth Summit(AYS) conference, organized entirely by young people, is the first-ever youth-led and hosted conference and the first collegiate Pan-African Youth Conference hosted by The Youth Cafe on the African Continent. Africa Youth Summit operates under the umbrella organization of The Youth Cafe, External Relations department, as one of the signature events.
Africa Youth Summit is distinctive in its efforts through its commitment to awarding as much financial aid as possible to youth delegates. The AYS aim is for all voices to be heard and encourage participants to discuss, engage with, and craft solutions to Africa’s most pressing issues of the 21st century, including political and democratic issues.
The Youth Cafe joins The Global Democracy Coalition because our interventions are aligned with GDC’s overall goal of advancing and protecting democracy worldwide and influencing the Summits for Democracy and the Year of Action. By being part of the GDC, TYC will have access to a network of like-minded organizations and colleagues worldwide to share information, expertise, and knowledge on democratic innovations and good democratic practices.
TYC will also have opportunities for collaboration and to better coordinate their efforts, specifically in relation to the Summit for Democracy and their good democratic practices and their democracy-strengthening efforts more broadly. TYC will have a stronger voice in influencing the Summits for Democracy and the global democracy agenda more broadly, as part of a collective effort rather than as an individual organization.
The Youth Cafe commits to sharing our expertise in the areas of policy, advocacy, and research. We also look forward to sharing policy analysis, networking, and implementing projects to achieve our goals and the shared goals of The Global Democracy Coalition.