Africa Youth Month will comprise of a launch activity on the 1st of November, and thematic weeks across the month, aligned to the 4Es( Education, Engagement, Entrepreneurship, and Employment ). The Youth Cafe activities will include youth-led actions, conferences and meetings, dialogues and extensive social media engagement.

We are joining the African Union Commission in celebrating Africa Youth Month in November 2019, under the theme “1 Million by 2021: Count Me In!” The African Youth Charter adopted in 2006 proclaims the 1st of November as Africa Youth Day, and in 2019, given the myriad of interventions and actions on youth spurred by the 1 Million by 2021, The Youth Cafe is joining the Commission in celebrating youth in the entire month of November.

The Global PB Hub Review Committee offered The Youth Cafe Executive Director a board seat on the Global PB Support Board. The PB Support Board will guide the Hub's work to improve PB practice and impacts. It is responsible for advising on the needs of PB implementers and advocates, deciding on priorities for new PB resources and tools, and supporting the Hub in developing and disseminating resources and tools. They received nearly 80 outstanding applications from 34 countries, and this is a recognition of our exceptional work on PB.

The Youth Cafe led  a project to create a governance fact cards to enable young leaders and other actors to gain deeper understanding and skills as well as access tailored tools and reference materials to aid their work in the promotion of peace building and good governance at the local level. This is in response to limitations in the availability of reference materials, inadequate knowledge and limited opportunities for effective networking and collaboration hampers the capacity of CSOs and activists to fulfil their mandate in promoting peace and democracy at the local level, including failure to conduct effective grassroots civic education.

The African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) and the AWLN Young Women Leaders Caucus with the Office of the African Union Youth Envoy (OYE) held the first African Women Leaders Network Inter-Generational Retreat on Leadership in Africa with the theme: Women Leadership in Africa: “Building the Africa We Want Together”.  This retreat was in partial fulfillment of AWLN’s pledge to the African Union Commission’s 1 Million by 2021 Initiative, which committed to building capacities of young leaders on civic leadership from community to continental level.   

Twenty five years have now passed since the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) , which took place here in our beloved African Continent in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. A remarkable feature of this summit was , the Programme of Action adopted on 13 September 1994 , which emphasises the integral linkages between population and development and focuses on meeting the needs of individuals, especially young people with commitments to sexual reproductive health and rights for all young people, especially women and girls.

After collecting over 1000 feedback submissions from Africa Youth online and offline during consultations with youth groups, youth experts and African Union Commission departments, we are happy to launch the AU Youth Envoy Action Plan 2019/20. This Action Plan outlines activities on how to bring African youth closer to the African Union and influence its work and organs.

The Commission of the African Union, through its Youth for Peace (Y4P) Africa Program of the Peace and Security Department will appoint African Youth Ambassadors for Peace (AYAP), one from each of the five (5) regions of Africa. This is in line with the decision of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) via the communiqué of its 807th meeting held on 8th November 2018 on Youth, Peace and Security. The Council requested the AU Commission to appoint the AYAP to work with the AU Youth Envoy in championing the promotion of peace and security across the continent. It is within this context, that the PSD is launching the call for application to eligible African youth.