Africa Youth Trust conducts a few, highly focused programs aimed at engaging Youth in Eastern Africa in the addressing of specific concerns affecting them, as well as enabling their participation in the design of policies they may have a key stake in, and in influencing decisions in the development thereof.

The voices of young people are increasingly being heard in communities across Africa – in business, education, political and governance processes, service delivery, and in philanthropy. Sometimes young people struggle to be heard and, sometimes, they are invited to be part of development and evaluative processes. In an increasing number of cases, they are creating their own decision-making roles.

Research and our own experiences tell us that when young people have meaningful decision-making roles, stronger communities are built, and young people construct their own protective factors against risk . AYT will strive to ensure that young people participate in and have the opportunity to make decisions and they have a connection to this organization and the broader community. This is the philosophy that underpins the African Youth Trust

AYT combines the concepts associated with positive youth led development with the principles of community organizing and active citizenship, to explain how youth development within our organization and the programmes that we develop and implement promote the creation and sustainability of effective programs and services for young people in Africa.

The main cross-cutting themes, including:

Youth Employment

Unemployment in Kenya is one of the main challenges facing the nation and it has had wide negative repercussions on Kenyan society. The youth in Kenya comprise majority of the country’s population and have borne the brunt of the unemployment situation as most of them are either unemployed or underemployed.

Guided by a common interest in improving youth access to the labour market AYT has partnered with Fagligt Internationalt Center for Uddannelse (International Center for Education-FIC) and the Nairobi One Stop Youth and Information Resource Centre to implement a program that aims at increasing knowledge and skills of young people on employment possibilities and entrepreneurship within Nairobi area. These efforts include capacity building and development of training and networking models.

Agenda 4

Making Agenda Four A Reality for Kenyan Youth (MA4ARKY) is a project designed to ensure that the youth are actively involved in the reform process in Kenya. The project will be implemented with a Purpose to entrench youth participation and engagement in the implementation of the youth-focused reform agenda on employment as outlined in Agenda 4 of the National Accord and Reconciliation Agreement (NARA) through advocacy.

In order to achieve an increased youth engagement in the reform process and Kenya’s economic development, AYT will work with the youth in tracking the effective implementation of youth specific reforms as captured on the issues of unemployment especially among the youth on Agenda 4 of the national accord. AYT will seek to empower the Kenyan youth to contribute to and benefit equally from Kenya’s reform agenda.

East Africa Region

The Africa Youth Trust seeks to promote a culture of good governance and practice of human rights as essential components to improved socio-economic and political well being of the East African region through fostering a common sense of understanding of democracy and human rights amongst East Africa’s young men and women and enabling them to continuously engage in the active promotion of the practice of democracy and observance of human rights through their own initiatives and engagement with formal structures of the East African Community.

Gender Empowerment

The program aims at improving the practical application, promotion and protection of gender equality and human rights of women in East Africa with key emphasis on the role of women in conflict resolution on peace building. This program offers an opportunity to develop and strengthen skills on gender mainstreaming, women empowerment, human rights, good governance and democracy.

It is also intended to share best practices and build upon human rights advocacy skills among organizations who intend to undertake the challenge to participate in the legislative and policy reform processes in their respective countries. It is primarily designed to target representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), quasi government agencies and academics working on gender and equality issues. The participating countries include Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Parliamentary Support

There is need to actively promote inter-generational linkage between the youth and the rest of older society more so in the law making arena. This is especially so because the laws that are being made today are meant to guide both the present and future and in this sense it is the youth who are bound to be the main consumers of the laws.

Deliberate efforts therefore need to be made to facilitate the older generation through parliament, to bequeath the youth a sense of ownership for our laws. AYT’s “Parliament Synergizing Youth in Law making” program seeks to provide parliament with a mechanism to directly engage Kenya’s youth in the law making process, through its departmental committees.

YAAC

The success of an effective intervention against a social evil is greatly determined by its trans-generational perpetuity. For the gains that have been made against corruption to succeed, the old must pass on the baton of good governance to the young.

The involvement of youth in the fight against corruption is likely to bring in new and fresh ideas that can replace older and out-of-date policies. It will also combine the high energy level from young people with the professional skills and experience from the older generation to create new levels of enthusiasm and productivity.

The Africa Youth Trust’s Youth Action Against Corruption seeks to promote the role youth in the fight against corruption through meaningful involvement in advocacy and championing for effective service delivery, reform of weak institutions, education and investigations.