The African Leadership Institute, through Pakati, is developing a directory to assist African NGO's led by and serving the youth of the continent. Titled the African Youth-Led and Youth-Serving Organizations Portal, the project recognises the impact youth-led organizations have: It provides an important outlet for employment, being run and staffed by young people, and they ignite active citizenry and volunteerism at community levels. But these types of organisations face challenges. They are generally poorly-funded, because donors and funders have difficulty finding and identifying these organisations. Additionally, youth-led and youth-serving organizations do not leverage lessons learnt by other similar organizations, as information-sharing opportunities are limited.
Governments also do not acknowledge the important contributions these organizations make, resulting in young people becoming frustrated at not getting credit or support for their role in improving the social and economic development of their communities.
There are many young African leaders who have started organisations catering to the African youth market - the largest demographic segment on the continent - and one that is underserved. AFLI's pan-African directory seeks to help these organisations, by making it easier for them to find each other to partner and network. The directory being developed is intended to be fully searchable, by country, area of need or expertise, and it will over time become a valuable resource for grant-givers, the organisations themselves, and people seeking assistance.
The directory will profile organisations and is currently being beta tested by AFLI's communications team in conjuction with Pakati's project management team and the ChangeLeads for the project. The directory will allow organisations to fill out a directory submission themselves and edit it in future as they grow and evolve.
A call for submission will be shared in the coming weeks, inviting all non-profit organisations working in any one of the following areas and based on the African continent, to submit their details:
- Employment and Entrepreneurship
- Education and Skills Development
- Health and Wellbeing
- Governance and Youth Empowerment
For more information on the progress of this project, you can visit the directory while it is being beta-tested and check to see if you can submit your organisation at the submission form. The form itself won't be turned on and visible until AFLI is ready to allow it to be used by public, and instructions will be provided while it is being tested.
Note - when this article was written, the directory was to be posted on the Pakati subsite. This directory was migrated in July 2021 to a standalone site of its own at YouthForYouth.Africa
Report