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.