CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Youth Task Teams of the Africa Youth Partnership to Advocate an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Youth Task Teams of the Africa Youth Partnership to Advocate an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Restless Development and YOTA (Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa) have launched the Africa Youth Partnership for an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic through which we are engaging, supporting, and empowering young people to put their ideas into action and play a leading role in continental recovery efforts. Through this work, we are engendering increased attention to and investment in addressing the critical issues of social and economic inequality that have been escalated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As duty bearers and stakeholders at local, national, and continental levels act decisively in response to young people’s voices and engagement, the African recovery agenda becomes more inclusive and equitable.

Thanks to funding from the Ford Foundation, we are escalating youth action for an equitable recovery across Africa, with a focus on ten countries in 2022, namely Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The aim is to improve the capacities and skills of youth-led organisations and young innovators to develop and implement policy accountability frameworks and offer solutions, enabling them to better connect, collaborate, and self-organise towards evidence-based advocacy for equitable pandemic response and recovery on the continent.

As part of our strategy for 2022, we are establishing Youth Task Teams to spearhead youth-led accountability at the national level. In all, we are creating 10 national task teams in the participating countries, drawing on broader youth constituencies to formulate youth-inclusive COVID-19 policy actions and lead multi-stakeholder engagements.

With training, coaching, and other technical and financial support, the Task Teams will undertake a number of activities, including but not limited to:

i. Conducting youth effectiveness analyses to identify accountability gaps in key areas of national recovery programmes, including in areas such as economic recovery, education and skills, youth employment and enterprises, health systems and treatment, vaccine equity, etc,

ii. Preparing youth accountability reports, policy briefs, and other products that capture the youth position on key recovery programmes, with policy recommendations for how to make the national recovery more youth-inclusive; and

iii. Designing and implementing national campaigns to advocate for the youth position as captured in those policy products, including extensive work plans for the engagement of governments, the private sector, and other national stakeholders to amplify youth voices.

Requirements

Young leaders who want to position themselves as facilitators of meaningful youth engagement in the design and implementation of their countries’ economic recovery agenda are particularly best fit for the Task Teams. They must meet the following criteria:

a. Must be between 18 and 29 years old as of 1st June 2022

b. Must be fluent in the English language

c. Must be a national of one of the participating countries, resident or in the diaspora. The participating countries in 2022 are Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Youth Task Team members may have multiple nationalities, one of which must be a participating country. For example, a Youth Task Team member could have both Kenyan and Japanese nationality, with Kenya being the participating country

d. Must represent any one of the following or other types of youth platforms: universities or other research institutions, youth-led organisations, national youth networks, women’s groups, professional associations, youth- and women-owned businesses, disability organisations, religious groups, geographical (rural vs urban) and socio-economic balance, etc.

e. Must demonstrate knowledge of and interest in the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on African countries, as well as the recovery efforts across the continent

f. Must demonstrate current or recent experience as a young leader in any sector relevant to the economic recovery from the pandemic

g. Must be able to commit up to 5 hours each week towards participating effectively in a wide range of Youth Task Team activities, including in-person or virtual meetings, training sessions, travels, meeting preparation, background reading, research, and campaign activities

h. Must be available for local and international travel whenever necessary to represent the Youth Task Team in various project-related engagements

i. Young leaders with skills and experience in participatory youth action research, advocacy, and policy influencing will be particularly suited for these Youth Task Teams

Application Process

The timelines for this Call for Applications are as follows:

• Applications start – on 1^st May 2022
• Applications deadline – Friday 20^th May 2022 at 23:00 GMT
• Selection Interviews and other processes end – Friday 27^th May 2022
• Selected applicants notified by – Friday 27^th May 2022
• Public announcement of the Youth Task Teams – 1^st June 2022

We welcome applications from interested persons who meet the requirements for the Youth Task Teams. You will be required to provide information about the organisation you represent. Organisations can support multiple applicants, as long as each of the applicants completes a separate form. Regardless of how many applications an organisation supports, it is not likely that an organisation would have more than one of its applicants selected.

Click here to download the full Terms of Reference of the Youth Task Teams.

Click here to complete the Application Form