How does Africa’s growing youth population spend its time? How do they interact with society? What services do they use—and what services do they need? These are just a few of the questions a new USAID-funded assessment hopes to answer in the coming years.
A peer educator talks with Tanzanian youth about HIV/AIDS prevention.Photo Credit: IYF
The population of Africa is ballooning, expected to double to two billion people by 2050. This phenomenal trend is going to drive much of everything else in Africa over the next two generations in Africa—conflict, demand for school, healthcare, food, and water, and the ability of these countries to develop responsive democratic institutions.
With support from USAID, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) is launching a major assessment that will capture a comprehensive picture of the lives of young people in eight African countries—Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. “This is a terrific opportunity for us to dig deeper into how young people across Africa view their lives and what kinds of skills or opportunities they think they need to be successful,” said IYF President and CEO William S. Reese.
The $10-million YouthMap program will survey both in- and out-of-school, employed and unemployed youth, and investigate opportunities and challenges related to youth development in areas like education, livelihoods, economic growth, health, democracy, and governance. Complementing the assessment, the YouthMap Innovation Fund will support pilot activities based on the findings, test promising practices, support the transfer of results and experiences to stakeholders across participating countries, and scale up interventions in education and employability.
YouthMap is part of a larger USAID-funded program that is operating in Jordan, Latin America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Morocco, and the Palestinian
