Unesco Nigeria 2020 Call for Submission of Stories of African Youth-Led Organizations

Application Deadline: September 30th 2020

UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office Abuja in partnership with the Pan-African Youth Network for a Culture of Peace (PAYNCoP), and the Center for Youth Advocacy and Development (CEYAD) invites African youth organizations to submit original and innovative experiences that document impactful youth engagements spanning across development pillars that have and/or are currently transforming the trajectory of African youths at the local, regional and global level.

Public narrative is an art of storytelling, which UNESCO and its partners recognize as a powerful tool to communicate activities, outcomes and results. This tool will create a platform for most youth engagements, especially those that occur at the local level, facing difficulties in gaining visibility and contributing to the compendium of impacts championed by African youths for significant change on the continent.

This initiative aims to highlight and amplify the work of youth organizations that have and/or are in the process of deepening youth engagement, to encourage the engagement of young people as key actors in the development of their communities.

This call for submissions equally aims to commemorate in an original way the International Youth Day (August 12, 2020) and the International Day of Peace (September 21, 2020), by placing youths at the heart of peace building in our societies.

Selected African youth organization stories, experiences and initiatives will have the potential to spark and fuel conversations, examine challenges, and advance the debate on the capacity and competence of youths and youth organizations to organize, mobilize, and positively impact social transformation. The published stories will help create a culture of documentation, amplifying the voices of African youths in a bid to collate developmental contributions of young change-makers on such critical issues as sustainable development, youth engagement, and peace building.

This edition will primarily focus on stories that strengthen the institutionalization of peace and stability in the political and social spheres for sustainable development in Africa. The selected stories will be validated by a team of development experts and published on a dedicated page of the UNESCO Abuja website (including social media handles) as well as on the web pages of our partners, PAYNCoP and CEYAD.

Objectives and Expected Outcomes

This activity aims to promote youth-led actions as well as to provide them with the space to tell their stories of commitment to social transformation and sustainable peace. This call will respond to part of the challenges faced by youth-led initiatives, innovations and/or organizations, namely the lack of visibility. By supporting them through this activity, we celebrate the importance of youth engagement and give them the visibility they deserve. In addition, this activity provides an excellent platform for UNESCO to establish a directory of credible youth-led organizations or initiatives working around youth engagement and peace building.

Stories/experiences/examples of initiatives of nominated or interested candidates must contain the following elements:

• Context, objectives and theory of change ;
• Date or period of implementation, beneficiaries (specify number of women and men), partners
• Information on the challenges encountered during the implementation. If encountered challenges, what were they and how were they resolved?
• Precision of the impact on the initiator and on the beneficiaries?
• Share two or three ideas for future planned engagement with other partners.
• At least two action photos of your engagement

Guidelines for Submission of Applications/Nomination

(Deadline: 5:00pm GMT+1, September 30, 2020)

All submissions must:

• Be original stories from youth organizations in Africa.
• Be presented in English or French, in Word format, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 600 words minimum and 900 words maximum.
• Contain a brief profile of the organization (100 words maximum) and should include the full name of the organization (including acronym, if applicable), country, email address and contact person.
• Indicate references for easy validation
• Be addressed to the UNESCO Regional Office Abuja via one of the following means
  • online form: https://forms.gle/TGUejwiQ6PF98mEu9
  • e-mail sent to kw.wilima@unesco.org(link sends e-mail)  as an attachment formatted in Microsoft word.

Submissions from young African women groups or organizations of people living with disabilities are highly encouraged.

Contacts:

All questions and enquires should be sent to Wilima Kevin Wolaka: kw.wilima@unesco.org(link sends e-mail), with Ekene Johnpaul Ikwelle ikwelleekene@yahoo.com(link sends e-mail) in copy

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Unesco Nigeria 2020 Call for Submission of Stories