Youth and Gender Empowerment (YGEP)

Introduction

Designed to nurture and harness the innovative potential of African youth and women. Implementation activities include:

1. Youth Innovation Challenge (Y I CAN) and Women Innovation Challenge (WE CAN) Programs designed to identify, nurture and incubate the growing exceptional cognitive talent and genius (scientific, technological, entrepreneurship and social innovation capacities) amongst the African Youth and Women;
2. Youth and Women Social Entrepreneurship Programs – designed to mobilize and build social entrepreneurship skills, support small social business start-ups amongst African youths and women;
3. Youth and Women Internship and Mentorship programs- designed to facilitate and encourage graduates from Africa and the rest of the world to gain valuable international development work experience in STI based institutions globally;
4. Youth and Women Post-Doctoral Fellowships and Staff Exchange Programs- designed to support youth and women in their early careers to sharpen their skills in STI policy research and development work in Africa;
5. Youth Social Innovation Camps – designed for peer to peer innovation and entrepreneurship skills enhancement among young School leavers, preparing them to become entrepreneurs and employers of labour rather than Job Seekers;
6. Africa Makes, Creates and Innovates Award (MCIA) designed to identify, encourage, reward and celebrate African youth and women Inventors and Innovators who successfully produce technologies that solve practical social problems in Africa, and/or demonstrate exceptional cognitive talent and genius in their fields of endeavor;
7. African Youth and Women in STI Congress- a biennial congress to be hosted in liaison with partners especially the UNECA, AUC, amongst others.

Strategic priorities/activities

Youth Innovation Challenge (Y I CAN) and Women Innovation Challenge (WE CAN) Programs

Launched in 2009, the Youth Innovation Challenge (Y I CAN) and the Women Innovation Challenge (WE CAN) programs are designed to identify, nurture and incubate the growing exceptional cognitive talent and genius (scientific, technological, entrepreneurship and social innovation capacities) amongst the African Youth and Women. The programs provide seed grants to youth and women innovators selected through an open competition process to support targeted training, entrepreneurship skill development, internship and mentorship, and innovation incubation programs to help commercialize their innovations, technology prototypes, and/or transformative ideas for social and organizational change in Africa30.

Youth and Women Social Entrepreneurship Programs

Implementation activities are designed to mobilize and build social entrepreneurship skills, support small social business start-ups in liaison with social entrepreneurship initiatives in development partner organisations including the Rockefeller Foundations, Open Society Foundations and National Youth Agencies, etc. Social entrepreneurship has been recognized in various African government policy documents as the engine of economic change with a growing tendency for small and medium enterprises (SME) promotion

Youth and Women Internship and Mentorship programs

Designed to facilitate and encourage graduates from Africa and the rest of the world to gain valuable international development work experience in STI based institutions globally. The program provides unique platforms for development of soft skills required for life after school for young School leavers from Africa and globally. Many students from North America, Canada, Africa and Europe have already benefited from this program during the ATPS Phase VI period, and demand is growing.

Youth and Women Post-Doctoral Fellowships and Staff Exchange Programs

Designed to support youth and women in their early careers to sharpen their skills in STI policy research and development work in Africa. It also supports young people to acquire hands-on knowledge and exposure in the STI policy research and the private through staff exchange programs with like-minded institutions from across the globe.

Youth Social Innovation Camps

Designed to enhance peer-to-peer innovation and entrepreneurship skills among young School leavers; preparing them to become entrepreneurs and employers of labour rather than Job Seekers. Each Innovation incubation camp session will identify emerging innovators with outstanding genius and creative talent globally and incubate their ideas, prototype technologies, in liaison with leading experts and practitioners in their field of endeavour. Reconnaissance studies already show that youths are highly motivated when they are asked to work on real-world problems32, and youth social innovations are creating jobs in Africa.

Africa Makes, Creates and Innovates Award

Designed to identify, encourage, reward and celebrate African youth and women Inventors and Innovators who successfully produce technologies that solve practical social problems in Africa, and/or demonstrate exceptional cognitive talent and genius in their fields of endeavour33. The program will be implemented in collaboration with the digital TV networks in Africa such as DSTV Africa, and broadcast through other national/regional/international television stations in Africa and social media sites for global reach. The ATPS will also approach international TV stations including CNN, Aljazeera, BBC World News, and CCTN for possible collaboration in this initiative. Leading private sector actors and African Foundations will also be approached for potential collaboration in the program.