Increasing Capabilities

Youth are an extraordinarily diverse population with differing levels of education, societal inclusion, and access to resources. YOTA supports youth to build their abilities to drive development and positive change in their own lives and in their communities.

Unleashing Entrepreneurship & Market-Driven Skills

We believe in the power of entrepreneurship – and an entrepreneurial spirit – to tackle global challenges, transform communities, create jobs, spur economic growth and close the opportunity gap that confronts far too many youth across Africa. In order to accelerate thriving communities, YOTA supports the development of sustainable, market-driven models to build skills, networks and pathways to unlock the potential of youth entrepreneurs.

We want to see more youth entrepreneurs deployed across all sectors – starting businesses, running sustainable social enterprises, and bringing fresh ideas to old challenges. We believe that through entrepreneurship, we can create more vibrant communities, a stronger and a more prosperous Africa, close the opportunity gap and scale creative solutions to persistent problems.

Strengthening Soft Skills

We know from experience that providing academic or vocational skills alone is insufficient to ensure effective transition to work or productive and respectful citizenship. Youth also need life and soft skills to secure and maintain their livelihoods, take care of their health and wellbeing, make informed decisions, develop relationships, solve problems, etc.

Across all our programmes, we deliver soft skills such as social and emotional skills, communication skills, organisational and self-management skills, a commitment to and skills for lifelong learning, the ability to use data and information for decision making, and the skills to access quality information and knowledge through technology, among others. These skills help youth – especially those without access to quality, relevant education, civic engagement, and economic opportunities – to survive and thrive across society’s economic, social, and civic dimensions.

Fostering Youth Leadership for Social Change

We believe that when youth are equipped and empowered with the leadership skills to identify, plan and contribute to addressing common social problems, they will take the lead in becoming active citizens and agents of social change. Youth are capable of and can benefit from developing leadership and using that leadership to analyse community issues and determine strategies for dealing with those issues.

The more skilled youth are, the more likely they will be to develop creative and successful solutions to difficult situations. Fostering youth leadership is therefore important because it provides youth with the knowledge, skills and capabilities they need to more effectively work together to deal with issues facing their communities. We support youth to deepen their historical and cultural understanding of their experiences and community issues, build a collective identity of themselves as social change agents, develop the skills and capacities to be decision makers and problem solvers, lead community change action, and engage in advocacy.

We prepare youth with the skills to achieve their personal and professional goals and be ready to exercise leadership in local, national, continental and global contexts.

Strengthening Networks

We recognise that in an increasingly interconnected continent, the right kinds of networks can make all the difference in the success of youth. We are maximising the benefits of this interconnectedness by revamping the YOTA Network of youth-led and youth-serving organisations and the YOTA Alumni to enable them gain access to relevant resources, opportunities, and services while drawing motivation and inspiration from connections to other youth, organisations, and institutions.

We cultivate connections to inclusive in-person and virtual networks that provide the platform for youth to expand their impact, gain mentors and role models, and have access to opportunities to help them identify and pursue pathways to positive futures. We ensure that youth are engaged as partners and elevated as leaders in designing, implementing, and evaluating the supports and opportunities that YOTA’s programmes provide. At all times, the YOTA Network and YOTA Alumni should be able to exercise authentic voice and action to forge the pathway to a more hopeful future for youth across the continent.