Project Background
PARTICIPATE! is a Danish-African youth network project that seeks to strengthen youth organizations in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Denmark to make them better platforms for inclusiveness and democracy where young people can engage themselves and gain democratic courage and agency. Youth Alive! Kenya implements this project in partnership with DUF – the Danish Youth Council and Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) in Zimbabwe.
The initiative is aligned with the purpose of DUF’s International Pool and helps increase Danish youth’s international perspective and involvement in development cooperation. As seen in DUF’s cross political network, the initiative is expected to lead to new bilateral partnerships with DUF’s International Pool and to involve member organizations that are not yet part of DUF’s global youth program.
Project Goal
The project aims to strengthen youth organizations in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Denmark as platforms for the development of young people’s democratic confidence and agency. When young people gain democratic confidence and agency through organizational involvement, they can use these experiences and skills to influence their communities in a peaceful, sustainable, and democratic direction.
To achieve this goal, DUF focuses on change at three levels.
Firstly, it aims to empower young volunteers in youth organizations and build their capacity to bring about positive change in their organizations. This is done through an international programme where young volunteers from Denmark, Zimbabwe, and Kenya are engaged as representatives of their organizations in the youth network and trained to work with associational democracy, dialogue, and youth participation. The programme aims to build international outlook, democratic confidence, and empowerment among youth representatives and to enable them to implement a change project focusing on democracy and youth participation in their organizations and communities.
Secondly, DUF aims to strengthen youth organizations in Denmark, Zimbabwe, and Kenya through the youth-driven change projects within the organizations, to help strengthen the organizations’ work with dialogue, democracy, and youth participation.
Thirdly, the initiative aims to strengthen DUF, YETT, and YAK as youth councils/networks and to aid their efforts to support youth organizations’ work with dialogue, youth participation, and democratic organization. DUF, YETT, and YAK will do this by exchanging experiences and methods and jointly developing new tools and methods to support and build the capacities of their member organizations. This is done by drawing on the best-practice experiences of the three youth councils in their respective national and international work, as well as through development seminars and method hubs, where new tools and instruments for capacity building in member organizations are developed.
Expected Outcomes
Objective 1: Young people in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Denmark have democratic confidence, agency and engagement
Objective 2: Youth organizations in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Denmark are democratic and inclusive platforms with a global view.
Objective 2: Youth organizations in Zimbabwe and Kenya have capacity to support and empower their member organizations in their work with democracy, dialog and participation
Project outcome videos
PARTICIPATE! National conference 2022
We held panel discussions at the national conference. Watch them below:
