Pan Africa Youth Leadership Program began in FY 2013 and directly supports the U.S. foreign policy goal of youth empowerment and development by equipping exchange participants with the knowledge and skills to become active and responsible members of their communities.
In addition to nurturing young leaders, the program also supports the Department’s goal of fostering regional cooperation on the African continent. The program offers secondary school youth (ages 15-18) and a small number of adult educators from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to engage in intensive, thematic exchanges in the United States focused on civic education, community service, and youth leadership development.
READ – Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program 2022/2023 for Developing Countries Nationals
Requirements
- Open to participants from sub-Saharan Africa
- Applicants must have nonprofit status with the IRS at the time of application
- Applicant organisations must demonstrate their capacity for conducting international youth exchanges
- Applicants need not have organisational capacity in the participating countries, as the U.S. embassies will recruit and nominate participants
- Organisations must have a method in place to assist participants with pre-departure activities such as coordinating travel and lodging for visa interviews and the disbursement of funds for domestic expenses such as passport fees, travel allowances, etc
The youth participants will be high school students aged 15 to 18 years old at the start of the exchange who have demonstrated leadership potential through academic work, community involvement, and extracurricular activities. Each exchange delegation will include adult participants who are teachers, trainers, or community leaders who work with youth.
They will have the role of exchange participant, chaperone, and post-exchange mentor. While each delegation should include one adult participant per country represented, there may be circumstances where an adult mentor is not present from every country represented in the exchange.
- Participants selected for the English language exchanges will have sufficient English language proficiency to participate fully in interactions with their host families and their peers and in educational activities.
- The Francophone participants will not be required to have English proficiency; therefore applicants must provide French language programming and/or French language interpretation for these exchanges.
- Additionally, the award recipient must place these participants in host families where at least one member speaks French.
Participating countries may include: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Benefits
Successful applicants can receive up to USD $1,600,000
