10th Batch African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AU-YVC) 2019 for Young African Professionals (Fully Funded)

Application Deadline: June 30th 2019

AU-YVC promotes volunteering to deepen the status of young people in Africa as key participants in the delivery of Africa’s human development targets and goals. It brings people together to share skills, knowledge, creativity and learning to build a more integrated Continent and by implication strengthen Africa’s relevance in the globalized world.

The concept is in line with the African Youth Charter as well as the Decision of AU Head of States and Governments in Assembly/AU/Dec.274 (XVI) January 2010, to set up a continental Volunteer initiative.
AU-YVC was officially launched on the 3rd of December 2010 in Abuja, Nigeria, in the presence of H.E. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ministers of Youth from across the AU, high level AU representatives, Partners and other Volunteer Organizations and Africa’s Youth at large.

Objectives of the AU-YVC
– Engage Africa’s Youth in the Continent’s development through meaningful youth participation by providing Service for their Continent;
– Provide opportunities to Young Africans to serve and gain crucial professional experience, soft skills, social competence, international exposure and leadership skills;
– Promote shared values and Pan-Africanism among the upcoming generation.

Empowering Youth:Volunteerism is not an easy task and demands qualities of a leader to attain once mission in a foreign country. AU-YVC devotes itself to producing a generation of African leaders, willing to serve their continent and its people, knowledgeable of African dynamics, and courageous to take charge and challenge themselves on a daring adventure of building themselves and their continent through service.

Requirements:

In order to be considered for this program, you must fulfill all of the following requirements:

• You must be an African Citizen or you are of African Decent (African Diaspora with non African Citizenship)
• You are age 18 – 34
• You have at least a post secondary certified training and qualifications (Bachelor equivalent) with above average performance
• Available to dedicate minimum of 12 (twelve) months to 24 (twenty-four) months for volunteer work
• Good knowledge of at least one official AU languages (Arabic, English, French, Portuguese) and willing to learn others
• Verifiable minimum of one year of volunteer and one year of work experience
• You have an up to date and chronologically complete Curriculum Vitae (please click on Sample CV for reference)

In Addition

You should be both mentally and physically in a condition that allows you to travel, live and serve in a new environment. Also, take into consideration that there may not be health services available in the area where you will be deployed like those you are used to in your home country, especially if you have special medical conditions.

You will also be required to acquire all the necessary travel documents and vaccination cards.

Areas of Focus

On the field, AU Youth Volunteers would serve primarily in the following fields:

Education
Health and HIV/ AIDS
Peace and Security
Information and Communications Technology
Business and Youth Entrepreneurship
Agriculture and Environment

Typical Environment of Service
AU-YVC volunteer are deployed strictly in non for profit settings where their impact and contributions can fill the gap for much needed skilled man power. This would typically be:

Rural Community Schools
Hospitals and Health Centers
Post Conflict Setting
International Organizations
Government Offices/ Ministries

Benefits:

Living Condition

Your living condition may vary extremely between rural and urban communities. Availability of running water, internet and electricity in your house or even a small rural hut . However AU-YVC ensures minimal standards for modest living conditions enabling a healthy lifestyle with access to clean water, sanitation and health care.

Living Expense

AU-YVC would provide you with a living allowance that would enable you cover all your expenses during your deployment and provide you with a medical insurance and a plane ticket to country of deployment and back home. The monthly allowance could vary greatly from country to country and within a given country itself. The guiding principle remains however, whereas volunteers are not expected to make any financial gains, they shall at the same time not incur any financial losses

How It Works

– Aspiring volunteers who fulfill all requirements should fill out the online application form and upload their CV.
– Organizations wishing to deploy youth volunteers are required to fill out the online request form . Alternatively, organizations can send their request to youth@africa-union.org
– Screening: Volunteer Applications and Volunteer Requests would now be screened for completeness through a vigorous and transparent process. Candidates whose application was not convincing, would be eliminated and notified. Volunteers are permitted to reapply a second time.
– Matching: Applications of nominated volunteer candidates are matched with available vacancies according to the criteria specified by the requesting organization.
– Selection: The AU-YVC would send multiple CVs (4-8) of matched volunteers to requesting organization to make final selection.
– Volunteer Training: Prior to their deployment volunteers would be trained for a period of 2 to 3 weeks by the AU-YVC unit to enhance volunteers professional, interpersonal and life skills. The training aims to prepare volunteers for their country of deployment and/or enhance their capacity.
– Deployment: selected volunteers would now sign a tri-partite agreement with their host organization and the AUC which shall guide the terms of deployment.
– Progress Assessment: volunteers are expected to provide regular reports on their activities and address challenges to the AU-YVC unit.

After Application:

Short listing: Once an application is received it would be accessed against our Evaluation Matrix based on the following criteria:

1. Type of qualification acquired and grades received (Bachelors-, Masters Degree, PHD);
2. Number and Type of languages spoken (with primary focus on Arabic, English, French, Portuguese Swahili and possible combinations);
3. Type of volunteer and work experience: more weight would be given to community outreach and working with others in teams;
4. Comparative Advantage I: Why does one want to become an AU-YV
5. Comparative Advantage II: What makes an applicant a good candidate for placement?
6. Comparative Advantage III: Previous Volunteer Experience (its significance to the vacancy)
7. Each application is scored based on the requirements of the vacancy. This means the same application may score different for different vacancies.

Final Selection: After receiving the evaluation matrix and the CVs of applicants, requesting organizations are given time to select their preferred candidate.

Selected candidates are now cleared for training. The following steps follow:

1. Successful AU-YVC applicants would:
   – Receive an official letter of acceptance and invitation for training
   – Receive request to start the process of acquiring a passport, medical clearance (Fitness to work Certificate), security clearance (from local police)
   – Asked to send authenticated copies of their academic credentials or other documents
2. Other Decisions
   – Applications who did not fulfill all requirements would be eliminated.
   – Applicants would be notified about this development, and could apply one second time.
   – Applicants for whom there was no vacancy found and who fulfill all requirements would be kept on the database for future consideration.
   – Vacancies for which there was no candidate who fulfills all requirements remains vacant

Duration: it takes on average 12 month from the date of application until final deployment to go through all stages. Applicants are therefore not advised to commit early on and resign from jobs or defer their education and other engagements.

Keeping up to date: Applicants are advised to log in time to time and update their information, should anything change in their application. In this event it is also important to notify the AU-YVC Unit

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the 10th Batch African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AU-YVC) 2019