Application Deadline: May 20, 2019
The Office of Citizen Exchanges, Youth Programs Division, of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, has announced an open competition for the FY 2019 Pan Africa Youth Leadership Program, an exchange program for African high school students and adult educators.
The Pan Africa Youth Leadership Program 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. 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.
Goals
The program goals are to:
- Promote mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of Sub Saharan Africa.
- Prepare African youth leaders to become responsible citizens and contributing members of their communities.
- Foster relationships among African and American youth from different ethnic, religious, and national groups.
Objectives
The program objectives are for participants to:
- Demonstrate a better understanding of the elements of a participatory democracy as practiced in the United States.
- Demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
- Demonstrate skill at developing project ideas and planning a course of action to bring follow-on projects to fruition.
Themes
The primary program themes are listed below:
- Civic Education (citizen participation, grassroots democracy and rule of law).
- Community Service (social/corporate responsibility, volunteerism, and philanthropy).
- Youth Leadership Development (team building, public speaking, negotiation, goal setting, and project planning).
Requirements:
- U.S. embassies in the participating countries will recruit, screen, and nominate the participants and ECA will make the final selections. The award recipient will not be involved in participant selection. The final list(s) of participants will be sent to the recipient prior to the start of the exchanges. It is anticipated that at least three participants will be selected from each participating country listed below, though final numbers will depend on post interest and other factors.
- 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 also 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, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
- The Bureau reserves the right to add or delete countries from this list should conditions change in the partner country or if other countries are identified as Department priorities.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the 2019 Pan Africa Youth Leadership Program