Change through Exchange: EChange.02

A consortium of five organisations – Farafina Institute (Germany), Youth Network for Human Rights and Democracy (Ghana), the University of Swaziland (Eswatini), Footprints for Change (Kenya), and the University of Zambia (Zambia) will implement the ‘Training Module for Agents for Social Change through Exchange’ that was developed by the Erasmus+ project ‘EChange’.The implementation of the module empowers youth between 18 and 28 years to become active for the priorities of the Africa-EU partnership, especially for the priority areas ‘Investing in people’ and ‘Strengthening resilience, peace, security and governance'. To facilitate their joint action as a group and with other youth from Europe and Africa, this project will develop a ‘Project Development and Fundraising Tutorial’ that will be added to the online platform ‘Action for Change’ that was also built through EChange. A professional ‘Youth Exchange Documentary’ will be created to document and disseminate the experiences of this project.The project will be implemented by youth organisations and young people from Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Eswatini and Zambia. The whole group will come together in 2 Youth Exchange Mobility Activities (MAs) – one in Kenya and one in Germany.Drawing from the Erasmus+ project EChange, this project recognises that in view of their potentials, youth are key agents to pursue peace, security and governance, but there is need to grow their capacities. Such capacities include:• knowledge (e.g. understanding of the wider context of resilience, peace, security and governance), • motivation (e.g. recognizing the potentials of youth in bringing about change)• tools (e.g. methods of social action),• strategies (e.g. turning ideas into action, project management),• connections with similarly motivated youth for joint action. The analysis of EChange showed that such capacities can be built through the EChange approach.Participants will receive training for these competences and work in groups for the implementation of follow-up projects with the guidance of the participating institutions (PIs) after the end of the project.The project applies a highly participatory approach. Participants and PIs will be included in and contribute to each stage of the project. Strategic meetings will be conducted with the PIs for the exchange of experience and knowledge and networking with other organisations working with youth and the priority topics as part of the Mas and transnational project meetings.The PIs are youth-based organisations, with objectives of youth development and networking as means to the realisation of collective potentials for change. YouNet and UNISWA were partners of the projects ‘EChange’ and ‘Participate’, coordinated by FI.The project will contribute to the three areas of action proposed for a new EU Youth Strategy: Engage, Connect, Empower. These areas fit with the youth policies of the participating countries and of the African Union agenda 2063.