Is your organisation eager to take your innovative solution to a global challenge to the next level?

Call for Proposals are now closed!

The energy and ideas of young people around the world drives solutions and helps to create opportunities to key challenges in communities and beyond. The Innovation Grants aim to provide support to youth organizations that seek to innovate in their own context in response to a global challenge!

The Innovation Grants provide grant opportunities of 42,000 EURO to which individual youth-led organisations can apply.

What do we mean with innovations?

We define innovation as designing, testing, adapting, scaling or improving an activity, approach, campaign, or collaboration that creates positive and lasting change for young people and their communities. In other words, an impact that will benefit your community and your peers also after your grant project ends!

What can you expect when you receive a grant?

  • Your organisation will receive financial support to implement your innovation in your own community and beyond.
  • Your organisation will become part of a platform for you to share your solution with peers, decision-makers and other stakeholders across Africa and Europe.
  • You will benefit from mentorship and other forms of capacity development support according to the needs of your organisation.

When is your organisation eligible to apply?

  • Your organisation must be a non-profit, operating as a Trust, Community Based Organisation (CBO) or as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO)/Civil Society Organisation (CSO) with a clear social mission.
  • Your organisation must be youth-led: young people (aged 18-35) represent the organisation’s governance and have primary decision-making power over the organisation’s direction and programmes (100% is aged 18-35) and are directly involved in designing and carrying out activities (>80% is aged 18-35)
  • Your project must be youth-led: all staff (100%) working on implementing the project should be young people (aged 18-35)
  • You are a youth organisation that is formal: you are legally registered in your country, have an organisation bank account and a clear governance structure.
  • You are located and registered in one of the 12 African Youth Action Lab focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somaliland region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  • Your proposed activity takes place in one or more of the above 12 countries.

What kind of activities can you propose?

Your idea may combine several approaches. It may start locally and grow over time. It may improve an existing solution or create an entirely new one. We are excited to receive your ideas!

  1. Create tangible local impact: a positive change for young people and/or their communities in their own context.
  2. Contribute to longer-term systems, policy, or practice change related to a global challenge, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Agenda 2063, or other relevant frameworks.
  3. Demonstrate innovation by designing, testing, adapting, scaling, or improving approaches with the potential for sustainable impact and future replication.
  4. Generate learning and share knowledge with youth actors and other stakeholders across Africa and Europe.

The activities you propose can be a mixture of the broad types of activities above and do not need to ‘fit in one box’.

Applications Results

It is expected that the assessment process of applications will take around three months, therefore expect to hear from us by January 2027. An announcement will also be made on the Power to Voices platform for you to check your emails.

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This website has been prepared with the financial assistance of the European Commission. The views expressed herein are those of the consultants and therefore in no way reflects the official opinion of the European Commission.

Newsletter

Sign up to know about the programme’s opportunities and events.

Stay connected

Follow us and get involved!

This website has been prepared with the financial assistance of the European Commission. The views expressed herein are those of the consultants and therefore in no way reflects the official opinion of the European Commission.

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