Is your organisation or (social) enterprise passionate about young people taking control of their own future?

Call for Proposals

The Entrepreneurship Grants aim to provide support to youth actors that work on strengthening the economic opportunities for young people!

The Entrepreneurship Grants provide grants opportunities between 30.000 and 50.000 EURO for which individual youth organisations and consortiums of youth organisations can apply to.

What do we mean with supporting economic opportunities of young people?

The entrepreneurship grants focus on youth-led actions that address a three-fold selection of key challenges young people face around the world in their economic participation and taking control of their own future:

  1. Access to skills development opportunities that are according to the needs of young people and local economic realities and support the start-up of new youth-led enterprises.
  2. The responsible growth of youth-led (social) enterprises that consider social and environmental boundaries.
  3. An enabling environment for young entrepreneurs to start and grow their business.

During this first grant call for proposals the focus will be on the first topic: skills development!

We ask interested youth organisations or (social) enterprises to submit your ideas to advance meaningful skills development opportunities for young people!

What can you expect when you receive a grant?

  • Your organisation will receive financial support to implement your skills development project with young people 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 or (social) enterprise is youth-led (age 18 to 35) where young people are the decision makers.
  • In case of an enterprise, you are either registered as ‘social enterprise’ or ‘enterprise’. In case of the latter, you can showcase a clear social ambition and impact of the work of your company.
  • You are a youth organisation or (social) enterprise that is formal: you are legally registered in your country, have an organisation/enterprise bank account and a 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.
  • Your annual budget or grants managed in the past should be a minimum of 10.000 EURO.

What kind of activities can you propose?

Your proposal can have a diversity of activities that build upon each other. We are excited to receive your ideas!

As general guidance, we can identify three broad types of activities:

Develop, test and implement new skills development curriculum for young people

For example: a new curriculum module that fills a distinct gap identified in advancing young people’s economic participation.

Scale-up and existing skills development delivery to reach a wider diversity of young people

For example: innovative methods to make skills development curriculums available to young people in remote areas.

Nurturing the exchange and coordination between (youth-led) skills development providers, local businesses and/or government actors

For example: Setting up learning exchanges between local businesses, young people and skills development providers.

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

How to apply

  • Carefully read the funding manual. (English | French | Portuguese)
  • Make sure you meet the eligibility criteria.
  • Develop your proposal as individual organisation or in collaboration with other youth organisations.
  • Deadline for applications: 19th of February
SUBMIT APPLICATION

Need help with your application? Join our webinars in January and February for Question-and-Answer sessions (dates to be confirmed very soon)!

Want to connect with other youth organisations and stay up-to-date on the latest info about the grants? Sign up to our online community on the Power to Voices Platform in two steps:

Step 1: Sign up to the Power to Voices Platform by making an account: Sign Up Here

Step 2: Go to the AU-EU Youth Action Lab Community and click on ‘follow’ to become a member of the group, via this link: AU-EU Youth Action Lab Community | Power to Voices

Consortium partners:

FAQ

Entrepreneurship Grants

All Youth Action Lab grant types are created by youth and for youth. This funding addresses the lack of opportunities for youth in Africa and Europe to collaborate, cooperate, develop, implement and scale up their own initiatives. It is designed to support young people to be more engaged, empowered and connected. The grant aims to nurture organisations’ stability, resilience, financial security and organisational capacity with the result aimed at showing impact created at community level with a distinct scale-up potential.

Entrepreneurship Grants focus on youth-led actions that address a three-fold selection of key challenges young people face around the world in their economic participation and taking control of their own future i.e. skills development opportunities, growth of youth-led (social) enterprises, and an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs.

During the first Call for Proposal in 2025, the focus will be on the first topic: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT! We ask interested youth organisations or (social) enterprises to submit their ideas to advance meaningful skills development opportunities for young people!

This grant will also allow you to meet grantees from the three other grant types at the Annual Link & Learn events and through the Power2Voices online platform (accessible beyond the grant period)! Some more good news? Our application and reporting mechanisms are designed in a way that make sense to youth initiatives. Read the full [funding manual – available soon] for more information.

To apply for Entrepreneurship Grants, your organisation must meet the following requirements:

  • Your organisation is youth-led: young people (age 18 to 35) are the decision makers.
  • 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.

For this first cohort we are only looking at providing grants that are responding to Skills Development, therefore if your scale up initiative is on skills development, please do apply!

No, any other idea on entrepreneurship not linked to Skills Development will not be considered for this first call for proposals.

A key barrier for many young people around the world to engage in economic opportunities is the access to skills development that makes sense to them. We have seen a mismatch between skills taught and what young people actually need in their own context to obtain a job or start a business. And, moreover, including a focus on life-skills: to not only develop skills for economic participation but for young people taking control of their own future. Especially young people from marginalized communities can face additional barriers to engage in skills development opportunities for example the lack of access to training facilities in rural areas. We therefore aim to support youth initiatives that have identified a distinct gap in the skills development opportunities for young people in their context and seek to address it! For example, youth-led incubators that implement training modules for young entrepreneurs.

Yes, of course! The information sessions are organized to help you with your application but are not mandatory.

NO, grants are minimum of 30,000 EUR and cannot go below that. You cannot therefore apply for grants below the 30,000 EUR or above 50,000 EUR.

Your project will be funded for a duration of 12 months, from May 2025 to April 2026.

All application are due on the stated date –19 of February 2025 by midnight CET. Applications received later than the stated date and time will not be considered.

It is expected that the assessment process of applications will take about six weeks, therefore expect to hear from us beginning of April 2025. An announcement will also be made on the Power2Voices platform for you to check your emails.

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.

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.

© 2024 - 2028 - AU-EU Youth Lab - All Rights Reserved