Accelerating Youth Participation in Governance Fellowship 2024 – Nigeria

AYPG Fellowship, supported by the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF), is a 2-month intensive hybrid training and advocacy programme to empower and boost youth participation in governance. The hybrid fellowship targets 18 exceptional youth champions and changemakers in 6 Local Government Areas (LGA) of FCT to broaden their understanding of how to engage local authorities and elected representatives through advocacy to increase youth participation in governance while driving accountability and transparency.

The fellowship is part of the Accelerating Youth Participation in Governance (AYPG) Project which aims to strengthen citizens’ participation in governance to demand participatory, accountable and transparent governance and government. This includes how public resources are allocated to citizens’ and communities’ priorities and demand effective implementation for the attainment of the #NigeriaWeWant.

Goal

• The goal of the fellowship is to empower young people (with an advantage for the original inhabitants of Abuja) from the standpoint of driving practical and effective engagement with the governments.

Mission

• The fellowship will focus on community organizing, access to information and government data and relationships, trust-building, budget and project tracking, and reporting amongst other topics. This offers the youths an opportunity to become an active citizen, supporting them in accelerating and mobilizing their counterparts for participation in governance and decision-making process.
• Participants will be empowered and encouraged to co-design advocacy strategies to drive local engagement relating to the challenges in their communities in the 6 Area Council of the FCT.
• They will also be onboarded with PROMAD’s #FollowTheProjects social accountability initiative and mobilized to track and report the implementation of public projects in their communities.

Benefits

The fellowship will empower the participants:

• with transformative leadership skills for civic participation and leadership.
• They will gain new skills required to engage government agencies, policy and lawmakers to demand inclusion, accountability and participation in the decision-making process.
• They will come out of the fellowship empowered to contribute to organizing their communities;
• They will advocate for development leveraging existing laws such as the Freedom of Information Act to access government budgets and relevant data among others.
• They will receive stipends for internet data and also for the tracking of government projects in their communities.
• They will receive a certificate of completion in civic participation after the fellowship.

Duration: Two months

Eligibility Criteria

To participate in this fellowship, please take note of the following before proceeding with your application:

• Applicants must be Nigerian; being an Indigene of the FCT is a great advantage;
• Between the age of 18-35 years;
• Ability to commit reasonably to at least 95% participation throughout the pendency of the fellowship;
• Reside within any of the 6 Area Councils in the FCT;
• Availability to participate in the virtual and physical training;
• Interest in democracy and governance; and
• Possession of a valid voter card is compulsory.

For more information, visit PROMAD Foundation.