Scheduled to commence on the 12^th of August on International Youth Day, this initiative will engage young people across Africa in a month-long service to their communities, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This year marks the fourth edition of this initiative and focuses on rallying young people, corporate organisations, as well as public and social sector organisations to become active social agents. The goal is to renew the spirit of active youth citizenship with an emphasis on spreading the culture of service and collective responsibility. The campaign will feature different projects championed by young people in various African communities across the continent.

“We are excited to partner with LEAP Africa once again on this important initiative that drives sustainable development across the continent through active collaboration, investments, and empowerment,” said Sami Mainich, President, Dow Africa. “Dow has a long history of supporting youth development, and we believe that this partnership will help us to advance our commitment to building a more sustainable future.

By working with LEAP Africa, we are empowering young people to make a positive impact in their communities as they collaborate to achieve the SDGs. We encourage young people from all over Africa to get involved and help us build the Africa we want.”

In 2022, Dow Africa – as a headline sponsor – and LEAP Africa mobilized over 4000 young people across 24 African countries to implement 210 projects which spanned across all 17 sustainable development goals. The projects which were implemented physically, virtually using digital devices, and in hybrid formats included tree plantings, food drives, beach clean-ups, medical outreaches, educational workshops and training, and virtual advocacy campaigns.

In her remarks about the partnership with Dow for the 2023 YDoS campaign, Kehinde Ayeni, Executive Director, LEAP Africa, said, “We believe in the agency of young people and the power of their voices, creativity and energy when positively harnessed.

The YDoS is a massive campaign gradually catching on across Africa annually, which we are immensely proud of. LEAP Africa intends to push young people to think and be involved in social impact projects to deliver the Africa we want. 

Leveraging strategic partnerships has played a prominent role in deepening the impact of our programmatic efforts across Africa. The partnership with Dow last year enabled us to empower more African young people. We anticipate greater achievements for YDoS 2023 with this renewed partnership”.

Since its establishment over 125 years ago, Dow has been passionate about advancing science and innovation to find solutions to questions that can change the world for the better. Young people are key stakeholders in building a sustainable future, and Dow believes that by empowering and partnering with them, it can further its Blueprint thinking, contextualize its 2025 sustainability goals, and develop tomorrow’s innovators within the African youth community.

Participants interested in the 2023 initiative can either register their own project, volunteer for an existing project or sponsor the execution of a project. The registered projects can be physical projects or active virtual advocacy in different locations across Africa. To learn more about the YDoS campaign or to register for an event, please visit www.youthdayofservice.org. 

The week-long campaign with the theme – Youthful and Useful – kicked off with a pre-event press conference in Lagos and was activated between Friday, 12th – Saturday, 18th August 2022.

During its activation, youth across the continent came out in large numbers to accentuate the strength and possibilities of their agency in actualising a sustainable future through volunteerism and community service.

With much confidence and unity of purpose, every young person who participated in the initiative had one sentence to convey their message – “We are Youthful and Useful”.

Through a partnership with Dow Africa – as a headline sponsor – LEAP Africa was able to mobilise over 5,000 young people across 34 African countries to champion and implement projects including tree planting, school painting, food drives, beach cleaning, digital sensitisation, medical outreach, prison outreach, etc.

The projects led by individuals, corporations, public and social sector organisations were aligned with the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).

Sami Mainich, Managing Director, Dow Northern and Western Africa, and Chair of Dow Africa Steering Committee, in his comments expatiated on the goal behind Dow’s partnership with Leap Africa: “Dow recognises that the future is created by what is done today through empowerment, collaboration, and deliberate investments in the communities we live and work in.

As global citizens, we believe in dedicating our time and talents to challenges and opportunities that connect science, people, and community across the globe to achieve our envisioned world built on human creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.

This is achievable only when the youth are empowered to realize their full potential. As such, we partnered with Leap Africa on the Youth Day of Service campaign to develop and support solutions that spark positive change and builds resilient, sustainable communities”.

At the end of the week-long project implementation, about 620 projects and over 5000 volunteers were registered via a dedicated portal from 34 participating African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger, Madagascar, Ghana, The Gambia, Cameroon, Uganda, South Sudan, and South Africa.

The purpose of the Youth Day of Service campaign continues long after the annual celebration of International Youth Day. There are so many ways to continue participation as an organisation or an individual.

You can initiate a project, sponsor or fund a project, or volunteer for an existing project either as an individual or staff of an organization.