The share of young people in the world's population has been rising rapidly for years. However, their interests and wishes are all too often overlooked in political decision-making. Yet it is precisely the ideas and initiatives of young generations that offer immense potential for shaping social and economic policy. In many African cities in particular, young people are networked and technically savvy to an unprecedented degree. The combination of their visions and skills thus is a valuable force to adequately address inequalities and contribute to a peaceful coexistence.
Young and online in African Cities aims to make these visions and skills visible and anchor them more firmly in the political arena. In a first step, organizations, platforms, and technologies will be identified that operate at the intersection of youth, technology, work, citizenship, and sustainable and equitable spatial design. Based on this overview, the second step is to select individual initiatives and examine them in more detail. The research provides a sound insight into the practice and policy ideas of these initiatives, which can serve as a source of inspiration for other actors. In a third step, a series of collaborative workshops will take place. There, formats will be developed to transform young people's visions into concrete concept ideas and prototypes. Funding from the Robert Bosch Stiftung enables the research project as well as the implementation of the workshops.
The Young and Online in African Cities project brings together the resources and networks of United Nations Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities (UNITAC) and the African Centre for Cities (ACC), an action-oriented research center based at the University of Cape Town. UNITAC is a partnership between the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United Nations Office for Information and Communication Technology (UN OICT) and the City Science Lab @HafenCity University in Hamburg (CSL).
Imago/Westend61