On Wednesday 16 July, in Rome, at the headquarters of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), the operational guidelines of the Italian component of the Africa-Europe Youth Academy (AEYA) initiative were presented. The University of Turin is part of this initiative with its CISAO centre (Interdepartmental Centre for Research and Technical-Scientific Cooperation with Africa).
Carried out as part of a delegated cooperation funded by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the French agency Expertise France (consortium leader), AEYA was officially launched on 1 February 2025. This is a four-year initiative with a total value of €15 million, of which €6 million is managed by AICS, and aims to strengthen youth leadership in 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa by promoting skills, connections and opportunities for the younger generation, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The meeting brought together the Agency’s partners for the initiative: the University of Turin (CISAO centre), the University of Pavia (GLOBEC centre) and the European University Institute (EUI). Representatives of the African partner universities were also present: Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania), Arba Minch University (Ethiopia) and Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso).
During the meeting, the strategic and operational guidelines of the initiative were presented, which includes two main components for the Agency:
- Amplify Potential (Work Package 2) – Face-to-face training and hackathons in collaboration with local universities, aimed at implementing micro-community sustainable development projects.
- Connect Potential (Work Package 3) – Online courses, mentoring activities and the creation of transnational networks between young Africans and Europeans.
The activities will be carried out by CISAO and GLOBEC, supported by the EUI, in collaboration with African universities. The priority countries for AICS intervention are: Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.
AEYA is part of the priorities of the Mattei Plan, creating synergies with other AICS initiatives underway in the field of training and youth entrepreneurship, such as the AICS Academy in Tanzania. The day represented an important moment of direct coordination between AICS, Italian universities and African universities to consolidate the shared vision of the initiative and define the next steps towards the implementation of activities in partner countries.
The next event will be on 30 September in Dakar, Senegal, for the official launch of the AEYA initiative on the African continent, with the aim of affirming its vision and ambitions, mobilising key actors in the youth ecosystem, strengthening connections between partners and gathering the perspectives of young people to support the definition of the programme.
