By La'eeqa Martin | AMAP Lead
Africa Matters Ambassadors Program GlobalGiving March 2024 Report
2024 marks a pivotal year in African politics, with over 37% of African countries scheduled to engage in presidential and/or national elections. This large scale of elections brings questions around the quality of governance in the continent and what is needed to put us on track for effective leadership and improved social systems, especially for youth.
Likewise, the new programmatic year for the Africa Matters Ambassadors Program (AMAP) brings the need to envision new ways of improving our approach to youth development in Africa and how we can best impact our participants, inspiring them to initiate positive change and social innovation in their communities.
As the first quarter of 2024 draws to a close, the AMAP team is excited and hopeful about what our new 2024-25 program cycle has in store for us. From waving goodbye to graduates to ushering in fresh faces and brilliant community project ideas, a new year brings another chance to renew our intention to shift the African narrative through sustainable and intentional youth empowerment, a renewed intention significantly required from governance and leadership across Africa.
In our first GlobalGiving report for 2024, we share updates on the program to date and what to look forward to in the coming months.
AMAP Updates (December 2023 - March 2024)
A. Ambassador Updates
This year, we have two overlapping cohorts in the program’s history for the first time. Conducting the offboarding and onboarding processes for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 cohorts, respectively, has not come without challenges, and there were many moments where regrouping was needed to allow us to carry out the different tasks required for both cohorts. However, we are happy to be on track for a seamless transition between last year’s cohort and our new Ambassadors for 2024.
Our 2023-24 AMAP Ambassadors have been diligently working on engaging with their communities through the work of their Community Engagement Projects (CEPs). The CEP Implementation period was extended, with final reporting pushed back from February to April 2024 to account for unforeseen delays in seed funding processing. Despite this challenge, Ambassadors enthusiastically engaged with Group CEP Check-Ins on 7 December 2023 and 18 January 2024 to receive guidance on media reporting, report writing and data collection methods and provide progress updates and challenges with their projects, respectively.
To provide some insight into the work achieved by our participants to date, we will share CEP updates from two of our 2023-24 AMAP Ambassadors who were some of the first to complete the initial stages of their project:
Mary set out to conduct a 12-week Sustainable Development and Climate Change program for her CEP; however, she quickly ran into logistical and financial issues that forced her to pause her educational training sessions around the thematic areas of the SDGs, leadership and civic education and devise alternative plans.
Not deterred by the challenges, Mary engaged with stakeholders and activities aligned with her project’s key thematic areas of climate action and sustainable development. One such activity was facilitating an agroecology or climate-resilient agricultural practices program at Mbuuni Primary School in Kathiani Machakos County, Kenya, to combat food insecurity and climate change in the area. In partnership with Zero Hunger Activists, carbon beds and three (3) vegetable gardens were established, impacting 112 students.
View Mary’s CEP photos in this report. For more information on her project, click here to be introduced to Mary and her work at the Mbuuni Primary School.
Joseph sought to eradicate poverty in his community of Mabang, Ghana, through skills training and economic empowerment. His Community Engagement Project, therefore, focused on skills development and entrepreneurship training for youth to instil a spirit of entrepreneurship in them to take the initiative, identify opportunities and start businesses.
In collaboration with EKO SKILLS GHANA, he conducted practical training in soap making (for laundry and bathing), shower gel and other multi-purpose liquid soap. Additionally, entrepreneurship workshops facilitated by Ghana Enterprise Agency were held to impart business-savvy skills and approaches to participating youth in the community. With this, Joseph impacted over 50 young people in Mabang, Ghana, to date.
He aims to conduct more of these trainings in his community to assist youth seeking employment and income-generating opportunities with the skills acquired.
View Joseph’s CEP photos in this report.
What to expect from the 2023-24 Cohort these coming months:
After a laborious recruitment process, we proudly announce that we have selected our AMAP Ambassadors for the 2024-25 Cohort! The new selection of Ambassadors brings diverse backgrounds and aspiring goals to achieve sustainable impact in their communities, and we cannot wait to walk this journey of leadership development with them.
Our 2024-25 Recruitment process, which started in October 2023, concluded in February 2024 following intensive data cleaning and coordinating the interview and cohort selection processes.
Recruitment statistics are as follows:
Our 20 Ambassadors, aged between 18 and 29, represent the following countries: Angola (1), Cameroon (3), Ghana (2), Malawi (3), Rwanda (1), South Africa (2), Sierra Leone (2), Tanzania (2), Tunisia (1), and Zambia (3).
Meet our new cohort here and wish them well on their Ambassadorship as they work to fly the AMI flag high and seek innovative ways to be the change-makers their communities need!
What to expect from the 2024-25 Cohort these coming months:
B. Program Component Updates
Our three core Africa Matters Ambassadors program components are
They remain mostly unchanged for the 2024-25 program cycle, except for minor changes to content and structure. One significant change occurs within our Community Engagement Project (CEP) component. Upon recognising critical gaps in areas of capacity (of Ambassadors) and adequate criteria for AMAP team members to effectively assess and monitor project progress, we have made the following changes to the CEP component:
We hope these changes can help create more structure for program components and deliver informative and supportive content to current and future participants.
C. Additional Updates
AMI hosted our first Alumni Meet & Greet session on 15 February 2024. For the first time, all Alumni from across all our flagship programs were gathered in one setting and provided with updates on the programs to date and the platform to help us shape a functional, sustainable and beneficial Alumni network. A well-designed Alumni network will address the needs of Alumni after they graduate from our programs and provide further opportunities to learn and collaborate to support each other and their communities better. The AMI team will use input from this session to structure our Alumni network, and more points of engagement with Alumni are scheduled to take place throughout the year.
This is a reminder that you can rock your AMI merchandise by visiting our website and purchasing our products here. Note that 50% of proceeds from merchandise sales go towards the upkeep of flagship programs, directly impacting AMAP Ambassadors and their ongoing participation within the program.
D. Upcoming Events
Upcoming events in our program include:
Closing Remarks
The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program recognises all the stakeholders - participants, community leaders and organisations across the continent, local and international partners, and donors like you - who support the goals of our program and our impact as an organisation. We are the sum of the multiple parts that believe in us, and it is this belief that we will use to fuel our actions for 2024.
Remember to contribute to the prosperity of African youth by donating to our program via GlobalGiving or contacting us for potential partnership and sponsorship opportunities. Your support will assist us in
As the Africa Matters team, we thank GlobalGiving for continuously supporting our work and our ability to impact African youth, one community at a time!
If you have any questions or suggestions or would like to connect with us, please feel free to contact us at amap@africamattersinitiative.com
And, as always, We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!
Yours in African youth development,
The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program Team
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