WHAT: Africa Youth Day 2021

Theme: “Defining The Future Today: Youth-Led Solutions For Building the Africa We Want”

WHEN: November 1^st - November 30 2021

WHO: The African Union Commission’s (AUC) Youth Division within the Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (WGYD)

In the framework of the 2nd edition of the Biennale of Luanda - "Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace" (4-8 October 2021), an Intergenerational Dialogue of leaders and young people is planned as a prelude to the event, on the theme of "Cultural and heritage diversity of Africa and its Diasporas: firebrand of conflicts or breeding ground for peace?"

On 20 April 2021, the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU), in collaboration with UNICEF, hosted a high-level event on education under the theme: “Building Skills for the Future".

The event's overall objective was to anchor education at the heart of the AU-EU strategy and the AU-EU-UNICEF trilateral partnership and to underline the importance of investing in the priority areas of:

Participation in decision-making, quality education, internet access and the climate crisis are among the main concerns for children and young people in Africa and Europe, according to U-Report polling data released today by UNICEF, the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU).

Thank you very much and Good afternoon to Africans all over the length and breadth of the African Continent.

Truly today is a historic day, a day in which we start officially trading under the preferences of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Today is a day we take Africa a step closer to a vision of an integrated continent, a vision of an integrated market on the African continent.

The African Governance Architecture (AGA), AU Department of Political Affairs has released the list of the Top 20 selected winners of the Youth Innovation Challenge on Democracy and Governance in Africa. The young African innovators were selected from a pool of submissions by the youth from across the continent and in the diaspora, focused on digital or non-digital innovations that address issues of democracy deficit, lack of good governance and the promotion of human rights practices in Africa.

The month of November is a special one for us in Africa. Fourteen years ago, the African Heads of State and Government designated November 1^st as Africa Youth Day, and for the past few years, we have celebrated African Youth throughout the month of November. This year, the theme of Africa Youth Month is ‘Youth Voices, Actions and Engagement: Building A Better Africa’

We celebrate Africa Youth Day this year in extraordinary circumstances forced upon us by the global Covid19 pandemic. As the world continues to learn painful lessons from this unprecedented threat to global wellbeing, I wish to salute all frontlines workers working tirelessly in our communities to keep our families safe and healthy.