AYIM — AfricTivistes Youth Mapping Initiatives

AYIM — AfricTivistes Youth Mapping Initiatives — is a citizen mapping programme designed to document the resilience of young Africans in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Rolled out between September 2020 and March 2021 across 10 countries in West and Central Africa, it has identified and documented 107 innovative citizen-led initiatives spearheaded by young people, and collected numerous success stories. The data from this mapping initiative feeds into AfricTivistes’ other projects, notably the CitizenLabs.

CONTEXT

In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, young Africans have demonstrated a remarkable ability to mobilise local solutions—digital, social and health-related. Yet this momentum has remained largely unseen and undocumented. AYIM addresses this gap by mapping these initiatives to give them the visibility and legitimacy they deserve, and to support advocacy for the inclusion of young people in decision-making bodies.

APPROACH

The methodology was divided into three stages: data collection (September–October 2020) via designated focal points in each country, data processing (November 2020–January 2021), and online public consultations on two themes — “The role of young Africans in the continent’s development” and “How to maintain civic engagement and awareness during the pandemic”. A dedicated platform — ayim.africtivistes.org — was developed to centralise the initiatives and disseminate the analysis report.