Youth to become partners building self-reliant communities

The agency has launched YouthLead to support Global LEAD, connecting thousands of young changemakers worldwide to resources and networks. PHOTO: ImageCollab

The Global Leadership and Education Advancing Development (Global LEAD) Initiative which supports the capacity and commitment of emerging young leaders to become partners in building self-reliant communities was announced on 12 August. The announcement was made by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which has launched YouthLead to support Global LEAD, connecting thousands of young changemakers worldwide to resources and networks as well as YouthPower to share programmatic tools and learning with partners. Global LEAD aims to mobilize one million young leaders over the next five years to guide their countries' development on issues of education, civic engagement and leadership development. This builds on decades of work by USAID with young changemakers, higher-education institutions and faith-based organizations by engaging young people as partners in their own country's development. At the heart of Global LEAD is USAID's New Partnerships Initiative which works with local, new and underused youth-led and youth-serving organizations to accelerate progress in partner countries on the journey to self-reliance. Young people's talent, creativity and passion will be key to responding to and recovering from COVID-19. To help combat wide-spread disinformation around COVID-19, Global LEAD will enlist young digital leaders' social-media influence to help communicate accurate information on how people can stay safe. Last year USAID trained more than 320 000 young people to improve their job skills and civic engagement and through continued or new partnerships, USAID's collective work in implementing Global LEAD will advance global youth development throughout the world.