The Pan African Youth Movement serves as an umbrella platform uniting diverse youth organizations and formations across the African continent. Our membership brings together student unions, grassroots community initiatives, political youth movements, cultural and creative collectives, environmental groups, faith-based youth organizations, networks of young women and girls, youth with disabilities, and many more.
These organizations, while diverse in focus and background, share a common vision: advancing the agency, voice, and leadership of Africa’s young people. Through PAYM, they find a continental home that strengthens solidarity, amplifies their struggles, and provides a collective front to shape Africa’s future.
PAYM Promotes Youth Participation – At the core of the Pan African Youth Movement are the values of participation, solidarity, volunteerism, and youth influence. We believe in building communities where young people are connected, empowered, and actively shaping democracy, society, and development—locally, nationally, and across the continent.
PAYM works to ensure that the unique character and contributions of African youth organizations are recognized, supported, and strengthened. We are committed to developing our member movements and formations so they can create impactful, innovative, and meaningful initiatives for young people.
We engage across political, social, and cultural spaces to advance the interests of African youth organizations in dialogue with governments, institutions, and regional bodies. Through this advocacy, PAYM safeguards the space for youth participation and ensures that voluntary and independent youth formations thrive as vital pillars of Africa’s future.
Who We Are
The Pan African Youth Movement (PAYM) constitutes a continental umbrella platform that unites a multiplicity of youth organizations, networks, and formations across Africa. Its membership reflects the full spectrum of youth agency, encompassing national student unions, grassroots community initiatives, political and social movements, cultural and creative collectives, environmental and climate justice organizations, faith-based youth groups, youth-led enterprises, as well as associations of young women, girls, and youth with disabilities.
Although diverse in mandate and organizational form, these entities are bound by a shared aspiration: the advancement of the voice, agency, and leadership of Africa’s youth. PAYM provides not only a continental home for these formations but also a site of solidarity and convergence—amplifying their struggles, fostering mutual support, and enabling the construction of a collective front through which young people may actively shape Africa’s democratic, developmental, and cultural trajectories.
Vision & Mission
Our Vision
We envision an Africa in which young people, in all their diversity, are recognized and empowered as equal partners and leaders in shaping democratic governance, inclusive development, cultural renewal, and continental integration. We see a continent where youth-driven organizations and movements thrive as vital institutions of civil society, safeguarding the rights, dignity, and collective power of Africa’s peoples.
Our Mission
The mission of the Pan African Youth Movement is to consolidate, connect, and strengthen youth formations across Africa, ensuring that their unique contributions are acknowledged, their spaces for participation are protected, and their impact is amplified at local, national, regional, and continental levels. We exist to:
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Advance Youth Agency: Ensuring that young people are not only beneficiaries of development and democracy but are active leaders, decision-makers, and innovators.
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Safeguard Youth Civic Space: Defending the independence, autonomy, and legitimacy of youth organizations and movements against shrinking civic space and authoritarian tendencies.
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Build Continental Solidarity: Bridging diverse movements and communities to nurture pan-African unity and cooperation rooted in the lived realities of young people.
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Promote Meaningful Dialogue: Engaging governments, regional institutions, and global partners to advance policies and frameworks that recognize and respond to youth priorities.
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Strengthen Movements: Investing in the capacity, resilience, and sustainability of youth organizations so that they may deliver transformative initiatives for their communities.
What We Do
As a continental movement, PAYM’s work is grounded in movement-building, advocacy, solidarity, and youth empowerment. We engage across political, social, and cultural spaces to advance the interests of African youth by pursuing the following strategic priorities:
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Movement Consolidation and Networking
We provide an umbrella space for diverse youth movements to come together, exchange experiences, and strengthen their collective power. By creating structures of connection across national borders, we build a continental web of solidarity that allows youth organizations to learn, share, and mobilize together. -
Advocacy and Representation
PAYM serves as a continental voice for African youth in dialogue with governments, regional institutions such as the African Union, and international actors. We ensure that the perspectives and struggles of young people are represented in decision-making processes, policy frameworks, and multilateral engagements. -
Capacity Development and Support
Recognizing the uneven resources and support available to youth organizations, PAYM works to strengthen the organizational capacity of its members—through training, mentorship, solidarity support, and access to networks and opportunities. We aim to create resilient organizations that are equipped to deliver lasting impact in their communities. -
Defending Youth Civic Space
We monitor, document, and respond to threats against youth organizing—including repression, criminalization, and exclusion. PAYM advocates for legal, political, and cultural environments that respect the rights of youth to freely associate, express themselves, and participate in public life. -
Promoting Solidarity and Collective Action
Through regional campaigns, joint actions, and continent-wide mobilizations, PAYM strengthens the unity of African youth organizations in advancing shared struggles—whether for democracy, social justice, environmental protection, gender equality, or economic transformation. -
Cultural and Ideological Renewal
PAYM recognizes that Africa’s future cannot only be shaped in political and economic terms, but also through cultural and ideological transformation. We therefore promote the creative expressions, intellectual contributions, and collective imagination of young Africans as tools for advancing decolonization, identity, and renewal