The Dawn of
Flourishing Youth Futures

Reimagining and Advancing Youth Agency in East and Southern Africa
Futures initiatives designed for youth, led by youth

This project positions youth in East and Southern Africa not as passive beneficiaries, but as active agents of change, already cultivating grassroots innovations. It moves beyond passive foresight exercises to foster action-oriented anticipation, equipping young changemakers to actively enact the futures they envision.

From research to policy advocacy: a participatory, action-oriented journey

Grounded in participatory futures and action research, the project engaged young people as co-researchers, placing those most affected by systemic challenges at the centre of understanding and transforming them. This values-driven approach enabled youth to co-develop real-world interventions, experiments and prototypes, embedding futures thinking in lived, contextual action.

Beyond skills: capacity-building for flourishing African youth futures

The project provided holistic capacity-building that extended beyond conventional training to strengthen competencies in strategic foresight, relational systems thinking, and complexity navigation. It fostered new ways of thinking and doing—developing futures-literate systems thinkers equipped with a renewed sense of purpose and the anticipatory skills needed to drive long-term, transformative change.

Project Background

This multi-phase initiative addresses the pressing challenge of planning for future skills in East and Southern Africa, a region undergoing rapid economic and social change. While opportunities are expanding, many young people still lack the skills and support systems needed to thrive. Education and training systems often struggle to keep pace, leaving youth unprepared for the complex realities of today’s workforce.

In response, the Youth and Social Justice Futures project (August 2022 to November 2023) placed young people at the centre of the conversation. Through conducting futures literacy labs held in six countries, youth were engaged as co-researchers, exploring intersecting social justice issues and shaping bold visions for more inclusive and responsive futures.

Building on this foundation, the Youth Futures for Systemic Justice project (October 2024 to May 2025) focused on turning vision into action. It supported youth innovators with strategic foresight and complexity-informed thinking to design and test practical responses. The project developed collaborative and anticipatory strategies aimed at advancing economic wellbeing, ecological resilience and systemic justice, with youth agency and futures literacy at the core.

Our Futures Journey

In East and Southern Africa, young people are already shaping bold, hopeful alternatives. Through these two connected projects, we supported youth to reimagine futures not as distant dreams, but as realities being built today. This was more than research. It was a process of reclaiming agency, shifting power, and turning anticipation into action. From local barter economies to regenerative food systems, youth-led innovations emerged as possible seeds of systemic justice.

As part of the process we:

  • Mapped patterns, challenges, and seeds of transformation across the regions.
  • Built capacity to question assumptions, imagine alternatives, and act with purpose.
  • Equipped participants with skills in policy, storytelling, and anticipatory governance.
  • Created shared visions and roadmaps for just, inclusive futures.
  • Brought young voices directly into decision-making spaces, as equal partners.

Project Resources

Portals to Possible Futures

ESA Journeys to 2035

Explore the journeys of 6 countries experimenting with futures literacy and foresight in reimagining flourishing ESA youth futures.

Results from our Futures Literacy Labs and Three Horizons Workshops show the powerful potential of peer-led participatory action research..

Report & Policy Briefs

Our collective imagination leveraged as collective intelligence informed our policy recommendations.

The Special Report offers further reflection and insights on project design, process, outcomes and more broadly, reimagining social justice for and by ESA youth.

Resource Repository

Explore our growing multimedia collection sharing diverse approaches at the intersections of youth, futures literacy, foresight, and prominent social justice issues.

We invite your additions, specific and relevant to the African context: please share your inspiration!

planting seeds of radical imagination

with youth voices at the heart of engagement

Kenyan Youth

“This experience is a game-changer for me. I feel like I’ve unlocked a secret power that we, as young people, possess — the power to be the architects of our own destiny.”

Zambian Youth

“My perspective on the future has changed about the actors of future development: us young people do have the power to influence the future that we want.”

S. African Youth

“These workshops challenged my thinking. It made me realise that I should not look down on the ideas I get and to start making my ideas come true.“

Ugandan Youth

“The workshops equipped me with the tools and perspectives that can shape a future that aligns with my aspirations.”

Malawian Youth

“I am learning how to build youth agency and how youth can redefine power relationships and be relevant in their communities.”

Tanzanian Youth

“I enjoyed that there were no right or wrong answers. Futures workshops should reach more participants to cover the entire country.”

Changemaker

“This process has given me a different approach to coming up with solutions and ideas. Today, I will help more young people think not just about making money, but about long-term impact.”

Seed Initiative

“On a personal level, I’ve started to embrace uncertainty with more confidence, knowing that the future is not set in stone but something we actively shape. This has allowed me to be more adaptable, open to innovation, and willing to experiment with new approaches in both my advocacy and leadership.”

Seed Initiative

“I learnt to recognise the strength in our diversity and had the opportunity to immerse myself in the practice of inclusive innovation with key youth ecosystem actors across Eastern and Southern Africa.”

Changemaker

“The summit gave me a renewed sense of purpose in my work. It provided tools and frameworks that I can immediately apply to my ecosystem. This experience has deepened my commitment to systemic justice and connected me with a community of like-minded individuals to continue learning from.”

Changemaker

“This was my first community-of-practice learning experience, where I got to engage with, draw from, be challenged by, and contribute to others’ understanding of the development issues the continent faces — especially from such a diverse group of sector experts. It truly has been a unique experience for me.”

Key numbers

Measuring the impact on Youth Futures in Africa

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Partners

The Partners

Southern Africa Node of the Millennium Project

Youth and Social Justice Futures
Project Co-Lead

The SA Node is as a public benefit organization which functions as a free and voluntary association of individuals and networks that are interested in foresight in Southern Africa. The SA Node’s objectives are to: Spread the culture of futures thinking in the region; Deepen expertise in futures amongst institutions and individuals in southern Africa; and Galvanise and mobilize southern African experts and networks to participate in the activities of the Millennium Project which is a global foresight network.

Twaweza

Youth and Social Justice Futures
Project Co-Lead

Twaweza undertakes effective public and policy engagement, through powerful media partnerships and global leadership of initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership. Citizen agency is at the heart of Twaweza, and this has taken on different approaches, one being the Participatory Action Research (PAR) in the different districts in Uganda and Tanzania. PAR aims to demonstrate how citizens can come together to collectively address their systematic problems and make government work better for them.

Miet Africa

Youth and Social Justice Futures
Project Co-Lead

For over 20 years MIET AFRICA has assisted Ministries of Education to strengthen their education systems so that they are better able to address barriers to learning, all towards securing the education rights of the region’s children and youth. As an African NGO and an innovator of education approaches, the organization is able to make a significant contribution to sustainable development in the region. Through strong partnerships, it has pioneered many development models and programmes, and its influence extends across Africa and beyond.

The Centre for Sustainability Transitions

Youth Futures for Systemic Justice Project
Project Co-Lead

The Stellenbosch Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) is a Stellenbosch University ‘flagship’ initiative established in 2015. This initiative brings together complexity thinking, sustainability science and transdisciplinary research methodology. Research at the CST is largely conducted in collaborative inter- and transdisciplinary teams that draw in expertise from different disciplines as well as from policy, practice and local stakeholders. Much of the research is funded by external project grants, and students are part of the larger project teams which provides additional opportunities for learning and research support. CST has multiple cross-cutting research themes including governance, entrepreneurship & Innovation, social-Ecological Resilience, decoupling & Resource Flows, complexity & Systems Modelling, and transdisciplinarity.

Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Youth Futures for Systemic Justice Project
Project Co-Lead

The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCT Graduate School of Business is a globally ranked centre of excellence dedicated to advancing social innovation and entrepreneurship. Its mission is to build capacity and knowledge – with partners, practitioners and students – to advance the discourse and systemic impact of social innovation. In collaboration with the UCT GSB, the Centre has integrated social innovation into the business school curriculum, established a wide community of practitioners and awarded over R8 million in scholarships to students from across Africa. Its work covers various sectors including innovative finance, systems change, social entrepreneurship, education, youth development and healthcare.

South African Institute of International Affairs

Lead Project Organiser

The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) is an independent public policy think tank advancing a well-governed, peaceful, economically sustainable, and globally engaged Africa. SAIIA’s work spans foreign policy, governance and environment, economic policy, and social development linking local experiences with global debates. SAIIA’s membership base spans a wide range of private sector companies, diplomatic missions institutions, students, and individuals who have an interest in international affairs.

The African-generated knowledge provides local and regional decision-makers with independent, evidence-based options for Africa’s future development. SAIIA provides an open platform for the public to engage with these issues and facilitate discussions between a wide variety of partners. The public outreach activities inspire the students to take an interest in international and help to develop research and leadership skills.