Halfway through 2024, a landmark year for elections, the global community is seeing young people serve as active agents in countries’ civic and political processes, turning out to vote in large numbers, advocating for issues they care about, and motivating their peers and communities to do the same. While youth engagement around elections is critical, how can young leaders, practitioners, and civil society activists sustain youth engagement across the electoral cycle?

Drawing from IFES research on effective approaches to engaging young people in their communities and during elections, and the experience of programming across Africa, this session will explore innovative practices that have engaged young people in Africa through different phases of the electoral cycle. The objectives of this session are to share actionable and practical tips and strategies for supporting young people, in particular diverse groups of young people such as young people with disabilities, as civic and political leaders and to generate a knowledge exchange between panelists and the audience.

Participants will leave this session with new ideas of how to engage young people in alignment with the electoral cycle and what young leaders can do to advance their participation before, during, and after election periods.

* For more information, please contact Sarah Timreck (stimreck@ifes.org)