JIACTIVATE for The Children's Investment Fund Foundation

Challenge + Opportunity

Youth in Kenya make up 80% of the population.* With the General Election taking place in August 2017, youth were being left out of the political and policy conversation. Furthermore, despite the size and potential influence of the Kenyan youth constituency, decision makers and the media perpetuate the false narrative that young people aren’t interested in participating in the political debate. *Youth = Individuals aged 35 years and below.

Theory of Change

If we:

Improve data collection and analysis, recommendation development, and distribution of insights on youth sentiments

Create a centralised and coordinated inter-youth group advocacy programme

Educate and mobilise the youth on how and why to engage in democracy, hold leaders accountable, and vote

Create a credible body—in the eyes of the youth and government, I/NGOs, and corporations—to collaborate and create youth-serving policies

We can:

Improve youth representation in local and national government

Action

Purpose commissioned a series of polls to understand what issues young people cared about and what issues they wanted leaders to address. We used this data to co-create JIACTIVATE with 8 youth-led partners that would put young people at the heart of the public conversation.

We created a new campaign brand identity utilizing the thumbprint. The thumbprint represents the element of individuality and the role each one has to play to actualize change. This also symbolizes the voting practice that is used by the Government of Kenya to mark registered voters. The use of the thumbprint also adopts the positive // negative hand gesture.

We developed an integrated campaign website with a campaign call-to-action to get youth to express themselves and share inputs for a Youth Declaration. Content shared by youth was displayed for website audiences, and when the Youth Declaration was complete, the website featured a downloadable Youth Declaration in Sheng & Swahili.

A trilogy of spoken word pieces performed by prolific spoken word artists in Kenya, from 3 different major counties.

On-ground engagement through forums and sports to find out how key issues affect the youth and to understand their solutions to them

Engaging with youth, alongside key influencers to converse on active citizenry and their future.

Utilized the networks of key influencers to communicate the goals and values of JIACTIVATE.

Arts and music festival in Nairobi CBD to sensitize youth on civic duty and participation.

The culmination of youth voices into one declaration. The foundation of a unifying set of values to influence policy making in Kenya.

The first national youth and Government forum that launched the Youth Declaration, which obtained endorsement from all major political parties.

Mini-documentary

A short, highly shared film depicting the lives of Kenyan youth and their sentiments towards the Kenyan political landscape.

Music Video

Performed by Fena & Redfourth Chorus that encapsulated the voice of the youth. Circulated on radio and live performances as seen in the video.

Since JIACTIVATE’s inception in 2017, it has significantly shaped perceptions and attitudes amongst and towards young people, and secured key improvements in youth representation in governance.

It has built youth group capacity, and enhanced understanding of government processes to establish three JIACTIVATE issue-based networks of youth groups to coordinate County and National level engagement and advocacy.