Travel Support
The Youth Plus Fund
The Agile Fund is NYFF’s rapid-response grant window. It is designed for moments that cannot wait for a standard grant cycle: emerging civic opportunities, time-bound policy windows, or urgent community needs where a fast, well-targeted intervention can produce outsized impact.
We are inviting applications from young leaders and youth-led organisations whose proposed intervention responds to a genuine, time-sensitive opportunity or need within one or more of the following thematic areas:
Objectives
1. Improve the quality and credibility of NYFF-supported youth participation in policy and civic spaces.
2. Position NYFF as a consistent, influential youth policy actor at national, regional, and global levels.
3. Ensure meaningful youth participation in high-level decision-making on governance or policy issues.
4. Establish a repeatable participation framework that builds institutional memory and learning.
5. Translate convening participation into tangible outputs that strengthen NYFF programming, advocacy, and visibility.
The Five Strategic Pillars
Purpose-Driven Selection
Participation is guided by strategic relevance to NYFF’s mission. Priority goes to applicants with a clear contribution plan — speaking roles, moderation, rapporteurship, or structured advocacy engagement.
Mandatory Pre-Convening Preparation
All beneficiaries go through policy briefings, contribution clinics, and expectation-setting sessions to ensure readiness and alignment with NYFF’s priorities.
Strategic Visibility & Representation
Supported participants operate as coordinated representatives, amplifying shared messaging and strengthening NYFF’s institutional visibility and positioning.
Post-Convening Accountability & Learning
Participation is tied to clear deliverables — policy briefs, learning sessions, content outputs, or integration into NYFF’s advocacy efforts.
Community Engagement & Pipeline Building
The Fund cultivates a Youth Plus Fellows Network to mentor future participants, showcase impact, and build a pipeline of policy-ready youth leaders.
Application Criteria
All requests for Youth Plus support — solicited or unsolicited — are assessed against five criteria. Requests that don’t meet a minimum threshold across these should not be supported.
Application Process
Send us an email via: nyff@leapafrica.org
Every supported participant submits a post-programme report covering:
1. Participation summary — sessions attended, role played
2. Key contributions — panels, interventions, engagements
3. Key learnings — 3–5 insights relevant to youth policy or civic engagement
4. Outcomes and opportunities — partnerships, policy influence, visibility for NYFF
5. Outcomes submitted — briefs, articles, recordings, or other content
Reflections and recommendations for strengthening future participation
1. More NYFF community members in formal speaking and leadership roles at convenings.
2. Stronger documentation of youth contributions and policy influence.
3. Enhanced visibility and credibility for NYFF within policy and civic ecosystems.
4. A growing repository of knowledge and learning informing NYFF’s work.
Every supported participant submits a post-programme report covering:
1. Participation summary — sessions attended, role played
2. Key contributions — panels, interventions, engagements
3. Key learnings — 3–5 insights relevant to youth policy or civic engagement
4. Outcomes and opportunities — partnerships, policy influence, visibility for NYFF
5. Outcomes submitted — briefs, articles, recordings, or other content
Reflections and recommendations for strengthening future participation
1. More NYFF community members in formal speaking and leadership roles at convenings.
2. Stronger documentation of youth contributions and policy influence.
3. Enhanced visibility and credibility for NYFF within policy and civic ecosystems.
4. A growing repository of knowledge and learning informing NYFF’s work.