The AU-EU Youth Lab’s Official Launch was a success!

On October 14, the AU-EU Youth Lab programme held its highly anticipated kick-off ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in the AU-EU youth collaboration. The event brought together key partners from the AU-EU Youth Voices Lab and AU-EU Youth Action Lab, inspiring youth leaders, program participants, and distinguished guests from across Africa and Europe. We were honored to participate in a day dedicated to amplifying youth voices and empowering young leaders to shape a more inclusive future!

The event began with vibrant networking sessions, workshops, and breakout discussions that set the tone for a day focused on engagement, empowerment, and connection. A few members of our Youth Advisory Board and young people from the EU-Ethiopia Youth Sounding Board were also present and engaged in the discussions. Collaborative workshops took place after the introductions and presentations of the programme, and young people from all over Africa got involved in discussing and drafting the youth priorities for the AU-EU partnership frameworks. Adding to the day’s creative energy, young street artists collaborated to create a vibrant graffiti mural on canvas, symbolizing the power and solidarity of youth. This evolving artwork, later joined by our distinguished guests of honor who added their personal touches, was a powerful representation of the event’s spirit of collective expression.

The kick-off ceremony that followed this event held inspiring addresses by African and European decision-makers who underscored the importance of youth involvement in global policy design and implementation. Moderated by Bitania Lulu Berhanu, former EU Special Advisor on Youth, the panel included high-profile speakers such as H.E. Jutta Urpilainen, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships; H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, AUDA NEPAD CEO; H.E. Javier Niño Pérez, EU Ambassador to the African Union; and Ms. Prudence Ngwenya, AUC Women, Gender and Youth Director.

One particularly resonant moment was H.E. Jutta Urpilainen’s call to action: “With 1.8 billion young people in the world, but only 2.8% of MPs being young, it’s time young people had a seat at the table and their voices heard.” Her words powerfully aligned with the mission of AU-EU Youth Voices Lab to foster youth-led leadership and inspire our generation to participate actively in shaping policies that affect us all.

And so, the journey has begun. With more than 3 years to go, we will continue to work toward lasting change through collaboration, creative expression, and collective action.

This is the power of the collective.