PASGR and the Mastercard Foundation Partner to Implement a Three-Year Youth Employment Research Program

We are pleased to announce that the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and the Mastercard Foundation have partnered to implement a new multinational policy and practice-oriented research program on African Youth Pathways to Resilience and Systems Change (AYPReS). The program will focus on surfacing the voices of young people, particularly marginalized groups such as refugees and internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities, and youth in the informal economy. This partnership builds upon the success of the African Youth and Resilience (AYAR) project, which was implemented across seven countries between 2021 and 2024. The AYAR project explored the aspirations of young African women and men, focusing on their perspectives on dignified and fulfilling work.

By listening to young people’s perspectives, the research aims to offer valuable actionable insights into effective and responsive programs, policies, and practices for enabling access to dignified and fulfilling work. The new research will delve deeper into the factors that enhance youth resilience, emphasizing their lived experiences, voices, and agency, as well as their perceptions of sustainability and systems change. The program will be implemented across ten countries, namely, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Benin, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire.

We are deeply grateful to the Mastercard Foundation for their renewed commitment to partnering with PASGR in centering this research on young people, especially young women across Africa, to access dignified and fulfilling work and to contribute to lasting systems change across the continent.