Ashoka
Project Title
For project support of a youth changemaker challenge for civic engagement in the U.S. and Sub-Saharan Africa
Date
Mar. 05, 2026
Duration
24 months
Description
While more than 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population and 52 percent of the world’s population are under thirty, formal political structures are dominated by older adults. According to UN Youth, fewer than 3 percent of parliamentarians globally fall within this age bracket. For forty-five years, Ashoka has leveraged its international network of social entrepreneurs to address this gap by developing youth leadership in the changemaking sector. To date, they have developed over 20,000 youth-led social ventures across thirty-seven countries and provided over $20 million in seed funding. With this proposed grant, Ashoka will build on past changemaker initiatives to launch the Carnegie Challenge for Civic Leadership. Working with ground-level partners to promote this initiative, the challenge will support over 1,000 youth aged twenty and below to identify solutions for civic issues in their communities across the U.S., Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Selected participants will receive prize money to launch and grow their projects, certification as civic leaders, and ongoing support within a strong global community of changemakers.