Youth engagement · 2025
Programs · SDGs 2030
Youth Empowerment
Young people in the rooms where global policy is made — sponsored, mentored, and writing it up in their own words.
About the programme
Equipping young people to lead on the issues that shape their future.
Over 60% of Africa's population is under 25, yet young people remain significantly underrepresented where policy is made. Youth Empowerment puts them in those rooms. The foundation sponsors and mentors young people into the United Nations ECOSOC Youth Forum, and has sent delegates every year since 2023.
In 2023 Francis Koroma joined a forum panel on clean water and sanitation. In 2024 an FKF delegate presented the foundation's work alongside government officials and grassroots organisations, and that autumn another sat in on negotiations and resolution drafting at the 79th UN General Assembly. In 2025 three delegates attended — and wrote the forum up in their own words rather than the foundation's.
Closer to home, the foundation joins young leaders in Sierra Leone for dialogue with the people who set youth policy, as it did at Unfiltered 2.0 with the Minister of Youth Affairs and the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs.
- Years of delegates at the ECOSOC Youth Forum
- 3
- Delegate reports, in delegates' own words
- 5
- UN General Assembly, with an FKF delegate
- 79th
Inside the programme
What the programme offers
UN delegations
Sponsorship and mentorship that carries young people into the ECOSOC Youth Forum and the General Assembly.
Their own accounts
Delegates publish what they saw and learned under their own names, on this site.
Policy dialogue
Direct conversation with ministers and UN officials on the issues that shape young people's futures.
SDG advocacy
Work grounded in the Sustainable Development Goals — from quality education and gender equality to clean water.
From the record
Stories from the programme
Explore further
Other foundation programs
- EducationScholarship ProgrammeTuition, books and meals for high-achieving students who face financial barriers.
- LeadershipMentorship NetworkOne-to-one guidance through the leap from school to university and beyond.
- CommunityCommunity ServiceScholar-led projects that give back to the communities we serve.
- Global engagementSpeaker SeriesLeaders from every field sharing their stories, live and on record, with the next generation.
- CareersInternshipsPaid and unpaid summer placements in real roles, running the foundation's own work.
Help a young person take the next step
Take part in the work, or support it with a gift. Every contribution moves a student forward.