Youth Leadership Program
Since the 1960s, AWF has worked to foster the best and brightest minds to lead conservation in Africa. We collaborate with like-minded partners to train future conservationists and change agents, engage young people in conservation learning and advocacy, and mobilize youth to demand meaningful conservation action. All these efforts help create new generations of young people using their talent and creativity to protect Africa’s wildlife and essential ecosystems.
Latest News
AWF Launches Geospatial Leaders Fellowship for Africa’s Conservation Innovators
NAIROBI, Kenya – The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) today announced the launch of the AWF Geospatial Leaders Fellowship, a groundbreaking 10-month, hands-on training program designed to build an influential cadre of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professionals dedicated to solving Africa's most pressing conservation and development challenges.
Africa stands at a critical juncture. While hosting approximately 25 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, a foundation for economies and ecosystem services, the continent faces accelerating biodiversity loss, with wildlife populations declining by 76% in the last 50 years. This crisis directly impacts the more than 62% of rural Africans who depend on natural ecosystems for their livelihoods.
The AWF Geospatial Leaders Fellowship addresses this urgent need by equipping young African professionals with the advanced geospatial tools, data access, and solution-development skills required to put nature at the heart of Africa’s development agenda. The leaders will learn to transform spatial data into actionable intelligence for tracking deforestation, mapping wildlife corridors, mitigating human-wildlife…
How We Engage Youth
The AWF-Wall Youth Leadership Program
The AWF-Wall Youth Leadership Program offers nine-month fellowships along two tracks: international environmental policy and conservation management. Participants receive leadership training, professional opportunities, and intense mentorship and coaching support as they develop problem-solving skills through hands-on experience.
>>Learn more about the fellowships
Youth-Led Enterprises
We support young people to boost their income through enterprises that reduce pressure on biodiversity and increase climate change resilience. This includes a training curriculum with modules on business principles and ethics, business proposals, marketing, recordkeeping, financial management, and more.
>>Learn more about youth enterprise initiatives in Zimbabwe
Internships
We partner with the Africa Leadership University (ALU) to offer three-month internships for students to work with AWF programs at either our Nairobi headquarters or in our country offices. The internships allow students to make tangible contributions to conservation with the experience contributing to their required research capstone.
Kenyan Youth Biodiversity Network Co-Founder Kevin Lunzalu addresses youth participants at the 15th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022
Global Youth Biodiversity Network - Africa
We support the African chapter of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, or GYBN, by convening workshops and conferences that amplify African youth voices in biodiversity policy agendas.
Since 2018, we have facilitated workshops for country representatives of the GYBN, which is the official youth delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (or CBD, an international body of the United Nations that shapes global commitments to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and to fairly and equitably share the benefits of biological life), to help these young leaders prepare for deliberations.
We also co-convene the African Youth Summit on Biodiversity, which is a forum for young people from across the continent to highlight their priorities and organize concrete, youth-led action.
>>Learn about how young Africans are rallying for biodiversity
