First Session of the Youth Forum 2022

For more than 20 years, FES-Tanzania has been running a successful Young Leaders Program where youth from different backgrounds have been brought together to sharpen their skills for the leadership purposes. The main objectives of the program are to enable the young citizens to actively engage politically and to open up the institutions for citizen participation. The program intends to create a cadre of men and women who will instigate positive change to social, economic and political challenges facing the youth in Tanzania.

The program runs for up to six months each year, with two-day sessions per month. A group of 37 youths from Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar (Unguja and Pemba) met at FES Tanzania Makuti Venue for a first session on 23rd and 24th May.

Opening the first session of the program, FES Tanzania Resident Director, Elisabeth Bollrich urged the youths to be open-minded and embrace positive and critical thinking of things happening around them to help them develop their own vision and make the world a better place.

#YLF22: This is not a classical leadership program, it is designed to help young people have their own vision and change the rule of the game, says @elliwalks, @FESTanzania Resident Director as she opens the first session of the Youth Program 2022.
Watch Video pic.twitter.com/eGWKEDc2a5

— Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Tanzania May 24, 2022

Speaking during the session, participants said they were excited to be part of the program and are ready to learn to achieve their goals.
"This is the best platform to learn for me to be a great leader," says Godfrey.

In a span of six months, from May to November, the participants of the program will meet to learn and share experience on topics around democracy, solidarity, communication, public speaking etc.