The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs is part of a five-year, $60 million, USAID-funded Integrated Youth Activities (IYA) project led by Amref Health Africa to help empower young people in Ethiopia with the knowledge and skills they need to live successful lives.
The project, an integrated activity that will allow Ethiopian youth to co-create, implement and lead, is called Kefeta, an Amharic word which means elevate. The goal is to enable Ethiopian youth, ages 15 to 29, to advance their own economic, civic and social development, to be resilient in the face of instability and, ultimately, prepare them to contribute to the country’s peace and prosperity.
People between 15 and 29 account for a third of urban population, and another third are below the age of 15. Youth unemployment is at 25 percent. Kefeta targets 2 million young people in 18 cities, building their skills and their capacity for advocacy, linking them to economic opportunities and improving their access to youth-friendly services.
Working with a large consortium of international and local NGOs working, CCP is amplifying the voices of young people through storytelling, designing and implementing a youth mobilization strategy, creating mass and social media campaigns with youth input and training in strategic communication to enable them to build campaigns from the ground up.
CCP also works to improve the interpersonal skills for health providers and educate them about how to counsel young people about family planning and sexual and reproductive health in a youth-friendly manner.
