UNICEF partnered with the University of Pretoria to scale up various skill-building and capacities to respond to COVID-19 with a focus on youth. The pandemic came with serious impacts and likely future risks for the next generation in terms of reduced opportunities for employment, exposure to health, and social consequences that cannot be addressed without harnessing the diversity and energy from Higher Education. UP, through collaboration between 7 faculties and research centres, has several important flagship programs – such as One Health, One Hope, Food nutrition, communication, entrepreneurship – that can address COVID-19 challenges. With Future Africa coordinating this project, we work on 9 clusters, with more than 100 scientists actively engaged from various disciplines, to reach 2000 students in the next 5 months. The methodology of the UNICEF Youth empowerment under health and economic crisis project is to:

• Bring the whole COVID-19 team to work on the planning for the 6 months of the project implementation (August 2020 to January 2021);
• Ensure clear and focused objectives, which lead to a series of activities that the team should take forward;
• Aim to achieve the UNICEF project goals and impacts according to the 9 cluster delineation;
• Be informed/engaged about other activities being implemented in other clusters.

The open-access resources can be found by clicking on the following links:

1. Future Africa - 1 HOPE Webinar Series Part 1
2. Future Africa - 1 HOPE Webinar Series Part 2
3. Future Africa - 1 HOPE Webinar Series Part 3