“For real change to happen, the world needs more than words.” — Rubi, Youth Leader and former EMpower-supported programme participant from Delhi, India
Why youth?
Young people around the world are a force for positive change in their communities. In Rajasthan, girls are stepping into their own power by calling for improved access to toilets in schools. In the Philippines, young people are changing and expanding the way that health services are accessed. In Ghana and Nigeria, they are championing LGBTQ+ rights.
Yet, despite innumerable examples like these, young people are often seen as beneficiaries rather than protagonists. This outdated view limits their potential and undermines their capacity to lead transformative change. There is an urgent need to shift this perspective and recognise young people as key decision-makers and leaders.
The global interest in unlocking the “demographic dividend” presents both an opportunity and a pressing need to harness young people's potential. While the traditional asset-building approach remains crucial - ensuring universal access to healthcare, inclusive education, and productive livelihoods for abetter society - there is a growing recognition of the importance of young people’s agency in all of this.
When young people have the autonomy to make decisions across critical life aspects - such as health and family planning, education, if and when to get married, and beyond - they can significantly alter their life trajectories. This is especially true for those from resource-poor and marginalised settings. But for this to happen, those holding power need to shed old paradigms that silo decision-making in the hands of a few.
Young people as experts
At EMpower - The Emerging Markets Foundation, we have been engaging with young people as experts for nearly two decades now, recognising the valuable on-the-ground insights and wisdom that come from an intimate understanding of their specific contexts and lived experiences.
Through our girl-centred and girl-led initiatives, such as the Learning Community and the Girls Advisory Council in India and youth fellowships in Indonesia, South Africa, and Mexico, Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE) anchors our work.
In our experience, working together with peers who are also funding youth programmes has been instrumental in making real progress.
Recognising the white space in MYE
We realised early on that advancing youth leadership requires a radical shift in our perspectives around what we fund, who we fund, and why we choose to fund it. In our experience, working together with peers who are also funding youth programmes has been instrumental in making real progress. Starting early on this path of meaningful youth engagement has helped us identify key gaps in the market when it comes to adopting participatory approaches while working with young people:
- Participatory approaches have not yet become mainstream, often involving only a limited group of stakeholders with nascent interconnection
- Efforts by peers at local and policy levels are often disconnected, with initiatives being costly and not widely applicable
- Collaborative spaces for co-learning and collective influence are scarce, leading to siloed learning and limited cross-sector interaction
- The discourse on participation tends to exist within an echo chamber
- Global youth councils often become tokenistic and extractive, with a few young voices representing many
- Many youth engagement programmes focus solely on one aspect of the programmatic lifecycle.
Empowering Her Voice: a fund anchored in collaboration
At EMpower, we are gearing up to launch Empowering Her Voice (EHV) – a collaboration across all levels of the ecosystem, from local communities to high-level policymaking. EHV is seeded by Ford Foundation and already supported by a diverse range of funders, from Arisaig Partners, an investment management firm based in Singapore, to EdelGive Foundation, a philanthropic foundation in India and Porticus Asia. We aim to foster environments for co-learning and leadership, integrating experienced funders with newcomers.
EHV helps collaborators connect across ecosystems and move beyond echo chambers into new advocacy spaces. It approaches the programmatic lifecycle holistically. The fund blends participatory methods, including grant-making and youth-led research, centring young people's voices in decision-making, allowing for impactful delivery at scale. EHV applies global best practices while tailoring approaches to local contexts, ensuring that initiatives are both effective and contextually relevant.
EHV is designed to mobilise resources towards adolescent girl leadership, youth protagonism, and support ecosystems. This initiative unites funders, private and public sectors, community-based organisations, and governments to champion youth agency at all levels. By deploying funding at scale to local organisations, EHV ensures young leaders are supported to design and implement sustainable programs tailored to their specific needs and contexts, emphasising participatory methods where young people, especially girls, co-design programmes and are involved in decision-making within organisations.
We see our collaborators as active participants of the fund. Our ambition is to move the needle by convening the private sector, the public sector, community-based organisations, and governments to learn and unlearn together and to champion the agency of young people.
Pathways to engagement
We are seeking a small number of supporters who are excited by the opportunity to:
- Collaboratively fund youth-led programming
This includes:
- Supporting girls in making decisions about grants to community-based groups that advance girl leadership and meaningful youth participation and directly impact young people's lives
- Strengthening the capacity of grantee partners to develop and implement sustainable programmes with and for girls.
- Learn and lead together through an ambitious learning agenda
As an active participant, you will have the opportunity to:
- Participate in a series of webinars and in-person events to learn together
- Participate in global discussions and events that amplify youth voices and in order to influence the adoption of participatory approaches
- Distil learning and evidence that will inform our approach with policymakers to make a wider impact for and with young people.
A vision powered by youth leadership
We stand shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues who are doing outstanding work to advance meaningful youth engagement. The Empowering Her Voice fund seeks to leverage these partnerships to enable collective transformation in philanthropy to shift the needle towards increased youth protagonism. By mobilising resources, fostering collaborations, and scaling effective practices, we seek to empower young leaders to drive lasting change in their communities.
We envision a future where those funding youth programmes actively listen to the wisdom of young people living at the margins. We see this approach as crucial for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. And we have a unique opportunity to move the needle in this direction. Our commitment is to engage young people authentically, avoiding extractive or tokenistic practices, and to catalyse a seismic shift in youth leadership and agency over the next five years. As the momentum of investing in youth-led change builds, now is the time to act boldly.
Get involved
Read how funders can get involved in this collaboration opportunity on the Funders Collaborative Hub
