A collection of real stories from young people, showing what shifting power looks like in practice, not as a theory.
We re-imagined what the 7 dimensions of localisation would look like in the context of child and youth-led change. This is what we came up with:
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Equipping young people with knowledge and skills to organise sustainable citizen-led movements
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Enabling young leaders to build alliances with each other and partners to advocate for change with a powerful voice at the highest levels
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Mainstreaming equity and inclusion both within and outside Shift so that even the most marginalised groups gain representation within change movements.
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Nurturing channels and platforms between young people, policy actors, decision-makers and community members to usher change
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Ensuring greater recognition of young people’s passion, contribution, effort, innovation and impact on society
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Securing greater access to both quantity and quality (flexible, longer-term, predictable, fair, independent) of funds.
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Moving towards genuine and meaningful relationships with young people where they become equal partners
ALL STORIES
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ALL STORIES ☺️
How Cryptocurrency Can Solve the Direct Funding Challenge
Despite our organisation’s commitment to shift power to young people and communities, an elephant in the localisation room still remains: how can we give young people access to independent financing.
AGAINST ALL ODDS: How Ntcheu Shifters secured funding and continue to change lives
If you told me that an informal group of young people from a rural district of Malawi, with mostly secondary school qualifications, would go on to win funding within two years of campaigning, I’d say, “That’s not possible”. This can no longer be said ever since Ntcheu Shifters came onto the scene.
When Grace Sichula first encountered SHIFT in 2022, she was a young volunteer at Malawi's National Youth Network on Climate Change. She had never heard of SHIFT. But something clicked. By the time she and a group of like-minded young people had formalised their ideas into a registered organisation, the Shift Power Organisation (SPO), Grace had become the kind of leader that turns a room of 15 students into a movement.