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Social Behaviour Change, Education and Job Creation

Young people empowering their peers to become Africa's ethical leaders of tomorrow...

Our Story

Africa’s youth are its greatest treasure, filled with potential, purpose, and the power to lead. At gold-youth, we see gold in every  young person and exist to help them discover it.

Founded in 2004, gold-youth was born from a vision of young Africans living purpose-filled lives and unlocking the continent’s full social and economic potential. Our name stands for “generation of leaders discovered” ; we believe that when youth rise as ethical leaders, communities transform.

Through our peer education model, we harness positive peer influence to spark lasting change, using an “each-one-reach-one” approach. In 2011, we expanded this vision with gold-youth Enterprises, a social enterprise that creates sustainable income to fuel our mission and provides future employment pathways for our alumni, gold Grads. From 2015, we established and grew this alumni network through community, connection, and opportunity pathways. By 2024 gold‑youth marked 20 years of youth‑led change and reflected on two decades of relationships, learning, and preparation for continental scale.

Today, gold-youth is a growing movement mobilizing young Africans to step into leadership, shaping a brighter future for themselves, their communities, and the continent.

We have an audacious goal:

To develop 10 million young African leaders with character and integrity to mobilize their generation with the knowledge, tools and support to reach their full potential, with concrete results in social behaviour change, education & job creation.

Our Structure

Through gold-youth‘s organizational structure, our solution is delivered in a way that leverages the benefits of both non-profit as well as for-profit entities to drive true impact across multiple countries. gold Youth Development Agency is legally registered in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, and Rwanda with gold Programmes operational in Kenya, DRC, Nigeria, and Uganda. gold-youth Enterprises is legally registered in South Africa and Rwanda. These two entities have been positioned to offer services to all gold countries of operation as required.

gold-youth Enterprises aims to provide solutions in emerging markets by leveraging the access to communities and human capital of our parent company’s youth programme. It consists of two divisions: gold Training and Consulting and gold Enterprise Development.

As we celebrate our 20thyear and reflect on our impactful journey- we also prepare for the next 20 years and look ahead to a future where 200 million young people are empowered to lead Africa’s transformation. The launch of the gold-youth Africa Foundation in 2025 will be positioned to be the outcomes-focused funding engine for this 20-year vision. The foundation, a mixed-benefit structure domiciled in Rwanda and partnering as a member of the Kigali International Finance Centre, will attract and recycle, through an ‘evergreen fund’ structure, donor, and social impact funding to:

 

  1. Seed and sustain our pan-African community-based gold peer education network
  2. Enhance our robust monitoring and evaluation systems and impact management capability
  3. Expand gold Model into traditionally under-served African countries and contexts
  4. Develop new methods for engaging, training, and supporting the next generation of Africa’s youth leaders and micro-entrepreneurs
  5. Invest in social ventures and enterprises that leverage the gold Grads talent and generate community-level economic growth and stability