Partnering with young people

There are more than 2.4 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 29 today, many of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. They are inheriting a world that is experiencing major challenges: eroding social cohesion and rising inequality, growing global health threats, and proliferating crises, including violent conflict and the climate crisis.

Young people are advocates and changemakers who drive efforts to improve lives today and build a more equitable tomorrow. That’s why FHI 360 partners with young people to design and implement programs that meet their needs and build more inclusive, stable, peaceful and thriving communities and countries. Our work focuses on:

Generating and applying evidence to help young people thrive.
Promoting youth-led action on priorities that they define.
Championing positive youth development and accelerating local actors’ capacities to partner with and support young people.
Enhancing systems to ensure that they support and engage young people effectively, now and in the future.

Learn more about our approach through our youth development framework.

Our work with young people

Throughout various sectors, FHI 360 partners with young people to achieve four main aims:

Ropafadzo (left), Lindiwe (center) and Joyleen share what they believe are the most effective ways of preventing HIV infection during an HIV Prevention Ambassador training in Zimbabwe.

Supporting physical and mental well-being

Through our research and programs, young people benefit from more responsive health care services, including those that address sexual and reproductive health, HIV, gender-based violence, mental health and nutrition.

Friends Kauu and Jalo learn at a child-friendly facility in a conflict-affected community in Borno State, Nigeria in October 2023.

Enhancing education and skills

We support young people to access quality education and we promote career readiness. We also work with formal and nonformal education actors to integrate foundational skills into programs that promote vocational or technical skills and employability, entrepreneurship, civic participation, and healthy behaviors.

Seifeddine Ben Jannet (left) and Sahar Jaouachi work together during a Youth Leaders Network training session in Tunis, Tunisia.

Fostering civic and political participation

We partner with organizations that are led by and serve young people to encourage youth participation in local development and decision-making and to support young people to act on important issues.

Diljhairis Disla is a gastronomy student at the Instituto Técnico Superior Comunitario in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she is learning how to prepare food and cook in industrial kitchens.

Increasing economic participation and livelihoods

We support young job seekers to develop market-driven skills and access education, training and resources that improve their career readiness, employability, and entrepreneurship skills. We also work with the private sector to build a youth-inclusive business model and enhance the ecosystem for youth entrepreneurship.

Meet Sasha
Young people can effectively support HIV prevention efforts “because of our unique capacity for behavior change, influence within peer networks, openness to innovative approaches, and potential to reduce stigma,” says Amogelang (Sasha) Kekana, member of the MOSAIC project’s NextGen Squad.
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Meet Sumee
Sumee Sharma — who worked as an FHI 360 trainee in Kirtipur, Nepal’s municipal government — combined her passions for children and books into a book drive for under-resourced public schools. “The traineeship with FHI 360 helped me see what is possible,” she says.
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Meet Molatelo
Molatelo Boloka found a job as a construction worker after participating in an economic strengthening program put on by FHI 360’s Capacity Development and Support project in South Africa.
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