YDCatOGP

YDCatOGP: Empowering Youth to Drive Open Government

The Youth Democracy Cohort is committed to advancing youth political participation at the national and local level. Through its collaboration with OGP, the YDC amplifies youth voices in the development of National Action Plans, making sure young people’s priorities inform decision-making and governance reforms.

Our collaboration is based on the following joint objectives:

• Raise awareness about the core principles of open governance among a young audience and build the next generation of decision-makers.
  
• Strengthen youth engagement in OGP processes, including in the co-creation of national and local action plans. 
• Advance the design and implementation of ambitious youth-related policy reforms

Our approach

The YDC provides technical and financial support, aiming to achieve meaningful youth engagement in OGP processes through:

Meet 9 Youth Delegates Going to the OGP Global Summit 2025

Country Highlights

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🇱🇷 Liberia – From Consultation to Commitment: Youth Leading Liberia’s OGP Journey

In Liberia, the YDC and the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) have pioneered youth-driven participation in the co-creation of the 5th National Action Plan:

• Organizing the first national youth consultation on open government, directly informing Liberia’s NAP.
• Engaging youth from diverse backgrounds, including persons with disabilities
• Promoting sustained youth inclusion through ongoing advocacy, capacity-building, and institutionalized participation
• As National Program Manager of FLY, Samuel successfully lobbied the Ministry of Youth and Sports to launch an OGP Challenge, with FLY cited as an implementation partner. For a detailed account of this experience, you can read the full article here.

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🇧🇯 Bénin – Generation OGP: culture, youth and democracy in motion

In Benin, our project with the Association des Blogueurs du Bénin (ABB) under the Digitalise Youth subgrant is actively engaging youth to influence the country’s first National Action Plan:

• Training 30 youth leaders through a digital bootcamp
• Launching a nationwide campaign to reach 5,000+ citizens in four months
• Gathering youth priorities via an online consultation on blogueurs.bj
• Convening a national dialogue with youth, civil society organizations, and government stakeholders to co-create reforms

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🇳🇬 Nigeria – Youth Voices Driving Nigeria’s Open Government Commitments

In Nigeria, we work with the PROMAD Foundation and co-funding from the Nigeria Youth Future Fund (NYFF) to empower 300 youth in the co-creation of the fourth National Action Plan:

• Regional dialogues in Oyo, Rivers, and Nasarawa states, plus a national forum in Abuja
• Over 1,000 applications received from young people to participate in the dialogue events
• Coordinated joint youth submission led by YIAGA Africa and by the 60 YDC members from Nigeria

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🇪🇨 Ecuador – Young Ambassadors for Open Governement

In Ecuador, our collaboration with Datalat focuses on engaging first-time youth participants in the co-creation of the third National Action Plan:

• Supporting 29 youth participants in three regional roundtables
• Prioritizing first-time participants from youth collectives and grassroots organizations
• Providing ongoing support, including pre-dialogue training, on-site mentoring, and post-event follow-up

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🇲🇼 Malawi

In Malawi, our collaboration with Section 30 supported youth participation in the co-creation of the third National Action Plan:

• Section 30’s Executive Director, Rehema Patricks participated in a high-level panel discussion at the OGP Africa and Middle East Regional Meeting which led her to be invited to the OGP National Action Plan co-creation process.
• Section 30 was formally invited to the OGP Steering Committee and played a big role in passing a commitment: Commitment 10 on enhancing access to public data and information through e-government platforms – with Rehema cited as the Commitment Lead.

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About OGP

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that brings together governments and civil society to promote transparency, accountability and citizen participation. Participating countries develop National Action Plans (NAPs) that outline concrete reforms to improve governance, reduce corruption and actively involve citizens in decision-making.

OGP Youth Collective

Launched at the 2019 OGP Global Summit in Ottawa in partnership with Accountability Lab, the OGP Youth Collective serves as a global network for young reformers to shape open government commitments, connect with peers, and collaborate with governments, civil society, and multilateral partners. 

There are two membership options:

👉 Learn more about the OGP Youth Collective here.