Taksvärkki ry (Operation A Day’s Work Finland) will continue to work on youth rights, equal inclusion, and civic engagement during the new program period 2022–2025. Taksvärkki has received program support from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for four years (3 million in total). Taksvärkki Development Cooperation Program for 2022–2025 is named Meaningful Youth Participation in Sustainable Development.
For the 2022–2025 program period, there are partner organizations in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Guatemala and Nepal. The common goal of all program partners is youth empowerment and strengthening of youth participation in society. Target groups are e.g. girl school dropouts, youth living and working in the streets and schoolchildren from remote regions. Work continues to be based on human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.
There will be no significant changes in the content of development cooperation and in the composition of partner organizations implementing development cooperation projects, but the work will focus on the quality of work, effectiveness and learning from results. One new project will start in Mozambique after a break, but rest of the projects are continued by the old partner organizations.
Promoting youth participation in monitoring processes in Malawi
Taksvärkki’s development cooperation projects continue to work to strengthen youth rights. In Malawi, for example, our partner CYECE (Centre for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education) continues its project in the new program period. RPMEL Officer Aggie Bob Chang is contented that they can continue their work in promoting disability inclusion and supporting education of girls.
CYECE promotes the empowerment of young women and girls and increases their decision-making power in matters related to education, sexuality, sexual and reproductive rights and health. CYECE will provide trainings on sexual and health rights, economic development and advocacy work for youth and adult duty-bearers. Improving the youth access to social services will be strengthened by using of social accountability monitoring.
“New practices during this period are participatory processes in reviewing the transparency of public affairs management. Youth are trained to assess the accountability of the authorities. In addition, arts and sport will be promoted more for youth participation, Aggie Bob Chang says.”
Addressing global inequality via youth-led actions in Global Citizenship Education
Taksvärkki also supports meaningful youth participation in Finland. Taksvärkki continues its well-established and goal-oriented Global Citizenship Education in schools. The aim is also to involve, hear, and support youth in promoting equal and sustainable development. Global Citizenship Education challenges youth to address development issues and significance of equality and human rights. They encourage critical awareness and support youth-led action and advocacy. Taksvärkki’s annual fundraising campaigns encourages youth to work for equal rights.
Work on mainstreaming disability inclusion will be continued both in domestic work and in development cooperation. For example, the expertise of local stakeholders will be strengthened, and accessibility issues will be considered in practice. In addition, special attention will be paid to strengthening the elements of climate resilience in programs.
Read the whole program document: Taksvärkki Development Cooperation Program for 2022–2025