About Us

The Challenge We Address

Throughout Africa, youth continue to be marginalized in the economic governance and public finance management of their nations. In 2023, an Afrobarometer research identified unemployment and economic mismanagement as the primary issues confronting young individuals aged 18–35 in Africa. The research identifies inadequate public finance management, deficient accountability procedures, and the misappropriation of public resources as the fundamental drivers of the crisis. Among the 11 most critical issues identified — corruption, poverty, food insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, and deficient education systems — most are directly associated with the allocation and expenditure of public finance.

In Zimbabwe, as of 2024, Afrobarometer research entitled “Keeping Up with the People’s Agenda: Popular Priorities for Government Action, and How They Are Evolving” indicated that concerns regarding economic management surged by 23% from 2013 to 2023, escalating from 21% to 44%, thereby highlighting issues of inadequate public finance management.  

Amid these realities and facts young people continue to be excluded from fiscal decision-making and civic oversight processes. It is within this gap that the Youth Accountability Initiative (YAI) emerges — to empower young Africans to engage in public finance accountability and natural resource governance. YAI exists to ensure that every coin is tracked, every decision justified, and every young person equipped to demand transparency, equity, and integrity in how Africa’s resources are managed. 

Philosophical Grounding

The  initiative believes the state as the parent of the society with a big role to play within the development aspect of the continent. Thus, makes the state a steward of public resources. This necessitates the profound need for the increased oversight  of the state to hold itself with a standard and systems that hinder the abuse, misallocation and misuse of public money. The initiative locates its informing inclination, from the idea of the social contract where citizens give the state, authority and resources through taxes, in exchange of service delivery. Citizens, including young people, fund the state mostly through taxes and natural resource revenue, therefore YAI believes that the same citizens should have a say in how public money is collected, how it is spent and what priorities it serves. This philosophical grounding is anchored by the concept of participation as a Democratic Right, that those affected by fiscal decisions including young people, must participate meaningfully in shaping those decisions, justifying our passion for youth to engage in civic participation. In congruent with the above, YAI exists because social contact obligations are often broken, young people bear the greatest cost of poor governance and fiscal decisions determine future opportunities for the youth majority. 

Vision

 A continent where young people shape and participate in people-centred public finance governance.  

Mission

To empower young people to track public finance and safeguard natural resources across the continent.