Opportunity Title: Africa CDC Youth Pre-Conference (YPC) 2024 | Funding available

Applications are now open for the Africa CDC Youth Pre-Conference (YPC) 2024.

The Africa CDC will hold the 2024 Africa CDC Youth Pre-Conference (YPC 2024) in Rabat, Morocco on November 23-24, 2024, with the theme “Amplifying Youth Voices: Youth Shaping Health Policy, Practice, and Research in Africa”.

Its goal is to highlight the remarkable contributions that young Africans are already making in health policy, practice, and research, as well as to investigate how to broaden engagement with and empower these young leaders to transform the health sector in Africa.

The YPC 2024 will feature six tracks where youth are already leading the charge:

• Youth and Digital Health Innovations
• Empowering Youth: Workforce/Talent Development for Job Opportunities
• Youth for the Advancement of Local Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
• Youth Championing Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS
• Youth Health Advocates supporting CHWs activities and Programmes
• Youth and One Health for a Healthier Future

Sponsorship

• Sponsorships are available for accepted abstracts/article/commentary. Only one sponsorship per abstract will be granted. Co-authors and collaborators are not eligible for the sponsorship. Granted sponsorships are non-transferrable.

Eligibility

• Applicants should be 18 to 35 years;
• Applicants must be a citizen of an AU member State;
• Have an educational background (at least enrolled as undergraduate) and first professional experiences in health and health-adjacent disciplines. Extensive work experience in public health may be used as a supplement by applicants holding degrees unrelated to health sciences or public health.
• Participants must demonstrate leadership potential and strong commitment to public health engagement through involvement in youth-led health initiatives, advocacy, or community organising.

They recognise the importance of ensuring youth with various marginalised and underserved identities and backgrounds benefit equally from their initiatives.

Therefore, gender, geographical balance (representation of all AU Member States), ethnic and social diversity, disability status, etc. will be considered in the final selection of participants.

Application

• Submit your CV and a 300-word abstract or article relating to the track of your choice.

Guidelines for submission can be found below:

Article/Abstract Submission Guidelines:

• The abstract/article must be clearly aligned with the track of choice (one among the 6 tracks) and must be related to youth in Africa.
• The abstract/article should only be submitted once and only under one of the six tracks. Submission of the same abstract under multiple tracks will likely result in the rejection of your application.
• The abstract/article must not exceed 300 words.
• Participants can choose one of following submission options for their application:
  • Option 1: Policy or implementation project abstract on the theory of change behind or lessons learnt through policy or program development, planning, and/or implementation.

Submissions under this option must contain:

• title and list of authors,
• background,
• description of the project/policy,
• theory of change behind policy/program or lessons learnt during implementation (including best practices), and
• conclusion demonstrating the significance for the track of choice.
  • Option 2: Article or commentary with a title and clear thesis on an issue connecting African youth to the selected track. The article/commentary must demonstrate a nuanced and expert understanding of the topic/track chosen.
  • Option 3: Research abstract to report research findings.

Submissions under this option must contain:

• title and list of authors,
• background,
• research methods,
• results (disaggregated by age/gender if possible), and
• conclusions demonstrating the significance of the findings to the track chosen.