Isonga Youth Sounding Board

TERMS OF REFERENCE
ANNEX 1

1. Context

1. Context Approximately 78 percent of Rwandans are below 35 years of age, making youth a key driver for economic growth. However, Rwanda’s low levels of human capital are one of the most critical obstacles to the country realising its developmental aspirations, including for youth. According to Rwanda’s 2023 Labour Force Survey, the youth unemployment rate stands at 21.0%, highlighting the substantial challenges young job seekers face, such as lack of experience and limited access to the job market1 . Furthermore, the quality of education remains a challenge at all levels, with less than 10% of young people attending university. Providing work, entrepreneurship opportunities, skills development and other opportunities for youth to play a key role in the country’s development is hence key. On this background, the government of Rwanda has placed youth at the centre of all interventions targeting the economic recovery plan, including entrepreneurship programs that incubate businesses, mentor and finance young leaders. Rwanda’s economic development strategy is largely aimed at diversifying the economy towards high productivity knowledge-based sectors, which requires a well-educated and highly skilled labour force. Youth empowerment is also a top priority for EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and the EU believes that young people must be involved in shaping and implementing its external action. In 2020, the EU launched its first Youth Sounding Board, a group of young people who advise the Commissioner and the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) on youth participation and empowerment in EU external action. This allows young people to have an influence on EU external action and international partnerships and thereby contributes to make EU action more participatory, relevant and effective for young people in EU partner countries, across all political priorities. More information can be found on a dedicated webpage: https://international- partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/youth/youth-sounding-board_en Since then several EU Delegations across the world have created their own Youth Sounding Boards, adapting the functioning and objectives to the realities of each country. https://statistics.gov.rw/publication/2138 and chrome- extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://lmis.rdb.rw/media/resources/RW_LFS2023_Annual_re port_web_2.pdf

2. Objectives of the Isonga Youth Sounding Board

• To create a platform for on-going dialogue between the EUD and youth, including youth organizations and networks, in order for the EU programming to continue being relevant and useful for youth.
• To create an opportunity for young people to be involved and contribute to the formulation and implementation of EU programming and policies in Rwanda, ensuring that the voices of young people are heard and taken into account.
• To incorporate youth perspectives and foresights in the work of the EU Delegation, including future programming, which in turn appropriately respond to the key challenges and opportunities of youth in Rwanda.
• To provide selected youth with the opportunity to uplift different skill sets and connect with youth from other African and European countries, namely through trainings and events.
• To integrate youth ambassadors into the promotion of EU events and programmes, including on social media, as well as to receive input on how to best communicate and involve youth in communication activities.
• To empower young people by providing them with a platform to contribute to decision-making processes that affect their lives and communities.

2.1 Functions of the Isonga Youth Sounding Board

• Informing: The IYSB will serve as a knowledge hub for both the EU and the IYSB Members to exchange information and share ideas. The IYSB will keep the EUD informed of the most important issues for young people, emerging trends, concerns, opportunities, and constraints. The EU will inform the IYSB of their actions in Rwanda and engagement or support to youth.
• Advising: The IYSB will play a role in advising the EUD in designing, implementing, and monitoring programmes and strategies with an impact on youth as well as reflecting through foresights. It creates a forum to influence decisions through offering opportunities to young people to provide feedback, express opinions, and share new ideas and solutions on issues affecting them.
• Training and Networking: The EUD will provide the members of the Isonga Youth Sounding Board with different networking and training opportunities, including but not exclusively in the field of foresight and visibility.
• Communication and Visibility: The EUD and the IYSB shall ensure effective communication and visibility of the activities of the IYSB. This will help to raise awareness on the purpose of youth engagement in EU programming in Rwanda. The EUD will furthermore provide the IYSB members with visibility opportunities, including social media campaigns, speaking and participating in events.

3. Selection Criteria

The European Union is committed to the promotion of fundamental rights, non-discrimination, and equal opportunities for all. All applications will be evaluated impartially and without bias.

• Age: The IYSB targets youth between the ages of 18 – 30 years. The IYSB shall have a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 10 members.
• Knowledge and experience: The youth selected to be IYSB members will participate in the development and monitoring of the EU actions in Rwanda. Members should have knowledge, experience, or demonstrated interest in topics such as climate change, higher education, digital learning, urbanization, disability actions, youth employment/entrepreneurship, culture actions, human rights/inclusion, refugee support actions, and peace-building actions.
• Geographic representation: To ensure adequate representation of youth across the country, the selection will balance candidates from the capital, secondary cities, urban, and rural areas.
• Gender representation: At least 50% of the IYSB members will be women.

4. Tenure

As the normal rule, the IYSB members will serve for a period of eighteen months. A member of the IYSB can cease to be a member at any time before the expiration of the eighteen months-period. The EUD, upon considering a member inactive, can also terminate its membership. A new member can fill the vacant position.

5. Administration of IYSB Activities

The IYSB will meet virtually or physically when needed and at a minimum of three times at the EUD in a year (November-January, February, July, and September). If more meetings are needed, they can be set throughout the year. Specific thematic or operational meetings can be held several times a year and may or may not include all members of the IYSB. Meetings can be called by the EUD or by The EUD will organise an induction meeting and trainings to introduce the IYSB concept to the members, refine its objectives and functions with input from the members and develop plan of activities to complete in the period of 18 months. . The EUD will set up a final meeting at the end of the operational year to evaluate overall performance and organise the handover to the next IYSB members. The IYSB members may organise themselves and set up their own preparatory or evaluation meetings. The IYSB under close support of Altair, will be responsible for the administration of the IYSB activities, including taking minutes of meetings, developing meeting agenda and logistics, under the supervision of the EUD.

6. Communication and Visibility

The EUD and the IYSB shall ensure effective communication and visibility of the activities of the Isonga Youth Sounding Board, as well as the active participation of its members in different communication activities throughout the year.

7. Activities

The Isonga Youth Sounding Board is expected to deliver one large youth event, at least three thematic events and at least three social media campaigns during their tenure. The members of the IYSB are expected to participate in national and international events. At the beginning of its tenure, a capacity needs evaluation will be done and specific trainings will be provided. Moreover, the IYSB will receive training in the field of advocacy, foresight, EU programmes, among others, which are key for them to fulfil their IYSB tasks and will provide them with additional skills for future professional endeavours. Moreover, the IYSB will give its members access to multiple networking opportunities.

8. Costs

EUD will reimburse costs envisaged such as transport, meals, voice call credit and data in relation to the IYSB activities

9. Monitoring and Evaluation

The attendance of members to relevant meetings and trainings, visibility activities, completion of tasks and overall work plan, adherence to rules and procedures will, among others, be taken into account.

10. Certification

All IYSB members will receive a certification at the end of their tenure should they have successfully completed their tasks. As IYSB alumni, they will be invited to support and provide input to the next IYSB cohorts. The participation in the IYSB can be used in their professional credentials, as well as other platforms such as social media.

11.- Data Protection

The Evaluation Committee will handle personal data in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 concerning the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies of the Union, as well as the free movement of such data. The privacy statement – data protection notice is available at https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/privacy-statements_und_en. By submitting the application, the applicant consents to the Committee collecting, processing, storing, or otherwise utilizing the participant’s personal data solely for the purposes of managing and administering the application, and for sending communications containing information about the application.