First round of capacity building workshop sessions for youth initiatives in Goma, Kigali, Mukono and Mwanza.

One of the objectives of the Great Lakes Youth Network project is to build the capacity of youth initiatives in the sub-region on different themes – wherever the need is felt; so that they can be more effective in their role as actors of peace and development.

It is in this sense that a marathon capacity building session of five days with an average of 21 young leaders within youth organizations and initiatives was organized between November and December 2021 in Goma in the DRC, Mukono in Uganda, Mwanza in Tanzania and Kigali in Rwanda. In total 84 youth initiatives were represented by in the capacity building workshops.

The capacity building sessions were conducted by two external facilitators in each country around ten themes including Gender equality and equity; Communication and use of media; Non-violent communication; Advocacy; Public speaking and debate; Conflict and conflict management; Adult learning methods; Organizational developmentand How to organize effective and safe training in emergency situations such as Covid-19.

Each session ended with the development of practical post-session action plans. These plans, validated by the experts, will allow participants to put into practice, in a structured and coordinated manner, the lessons learned within their organizations but also to share them with their youth peers.

To facilitate the work and strengthen the ties between youth, all participants were housed in the same location and were involved in interactive networking and learning activities before, during and after the indoor training sessions.

The modules developed will be shared with the public on the project's website and in the mobile app before the advanced training sessions are held next year through the Youth Action Handbook.