Youth at the Centre of Africa's Public Health Transformation

Africa is the world’s youngest continent, with nearly 70% of its population under the age of 35. This demographic reality presents an extraordinary opportunity for youth leadership in health, yet global evidence continues to show that young people face significant and persistent health disparities. Africa CDC developed the YES! Health Strategy 2025–2028, the first comprehensive framework to elevate youth leadership across Africa’s public health landscape.

YES Health Strategy Launch Ceremony, at the International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA 2025), Durban, South Africa.
© GIZ

Africa’s youth are central to building resilient health systems and advancing health security. Their meaningful participation in governance, policy development, service delivery and innovation is essential to realizing Africa’s New Public Health Order.

Guided by this conviction, we partnered with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to institutionalise youth engagement in public health. A key milestone in this collaboration is our support to Africa CDC in developing the YES! Health Strategy 2025–2028 (Strategy for Youth Engagement and Participation in Global Health). The institution’s first comprehensive framework dedicated to elevating youth leadership across the continent’s public health landscape.

This strategy was officially launched during the 4th International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA 2025) in Durban, South Africa, marking a breakthrough moment for youth inclusion in Africa’s health governance.

The YES! Health Strategy was co-created through an inclusive process, ensuring that the strategy reflects the aspirations, ideas and lived experiences of young Africans:

More than 250 young people contributed during the 2023 Youth Pre-Conference.
An additional 271 youth engaged through virtual consultations.
A working group comprising of 25 youth experts and the Africa CDC’s Youth Advisory Team for Health (YAT4H) & staff reviewed and refined the strategy.

YES Health Strategy Co-Creation Workshop, Africa CDC HQ, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
© GIZ

Through our long-standing support, Africa CDC is already advancing youth participation through initiatives such as the AU Bingwa COVID-19 Vaccination and Bingwa PLUS Initiatives, the Youth Advisory Team for Health, the Youth in Digital Health Network, and the annual Youth Pre-Conference, through which a combined total of over 2,400 young Africans have been directly reached. The YES! Health Strategy builds on these foundations to create an enduring, institution-wide approach to youth engagement.

As the Africa CDC moves the YES! Health Strategy into implementation, it is focused on translating this vision into tangible action across the continent, ensuring improved health outcomes and stronger health systems for all African nations. We will continue building on our collaboration through existing flagship initiatives, that strengthen youth leadership, expand opportunities for capacity development, and foster sustainable platforms for engagement.

Realising the full potential of the YES! Health Strategy requires the collective effort of all stakeholders. Member states, development partners, civil society organizations, and youth groups must champion this framework at national and regional levels. Institutionalising meaningful youth engagement in public health is both a shared responsibility and a shared opportunity, one that demands coordinated investment, political commitment, and active collaboration.