Commonwealth Alliance for Quality Youth Leadership

The Commonwealth Secretariat has joined forces with globally recognised youth organisations, including global youth leadership organisation, AIESEC, the Volunteer Service Overseas International, Rotary International, India’s youth organisation, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, and the Big Six – an alliance of leading international youth-serving bodies.

youth organisations working with us, representing millions of young people

independent member countries make up the Commonwealth

1.2 billion

people aged between 15 and 29 live in the Commonwealth

Backed by compelling research, non-formal education - defined as structured programmes outside the formal education curriculum designed to improve a range of skills and competencies - have become more popular in recent decades.

There is growing recognition of the importance of organisations and clubs focused on themes such as personal development, leadership, confidence-building, sports, drama, and music.

In fact, Commonwealth Education Ministers at their summit in 2018 acknowledged the contribution of non-formal learning to supporting young people and building their resilience.

This sparked the idea of a Commonwealth partnership with existing youth organisations to promote and expand non-formal education and youth leadership in its 54 countries, and led to the birth of the Commonwealth Non-Formal Education Alliance.

We acknowledged the contribution of non-formal and informal learning in building the resilience of young people and the role of youth and community workers in delivering non-formal and informal education.

Nadi Declaration on Education

We recognise the important contribution of non-formal education and its role in the development of young people’s knowledge, skills, and competencies for employability, digital and life skills, as well as experience in working in teams, problem-solving, and being creative and entrepreneurial."

21 Conference of Education Ministers

The Commonwealth Secretariat has joined forces with globally recognised youth organisations, including global youth leadership organisation, Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC), the Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) International, Rotary International, India’s youth organisation, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, and the Big Six - an alliance of leading international youth-serving bodies.

Together they created the Commonwealth Alliance for Quality Youth Leadership with the main objectives of:

Accelerating youth leadership skills training, using non-formal education and learning approaches, to reach over 100 million young people by 2030;
Harnessing the vast potential and contribution of young people to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals;
Developing the wider ‘soft’ or ‘core’ skills – such as resilience, teamwork adaptability, problem solving, decision making and communication – which can help young people to ensure they are ready for the world of work post COVID-19.

The partnership was formalised with an agreement called a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which includes commitments to work together to promote volunteerism; offer young people the practical experiences needed to compete in the labour market; create an environment where collaboration and innovation can thrive; and support the development of leadership and useful life skills.

Promote and maintain an approach of volunteerism within all areas of cooperation and engagement that allows recipients of programmes, projects, and specific activities to join and depart on their own free will.
Develop and support an experiential learning approach across projects and programmes that provide practical experiences to young people as defined by their needs; promote youth volunteerism to advance practical learning and their contribution to development by enhancing, inclusion, ownership, innovation, and participation.
Support progressive programmes that ensure a flexible environment that facilitates growth and monitors young people’s progress.
Support the establishment of frameworks and processes that encourage the exploration of thought, exchange of ideas, and learned experiences amongst young people.
Support opportunities to establish a partnership between young people and adults based on intergenerational dialogue and mutual respect to learn from one another.
Support the development of youth leadership and life skills training as part of programmes to enable and develop leadership skills.
Undertake and promote areas of work that reflect the set of values of all organisations to give young people an opportunity to discover, analyse and understand values and their implications, and to build over time a personal set of values that will guide their lives.
Strengthen non-formal education and learning approaches and programmes aligned with Commonwealth values, Global Education Charter and priorities; and mission, values as well as livelihoods, education, and health programme strategies.
Work towards improving monitoring and evaluation of non-formal education and learning approaches.

News

The Alliance was officially launched on 25 June at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, during the Commonwealth Youth Forum where more than 300 young people met to agree youth development priorities for the next two years.