The African Youth Commission (AYC) is an independent Pan-African youth network founded by youth leaders to foster synergy amongst youth and youth organizations on the continent and Diaspora. Formally inaugurated on January 2013, the network is determined and committed to promoting the involvement of young people as key partners in the implementation of the Africa 2063 Agenda, support advocacy actions on the ratification and implementation of the African Youth Charter and contribute to advancing the AU shared values through a network of locally based youth actors. The AYC Retreat was hosted by Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), Jitolee Kenya, from 28th to the 30th of July 2017 in Nairobi Kenya at Ngong Hills Hotel. The 3-day retreat was supported by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), brought together 37 participants which constituted the leadership and Advisory Board of the AYC, key partners such as ACCORD from 16 African countries and stakeholder youth groups based in Kenya, such as the Internet Society and the Youth Senate – Kenya.

The retreat helped the leadership unpack and reach a common understanding of who and what AYC is, its scope of operation, values and vision. During the retreat the leadership was also able to prepare a short term plan of action focusing on thorough membership mapping, increased partnership scoping with regional, continental and international bodies and capacity building of members within the network in alignment with relevant programmatic areas. The leadership agreed to develop a long term strategic document in line with four thematic.

The retreat gave partners like ACCORD an opportunity guide and give inputs on the practicalities of implementation of some of the proposed action plans and also how the AYC network can develop sustainable partnerships with ACCORD/TfP and many other such regional and international organisations and partners. The session on developing sustainable partnership was hosted by GIZ/AGA programme, and gave the invited partner organizations and the leadership of AYC an opportunity to explore windows of partnerships and collaborations.