Research, Youth, and Adults. Can you guess what the common factor between the three is? No idea? Well, they’re all MISUNDERSTOOD. Surprised? Come let me tell you about it. I’m sure you’ve come across these stats – the youth, make up at least 60% of the African population. That’s huge. Now, imagine them as these energetic lot who have ideas, solutions and innovations and a deep desire to shatter the ‘this is the norm’ mold. But with all that potential they still feel voiceless, powerless, and unvalued. They feel INVISIBLE in the eyes of adults. On the flip side of the coin (interesting we landed on heads!) the adults (heads) because of their experience in life feel they know what is best for the youth, without so much as giving them a chance to input. They easily shoot down their ideas, quiten their voices and thus their opportunity to shape conversation and knowledge. Can we blame the, adults? It is easy to say yes, but beneath the surface lies the subtle influence of age-old socio-cultural and power dynamics, how the older generation have been socialized, which largely determines their perceptions towards the youth. On one hand therefore, the youth wonder, “Why do we need to adhere to these socio-cultural norms whose origins we don’t know of and to us feel quite archaic in our present world?” On the other hand the adults wonder, “Why do youth want to change what has been working for generations and for the system?” Do you now see the possible root cause of the misunderstanding between these two groups?

In a bid to give youth voice and agency and lessen misunderstandings, youth-led and youth-serving organizations have come up with different programs targeting the same. The irony is that many of these programs still fail to drive conversations that can shift power to the youth and break the barriers between them and adults. Although these organizations are passionate about the youth, majority of them do not adopt research in their programs. Surprisingly, they think of research as a complicated and difficult concept. Others have little or no knowledge of research altogether. They go on therefore to run youth programs without an evidence base. There is now some light at the end of the tunnel considering programs such as Youth Excel which has been working on building the capacity of youth organizations in implementation research. This involves demystifying research amongst them and empowering them to use it to inform their programming which seeks to break down the socio-cultural and intergenerational barriers. Through research findings, youth organizations have so far understood that when wanting to shift power or influence policy at a local or national level, they need to listen to both youth and adults, and incorporate them in their program activities. This goes a long way in enhancing intergenerational dialogue. The long term expected outcome of the program is that the youth and adults will increasingly dialogue openly, and together influence change around issues such as mental health, sexual health, social inclusion, gender equality, gender-based violence among other topics and concerns.