- Home
- Who we are
- Vision, mission and values
An inclusive society where youth and women reach their full potential, and no one is left behind.
That is the vision of the Concerned African Youth Organization (CAYO), a youth-led Ethiopian civil society organization headquartered in Jigjiga and mandated to work in every region of the country.
Our mission
Our vision, in full: an empowered and inclusive society where youth and women live up to their fullest potential, and no one is left behind.
To empower young people and support vulnerable communities by promoting sustainable development, advancing inclusion, and improving the quality of life for all.
Like-minded young women and men from different sectors founded CAYO in Jigjiga in 2023 to give young people and women a platform of their own. Young people are not a problem to be managed. They are a nation’s most important resource.
We work with young people and women, and with the communities, governments and organizations around them, across 8 thematic areas: learning, livelihoods, peace, digital rights, protection, health, justice and climate resilience.
Our values.
We group our values by what they ask of us, and hold ourselves to them in every programme, partnership and decision.
Integrity
Integrity · Transparency and Accountability · Efficiency
We answer first to the young people and communities we serve, and spend every birr as if it were theirs.
Inclusion
Equity · Equality · Diversity and Inclusion · Empathy
We design in women, girls, people with disabilities, and displaced and minority youth from the start.
Service
Spirit of Volunteerism · Attitude of Giving
Leadership begins with service. Our 400+ volunteers in Jigjiga run the campaign Let’s Normalize Volunteerism.
Collective action
Teamwork · Partnership · Peaceful Social Change
We build with others, settle differences through dialogue and share the credit.
How we work.
Our strategy, Youth in the Lead 2026–2030, turns our base in the Somali Region into a national platform for youth leadership, one local partner at a time.
Youth-led
Nothing about us without us. Young people help design and deliver our work.
Rooted
Local knowledge comes first. We work through elders, religious leaders, women’s groups and local administrations, not around them.
Courageous
We go to the hard places and say the hard things.
Resilient
We plan for drought, conflict and displacement as operating conditions, not surprises.
How change happens.
If young people gain skills, income, health, safety and a real voice through programmes they help design and run, they will build livelihoods and communities that withstand drought, conflict and displacement.
Reach
Young people where they are: pastoralist settlements, towns, displacement sites and refugee-hosting communities.
Equip
With skills, finance, health information and protection.
Connect
To markets, employers, local councils and each other.
Amplify
Their voice, to regional and federal decision-makers.
Hand over
Services to youth-led groups and government systems, so that results last.
What has to hold true. The legal and operating space for youth and civil society groups stays open. Markets can absorb the skills we help build. Donors fund local organizations directly. Climate and security shocks stay within what programmes can plan for.
CAYO today.
Two winners with their CAYO Awards 2025 plaques. The CAYO Award has recognized young leaders in Somali Regional State every year since 2023.
- Name
- Concerned African Youth Organization (CAYO)
- Legal form
- Local civil society organization: youth-led, non-governmental and non-profit
- Founded
- 2023, Jigjiga
- Registration
- 2024, under CSO Proclamation No. 1113/2019, Registry No. 7335
- Mandate
- All regional states and the city administrations of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa
- Headquarters
- Jigjiga, Somali Regional State
- Working today
- Jigjiga and the Somali Region
- Youth network
- 13,000+ members in Fursadaha Dhalinyarada
- Volunteers
- 400+ active in Jigjiga
- Projects and partners
- 5 projects with 6 partners, 2025/26
- Oversight
- Authority for Civil Society Organizations
Counts: CAYO, 2026.
More about who we are.
Since 2023
Our story
From a founding group in Jigjiga to a national mandate, and the next chapter.
Governance
Leadership and governance
The General Assembly, the Board of Directors, the team, and our governance standards.
Commitment
Youth Advisory Council
A recorded youth view on every strategic plan, answered in writing by the Board.
Across our work
Cross-cutting commitments
Gender, disability, conflict sensitivity, climate, digital and local partnership.
Back Youth in the Lead.
Partner with CAYO on its programmes in the Somali Region and on its growth into new regions, each opened with a local youth-led partner.