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- Youth Advisory Council
Commitment, being set up
A youth voice on record in every strategic plan.
We are setting up a Youth Advisory Council of members aged 18 and over. It will review each CAYO strategic plan and record its view, and the Board will answer that view in writing before it decides.
How the Council will work.
- Status
- Being set up. Members have not yet been selected.
- Members
- Aged 18 and over
- Starts in
- The Somali Region, with seats added for each new region
- Balance
- At least half of members women
- Records a view on
- Every draft strategic plan
- Board’s duty
- Answers that view in writing before it decides
- At the Board
- Two Co-chairs, one of them a woman, attend as observers
What the Council will do
Strategy
Reviews each draft strategic plan
And records a view on it, with reasons.
Programmes
Advises on programme design
As CAYO’s programmes are designed and reviewed.
Practice
Advises on how CAYO treats young people
In its activities, its channels and its own team.
Youth-led means young people shape the direction, not only the delivery. The General Assembly and the Board keep their legal authority; the Council makes sure no strategic plan is adopted without young people’s view on the record.
How a strategic plan passes through the Council.
The Board will not adopt a strategic plan until the Council has recorded its view on the draft. Where the Council disagrees, the Board will answer in writing.
Share
The Council receives the draft plan in plain language, in Somali and English, well before it meets.
Review
Members discuss the draft and question CAYO’s leadership on it.
Record
The Council votes. The result and the reasons are written into the record.
Answer
The Board replies in writing: what it will change, what it will not, and why. A changed plan goes back to the Council once.
Decide
The Board decides, with the Council’s view and its own answer on file.
Starting at home, growing with every region.
The Council will begin in the Somali Region, where CAYO works today, and gain seats each time CAYO opens work in a new region with a local youth-led partner.
First
The Somali Region
Members from across the region, spread across zones and across urban, rural and pastoralist communities, including displaced communities.
Then
Each new region
Seats added for every region CAYO enters, so the Council always speaks for the places where CAYO works.
Who can join
Aged 18 and over
Living in a region where CAYO works or is preparing to enter. Not a CAYO employee, nor a close relative of a staff or Board member. No network membership required.
Younger voices matter too. Once our child safeguarding rules are adopted, we will run a separate consultation with young people under 18, with parental consent and trained facilitators.
Open, fair and the same for everyone.
How members will be chosen, fairly across communities and between women and men.
An open call
In Somali and English, on CAYO’s Telegram channels, through partners, universities and polytechnic colleges, and by radio or word of mouth where connectivity is low. Applications by phone or in person are welcome.
Seats by place
Spread across zones and across urban, rural and pastoralist areas, including displaced communities.
At least half women
If too few women apply, we will extend the call and reach out through women-led partners, without lowering the bar.
One panel, one rubric
A Board member, a staff member, a community adviser and an outside partner score every applicant on leadership, community knowledge, willingness to argue a view and listen, and availability.
Ties settled by lot
Within the balance of place and gender the Council needs.
Published
We will publish the selection method and, with each member’s consent, the final list.
No member pays to take part.
Or waits to be paid back.
Costs covered
- Transport to meetings
- A data stipend for online sessions
- Meals, and safe, approved accommodation when a meeting needs travel
- Written confirmation of what is covered, in advance
Help to take part
- A CAYO staff member as secretary to the Council
- A briefing in the first month on CAYO, the plan and how the vote works
- Plain-language papers in Somali and English
Safeguarding
- Every member signs the code of conduct
- A named safeguarding focal person who is not on the Council
- Access to CAYO’s concern route at all times
Hear when the call opens.
The open call will be shared first with the Fursadaha Dhalinyarada network on Telegram, the youth opportunities network of the Somali Region.