About YODEF
The Youth Development Fellowship (YODEF) is a United Nations Model program for young leaders, carefully designed to strengthen the capacities of young people for community impact and the Global Goals.
The program annually strengthens the capacities of young people selected from across Cameroon and other parts of Africa, empowering these youths with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to transform their social impact ideas into visible and sustainable solutions for community challenges, as well as contribute solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our planet.
Why YODEF?
There is an increasing number of young people who desire to contribute solutions to challenges facing their communities and our planet, but over 80% of these young people lack the necessary skills and tools to do so. Some of these youths have project ideas that if properly reviewed, they can help to some community challenges, create employment and contribute greatly to our society.
Youths are potential partners in the fight against some of the challenges facing our planet, including the effective promotion and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and other Global Goals. Strengthening the capacities of young people by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to transform their social impact ideas into visible and sustainable projects that will bring about positive change within their communities is of paramount importance to our planet.
The Youth Development Fellowship is therefore carefully designed fellowship program that put young people at the center of finding sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by their communities, nation, and our planet. The program empowers promising changemakers with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to transform their social impact ideas into valuable, feasible, and sustainable solutions to community challenges while effectively promoting the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and other Global Goals, as well as facilitating intercultural learning and experience sharing among these young leaders.
YODEF 2025 in Graphic Review
Who Can Attend YODEF?
• Youth with project ideas,
• Youth who need help to review their projects,
• Youth with startup businesses or business ideas,
• Youth who work, manage, or want to create NGOs
• Youths who want to engage in community activism,
• Youths who desire to learn how to write project proposals,
• Youth who are seeking for national and global opportunities,
• Youth who need help to finetune and pitch their business ideas,
• Youth who wants to contribute to their community development,
• Youths who see to connect with other likeminded young leaders,
• Youths who are passionate about the SDGs and wants to take action,
• Youths who are seek to be mentored by the amazing team of YODEF,
• Youth who want to develop their talent in handcraft, fashion, and music,
• Youth who seek new ideas to grow their businesses or expand their projects,
• Youths who desire to convert their ideas into visible projects and businesses,
YODEF 2025 Fellowship Activities
• Mentorship
• Networking
• Youth camping
• Cultural Activism
• Miss YODEF 2025
• Project Idea Review
• Fellowship Campfire
• Special skills training
• Fellowship Certification
• Project Proposal Writing
• Five (5) Nights of activism
• Community project pitching
• Civic Engagement Activities
• Project and Business Pitching
• Four (4) Days Intensive Straining
• Community Project Development
• Storytelling for Community Impact
• SDGs and Global Citizen Activities
• Handcraft, Fashion, and Talent Show
• Key community engagement training
• Eco-walk and climate change activism
The Fellowship Structure
The Youth Development Fellowship program is structured into three separate phases, carefully designed to put young people at the center of finding sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by their communities, nation, and planet today.
PHASE ONE
The first phase of the fellowship program focuses on the application exercise, where each interested candidate is required to review their eligibility and submit their application for admission into the program.
PHASE TWO
The second phase of the fellowship program focuses on community need assessment, where admitted candidates are required to carry out a need assessment of their communities and write a basic project summary, outlining what problem their project or business idea is trying to solve. Admitted candidates are sent a basic template for them to use in presenting their project.
PHASE THREE
The last phase of the Fellowship program is a five-day in-person training in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where all the selected youth delegates are programmed to go through intensive training to gain a wide range of skills, including project development, resource mobilization, and others, with the objective of enabling them to transform their social impact ideas into valuable, feasible, and sustainable solutions. After their training, they are awarded participation certificates and provided free mentorship to accompany them in the implementation of their community projects.
YODEF 2025 Eligibility
Interested applicants (male or female) who wish to participate in YODEF 2025 Fellowship should review their eligibility on the following:
• Should be a youth between 15 and 35 years old on or before the application deadline.
• Should be from Cameroon or any other part of Africa.
• Should have a business or project idea.
• Should be passionate about the SDGs and community development.
• Should be resident in Cameroon, or willing and able to travel to Cameroon for the time being of the in-person fellowship at their expense.
• Should be ideally bilingual or able to read and speak English.
• Should develop, print and submit copy of their project or business idea for review and proper guide upon their arrival at the fellowship on July 28, 2025.
• Should be ready pitch their brief community project or business idea before a panel for the in-person fellowship program for review.
• Should submit a completed application on or before Saturday, July 12, 2025, 11:59 PM (Central African time).
YODEF 2025 Requirement
• Community project or business idea
• Pay an application of $35 (25.000xaf) (Only the first 100 applicants who pay their application fee will be admitted for the program.)
• Bed Spread and toiletries: Each delegate who intend to stay in the fellowship camp is required to come with their bed spread, toiletries and other personal items.
The Fellowship is valued at $300 (160.000xaf) per delegate, but GAICAM and Partners are sponsoring almost 85% of the valued cost. Each candidate is required to pay just a token application fee of $35 (25.000xaf), as soon as admitted and before July 15, 2025.
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SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
One of our unanimous sponsors have subsidized the application fee of the first 100 candidates who wants to be part of the program with the sum of 3000xaf.
This means that the first 100 participants pay their application fee will now pay just 22000xaf as application fee, instead of 25000xaf.
YODEF Benefits
1. Youth delegates will be issued participation badges.
2. Youth delegates will be issued digital participation certificates.
3. Youth delegates will be offered free breakfast and lunch.
4. Youth delegates will benefit from six months of free mentorship and coaching.
5. Youth delegates with benefit from free project review and training.
6. Youth delegates will benefit from special skills training.
7. Youth delegates will learn from changemakers with exceptional track records.
8. Youth delegates will be exposed to exclusive opportunities and networks.
YODEF Important Dates
Application Deadline: July 12, 2025
Participants Arrival Date: August 3, 2025
Start of Fellowship: August 4, 2025
End of Fellowship: August 7, 2025
Participants Departure Date: August 8, 2025
Start of YODEF Free Mentorship: August 2, 2025
More About YODEF 2025
Youth camping: All participants will be camped for the entire duration of the program, where they will be offered free breakfast, lunch, supper, daily.
Networking and Mentorship: Participants will have access to free mentorship during and after the program, and benefit from the huge network of YODEF.
Sport Activism: The program will feature sports sessions every morning, designed to help the participants keep fit before the intensive activities build up daily.
Cultural Activism: Participants are expected to come with different cultural outfit of their choice to participate in different cultural activities.
Night Activism: There are night sessions every 8pm to 10pm, coordinated by the fellows and featuring special fellowship activities, designed to create lasting memories of the fellowship.
Project Idea Review: There is a session for idea review and validation, where participants present their project or business ideas, and our business experts guide them to finetune them, helping them validate their ideas.
Fellowship Campfire: The fellowship is program to feature a campfire, where the fellows will spend time on fireside, acting dramas, telling impact driven stories, and roasting different foodies.
Special skills training: There are several special skills training sessions incorporated into the program, where participants will intensively engage in some highly sought-after skills of the 21st century.
Fellowship Certification: At the end of the fellowship program, all participants are issued certificates of participation which can be used or verified from any part of the world.
Project Proposal Writing: Participants will participate in an intensive training on project proposal writing, enabling acquire the skills of writing a good project proposal.
Community project pitching: Participants with projects ideas are given the opportunity to pitch their project ideas for our experts to review and make professional changes.
Civic Engagement Activities: Participants will participate in outdoor volunteer activism at some partner institutions and different ministries.
SDGs and Global Citizen Activities: Participants will participate in different SDGs activities and training on how to take action as global citizens to contribute to the SDGs.
Handcraft, Fashion, and Talent Show: Participants will participate in different hands-on-training such as handcraft and fashion design, as well as other talent development.
Key community engagement training: Participants will receive intense training on key community aspect to enable them gain skills on how to identify, design and manage community initiatives.
Community Project Development: The participants will all take part in an intensive training session to identify community problems and design sustainable solutions to solve those problems in the form of visible community projects.
Eco-walk and climate change activism: The participants will participate in an Ecowalk, as they engage in a campaign aimed at raising critical consciousness about the protection of our environment and our climate.
Volunteerism and community activism: The participants will participate in outdoor volunteer and community activism at some partner institutions to clean and give back to the community.
Miss YODEF 2025: The fellowship will feature a competition where candidates will contest to become Miss YODEF 2025. The competition will feature different activities, and the winner will go home with a cash prize.
National and Global Opportunities: There is a special session where participants will be guided through national and global opportunities, as well as drill on how to access them.
About GAICAM International
We are Go Africa Initiative for Community Action and Mobilization (GAICAM), a non-governmental, not-for-profit, and social transformative organization whose vision is to transform lives and promote growth in Cameroon and Africa at large.
We are working to end extreme poverty in Africa through capacity building, entrepreneurship, and innovation, helping communities develop the perfect recipe for sustainable success. We believe in the possibility of ending extreme poverty and building a sustainable future for all.
We work with youths from across Cameroon, promoting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and equipping them with the skills and resources needed to become resourceful to their communities and humanity.
