In the framework of an Action Plan for the reinforcement of Civil Society in Africa and its consolidation in the Euro-African partnership, following the Africa-Europe Civil Society Forum organised in the context of the 1st Euro-African Heads of States Summit (Cairo, 2000), the North-South Centre developed four training courses for youth organisations (Tarrafal 2002, Mollina 2014, Coimbra 2005 and Almada 2006).

These training courses strengthened individual and organisational capacities for youth participation in development processes.

Encouraged by the success of the previous training courses and the demand for capacity building activities for youth leaders expressed in the Africa Europe Youth Summit of 2007, the North-South Centre continued to invest in organising this capacity building activity for youth organisations from Africa and Europe.

In addition to the capacity-building of youth organisations, these training courses were also aimed at:

• Promoting a space for preparation and follow-up of the Africa-Europe Youth Summits and reinforcement of the Africa-Europe Youth Cooperation, Pan African and Global Youth Work;
• Strengthening and supporting the role of networks, non-governmental youth organisations and civil society responding to their needs in terms of capacity-building;
• Developing joint efforts to address the major challenges faced by young people in the light of the priority areas identified as regards youth development;
• Increasing the opportunities for networking, information sharing, and capacity building and training for young people and youth organisations;

In total, eleven editions were organised: The first edition was organised in Tarrafal (2002), the second in Mollina (2004), the third in Coimbra (2005), the fourth in Almada (2006), the fifth in Coimbra (2008), the sixth in Tarrafal (2009), the seventh in Polokwane (2010), the eighth in Mindelo (2012), the ninth in Mindelo (2013), the tenth in Nairobi (February 2015) and the eleventh in Nairobi (November 2015).

NIYOA is one of the successful results of this co-operation. The Network came to life through the joint efforts of former participants of activities facilitated by the NSC in the framework of Global Education. It came to being as a youth-led organisation and it developed its structure based on the peer-learning rooted in this cooperation. Eventually, it became an institutional partner of the Africa-Europe Youth Cooperation.

A series of training courses for Young Leaders of the African Diaspora Living in Europe were organised to promote more synergies and networking between people of the African Diaspora in Europe and youth organisations to empower the youth community of Africans living in Europe and increase the engagement of youth leaders of the African Diaspora in the Africa Europe Youth Cooperation.

The Youth organisations and youth groups from the African Diaspora living in Europe are fundamental actors for the Youth Cooperation. At the political level, the Diaspora is considered by the African Union as the 6th region of Africa and the 6th building block of the African Union. These groups represent an immense richness in terms of human resources, intercultural opportunities and possibilities for relationship with the origin societies to the hosting societies.

The activities for young leaders of the African diaspora living in Europe were designed and implemented in cooperation with key stakeholders from civil society and international institutions. In line with this multilevel cooperation approach, the North-South Centre contributed to the foundation of diaspora umbrella organisations, such as the African Diaspora Youth Network Europe (ADYNE) and the African Diaspora Youth Forum Europe (ADYFE).

The Network (ADYNE) came to life through the joint efforts of former participants of activities facilitated by the North-South Centre. Since its creation, the Network continues to grow and became an institutional partner in many different youth platforms and institutional organisations such as the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe, playing an important role as partner at the African-Europe Youth Cooperation.

The first training course for youth leaders of the African Diaspora living in Europe took place in Almada, in December 2009, linked to the Europe-Africa Youth Leaders training project organized by the Portuguese National Youth Council. At the final declaration, the participants stressed that there was a lack of information of different projects available for immigrants at national and international levels and suggested to create an official network (ADYNE). The second training course took place in the framework of the 2nd AUYD (Cape Verde, July 2010). A seminar on the topic “Inclusion has to come from inside, the role of youth organisations” for the African Diaspora Youth living in Europe was organised in the framework of the 11th University on Youth and Development (Mollina, 2010). The third training course took place in Braga, in May 2012. Another seminar, on the theme “From Millennium Development Goals to Millennium Development wins” was organised in the framework of the 12th UYD (Mollina, 2011). The fourth training course took place in the framework of the 1st Mediterranean University on Youth and Global Citizenship (Hammamet, July 2013). The fifth training course was organised in the framework of the 15th UYD (Mollina, September 2014). The sixth training course took place in the framework of the 7th AUYD (Nairobi, 20115).

In the framework of the Youth Partnership, the North-South Centre organised a long-term Training Course for Trainers on Africa-Europe Youth cooperation to enlarge the pool of experienced qualified trainers to run capacity-building activities in the context of Euro-African Cooperation. The activity built on the recommendations shared at the first Africa-Europe Youth Summit to identify training capacity-building needs, thematic priorities, and to share experiences, pedagogical methods and techniques.

The concrete objectives were:

• To introduce Euro-African Cooperation and contextualise it within global issues to increase cultural sensitivity;
• To learn how to identify and assess training needs from a Euro-African context;
• To develop competences on Euro-African Cooperation instruments in training (understand institutional framework and key priorities, funding possibilities, etc.);
• To share training approaches in the non-formal education context and challenge participants’ training practices through the perspective of Euro-African cooperation;
• To implement learning outcomes from the Euro-African cooperation, evaluate and learn from it;
• To develop reference quality guidelines for training in a Euro-African context;
• To build a community of trainers with shared approaches to Euro-African training.

The one-year long training course was composed of four different features: two residential seminars (at the beginning and end of the project), a project phase, a mentoring system, and a virtual platform for learning and communication.

The first residential seminar took place in the Ivory Coast, from 12 to 19 July 2009. The objective of the first seminar was to build a learning framework for the 30 participants and launch the beginning of the project phase to be developed during the following year. A second residential seminar organised within the 2nd AUYD, in Cape Verde, from 4 to 12 July 2010, enabled participants to reconnect, share their learning and expertise, and set the guidelines for a future Community of Practice.

At the end of the course, a total of 30 trainers from Africa and Europe shared and generated meaningful pedagogical experiences and methodological contributions for youth organisations in the context of Euro-African Cooperation.

As a result of this training process, the participating trainers created a community of trainers: Trainers for Africa Europe Co-operation (TAEC). A follow-up element was the development by participants themselves of a training booklet.