National Youth Service Strategy

The National Youth Service (NYS) is a national initiative designed to equip young people with practical skills, leadership experience, and meaningful opportunities to contribute to community development. In Malawi, youth service has evolved from the Malawi Young Pioneers era (1963–1993) to various post-1994 initiatives and is now being revitalized under the National Youth Policy and Malawi 2063.

Despite progress, young people still face high unemployment, limited vocational training, and increased social vulnerability, particularly among young women and marginalized groups. The NYS aims to address these challenges by creating structured pathways for skills development, entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and service.

Aligned with AU Agenda 2063, the African Youth Charter, and SADC priorities, the NYS has built governance structures, training programmes, and community projects since 2022, reaching thousands of youth across the country.

To strengthen and focus these efforts, Equip Group is supporting the development of the 2026–2030 National Youth Service Strategy—a strategic roadmap that will guide the NYS’ priorities, systems, and programmes over the next five years. This strategy will ensure the NYS remains inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of Malawi’s young people.

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To develop a comprehensive, implementable, and sustainable five-year (2026–2030) National Youth Service Strategy for Malawi that engages and empowers young people, strengthens communities, and contributes to national development.

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Our role:

1. Map key stakeholders and conduct consultations to assess capacity and gather insights on youth development efforts.

2. Review national and sectoral youth policies, strategies, and programmes to identify gaps and lessons learned.

3. Conduct a situational and landscape analysis of youth in Malawi, including socio-economic conditions and existing employability and empowerment interventions.

4. Benchmark regional and global National Youth Service models to identify best practices.

5. Develop the National Youth Service strategic framework, including vision, objectives, pillars, and implementation pathways.

6. Design institutional, governance, and operational structures at national and sub-national levels.

7. Develop standard operating procedures for National Youth Service implementation.

8. Prepare a phased, costed implementation plan with clear timelines and milestones.

9. Develop a practical and diversified resource mobilization strategy.

10. Design a results-based Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework.

11. Facilitate stakeholder validation workshops to finalize outputs.  

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