About The Youth Print

An independent African think tank advancing climate policy, diplomacy, and leadership.

Based in Ethiopia, The Youth Print brings evidence, experience, and emerging perspectives into public policy and decision-making. We generate research and analysis, convene strategic dialogue, contribute to policy and diplomatic processes, and develop emerging leaders.

Our work connects African perspectives with the decisions shaping climate action, development, and international cooperation.

Who We Are

The Youth Print is an independent, youth-led African think tank based in Ethiopia. Founded in July 2020, we have grown from a small civil society initiative into a developing policy institution, building on experience in youth engagement, climate dialogue and policy work.

Climate policy and diplomacy are currently at the center of our work. We examine the relationship between international commitments, African priorities and the choices involved in implementation. Our interests span climate governance and diplomacy, adaptation and resilience, loss and damage, climate finance, and just transitions.

Our youth-led roots remain an important part of our institutional character. They inform our commitment to creating opportunities for emerging thinkers and practitioners, encouraging exchange across generations and considering the longer-term consequences of public decisions.

We seek to contribute through useful analysis, informed dialogue and careful engagement with the people and institutions shaping policy. Our credibility rests on the quality of that contribution and the trust we earn over time.

Our Purpose

To strengthen public decision-making by connecting evidence, experience and emerging perspectives with policy and diplomacy.

Public decisions bring together evidence, interests, institutional responsibilities and political choices. We seek to make those choices better understood and to help relevant knowledge and experience inform them.

For The Youth Print, this means producing analysis that helps readers assess policy options, creating space for substantive exchange, and developing the knowledge and judgment needed to participate meaningfully in policy processes.

Our Philosophy – Every Generation leaves its print.

Every generation contributes to the institutions, ideas, and decisions that those who follow will inherit. Our philosophy expresses a responsibility to consider the lasting consequences of our work and the contribution we choose to make.

For The Youth Print, leaving a print means producing knowledge that others can use, creating space for thoughtful exchange, and helping people develop the confidence and judgment to contribute. It means taking both immediate policy questions and longer-term institutional development seriously.

The philosophy also shapes how we understand leadership. Experience can be shared, responsibility can be developed, and emerging voices can bring fresh questions to established debates. An institution becomes stronger when learning and contribution continue across generations.

Our Commitments

We seek to build an institution guided by the following commitments.

Independent Judgment: We aim to develop our analysis through careful consideration of evidence and reasoned judgment. We recognize the responsibility to distinguish institutional analysis, individual perspectives, and the interests of those with whom we engage.
Quality and Intellectual honesty: We seek to make claims that the evidence can support, explain the basis of our analysis and acknowledge uncertainty. We value the willingness to question assumptions, respond to criticism and revise our understanding.
African Perspectives and Context: We take the diversity of African experiences, priorities and policy settings seriously. Our work seeks to connect these perspectives with regional and international debates while recognizing differences across countries and communities.
Exchange across generations: We value emerging perspectives alongside experience. We seek to create opportunities for people at different stages of their careers to learn from one another and contribute to shared policy questions.
Responsibility in how we work: We aim to be clear about our contribution, careful in our use of resources and respectful of the people involved in our work. We value reliability and the institutional practices needed to sustain it.
Learning and steady development: We see institutional growth as a continuing process of learning, improving and building shared capability. We seek to develop people and systems that can support consistent work over time.

Our story

2020
Beginning with youth engagement and policy
The Youth Print was established in July 2020. Its early work included a review of Ethiopia’s Nationally Determined Contribution with a focus on youth engagement, supported by an initial grant from the French Embassy in Addis Ababa.
This first activity brought youth participation into direct conversation with a national climate policy process. It also gave the young organization practical experience in managing a grant and developing its administrative and financial practices.
The team was small: one unpaid staff member and two volunteers in the first year. The organization’s early development depended on their time, commitment, and willingness to learn while doing the work.
Early years
Sustaining the work through the early years
The years that followed required persistence. Delays in anticipated funding meant that activities continued through volunteer effort and limited resources. During this period, maintaining the organization depended on people staying involved despite uncertainty about when further support would arrive.
That experience remains part of The Youth Print’s institutional history. It gives context to the importance we place on continuity, developing people and building an organization that can sustain its work over time.
2023
Expanding dialogue and practical learning in 2023
Implementation under AACJ began in 2023, supporting a broader period of activity. A post-COP27 youth reflection and COP28 brainstorming workshop in February was followed by a roundtable in March and a climate-action learning visit in July. Further exchanges and pre-COP28 engagement brought young people into discussion of climate priorities and practical responses.
These activities combined policy reflection, convening and exposure to climate action. Volunteers also began moving into staff responsibilities, contributing to a more sustained institutional team.
2024–2025
Developing the institution in 2024–2025
Over the following two years, The Youth Print continued to develop its convening work and internal capacity. Post-COP dialogue, youth climate exchanges and an AU Summit youth side event in 2025 formed part of this period of growth.
Alongside public activities, the institution’s development involved staff progression and greater attention to the systems needed to organize and sustain its work. People who had contributed through earlier stages increasingly took responsibility for its continued development.
Today
Building a think tank
Today, The Youth Print is developing a more defined institutional role in research, dialogue, policy engagement and leadership. Publications such as the Policy Insights series, together with the African Youth Dialogue Series and its briefs, give this direction a practical form.
The foundations of this work reach back to the organization’s early policy engagement and convening. Our task now is to deepen the analysis, strengthen the connection between our activities, and build the consistency expected of a trusted policy institution.
This is an ongoing process. We aim to earn trust through the usefulness of our ideas, the care we bring to our work, and the strength of the institution we build together.

The team

Selam Bekele

Executive Director

Dawit Alemu

Head of Policy

Meron Abebe

Programs Lead

Yonas Tesfaye

Climate Research

Hanna Girma

Research Fellow

Abel Mekonnen

Communications

Dagmawi Assefa

Program and Communication Officer

Ephrata Alemayehu Haileselassie

Gelane Gebremariam Hedeto

communication officer

Yared Abera

Global Youth Climate Leader and founder and director of The Youth Print

Yordanos Getachew

Environmentalist Climate change advocate

Partnerships and collaboration

Our development has involved cooperation with institutions, practitioners and organizations supporting youth engagement and climate policy work. Early support from the French Embassy in Addis Ababa and subsequent work under African Activist for Climate Justice and Global Center for Adaptation are part of this history.

We seek collaborations that connect complementary knowledge, experience and capacity around clear policy questions. These may involve research, strategic dialogue, policy engagement or the development of emerging leaders.

We welcome conversations with researchers, thinkers, universities, civil society organizations, public institutions and other partners who share an interest in informed decision-making and Africa’s contribution to climate policy and diplomacy.

Engage with The Youth Print

Read our analysis, take part in our public dialogues or contact us about a potential collaboration. We welcome thoughtful exchange with people and institutions working on the policy questions at the centre of our work.

Join the networkFor young people anywhere in Ethiopia — no fee, no application window.Partner with usCo-run a program, host a dialogue, or share a dataset.Fund a projectNamed pilots with public reporting and a closing date.VolunteerResearch, translation, facilitation and event support.