Active Contribution Program

Youth Active Contribution
Program (ACP)
Pow ered by AIESEC in Africa

Content
“A roaring lion doesn’t catch any prey”. African Proverb

1. Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

2. Africa External Outlook ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

3. Active Contribution Program
• 3.1. Definition, Purpose and Logo --------------------------------------------------------------- 5
• 3.2. Structure ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6
• 3.3. Principles of implementation ---------------------------------------------------------------- 7

4. Area of Impact 1: Leadership & Career Development ------------------------------------------- 7

5. Area of Impact 2: Health Improvement --------------------------------------------------------------- 8

6. Area of Impact 3: Education & Literacy -------------------------------------------------------------- 8

7. Area of Impact 4: Economic Growth ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9

8. Area of Impact 5: To be defined by countries ------------------------------------------------------ 9

9. “Africa in Me” Branding Campaign -------------------------------------------------------------------- 9

10. Implementation guidelines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10

11. What’s next? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11

12. Frequent Asked Questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------13

13. Appendixes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

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1. Introduction

Dear members of AIESEC in Africa (“LIONS ON THE MOVE”)!

In the past years we have increased the impact in our
continent, through different experiences on leadership
development, teamwork and international internships. From
the creation of our first project based on exchange (PBOX)
in 2003, called Genesis, between 2005 to 2011 we
successfully implemented and delivered social projects
around HIV/AIDS awareness (ASK), Entrepreneurship
(YES), Sustainable Tourism (AFRITOUR) and Technology
(SWITCH), under the umbrella of the Empower Africa Program (EAP), responding to
specific needs of our societies during this period.

Currently the African continent is living a different reality than years before, with one of the
world’s fastest economic growth rates and a significant progress towards social
development. This scenario is calling us to evolve the type of experiences and projects we
provide to young people and the way we impact our society. On the other hand, AIESEC
has also evolved and we have now a refreshed AIESEC Experience and an ambition for
the year 2015 to be (1) the most credible and diverse global youth voice, (2) the first
choice partner across sectors and to (3) have a cross-generational positive impact on
society.

The question is how to deliver more and better AIESEC Experiences aligned with the
context we are living internally (AIESEC) and externally (in Africa and in the world)? To
explore different answers for this question, 100 AIESECers from Africa met during the
African Regional Leadership Congress 2012 in Maputo – Mozambique (AfroXLDS), under
the theme of “Building the Future by Leading the Present”, and as a result of the Congress
we came up with the umbrella program called “Youth Active Contribution Program
(ACP)”, to revamp EAP and focus AIESEC in Africa to fully capitalize on it’s relevance in
the continent.

I believe AIESEC is now more relevant in Africa than ever before. With the largest global
youthful population and over 700.000 university graduates every year, AIESEC must play
a key role on the engagement and leadership development for African youth. AIESEC
must also actively contribute for the development of the continent in different areas, by
taking (showcasing) Africa to the world and bringing the world to Africa for a positive
impact in our societies.

The time to actively contribute for the development of our continent is NOW! It’s time for
the Lions to Move for something bigger, It’s time for Africa!

African Greetings,
Daúdo Vali – AIESEC Africa Regional Responsible 2011/2012

3

2. Africa External Outlook
(Main Source: Ernst & Young 2011 Africa Attractiveness Survey)

Summary

Africa is currently the region with one of the fastest economic growth rates, enjoying one of
the highest return on investment in the world and making strong progress towards political
reforms, macroeconomics stability, and social development.

Africa Today

• Number of countries: 54
• Population: 1 Billion (41% is under 15 Years old)
• Population living in urban areas: 40%
• Mobile phone subscribers: 37% of the population
• Annual GDP growth (%): 5.2%
• University graduates every year: 700.000
• 176 million adults and 47 million youths (ages 15-24) are illiterate

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Interesting Statements about Africa’s economic current state

“Africa can be on the brink of an economic takeoff, much like China was 30 years ago and
India 20 years ago.” The World Bank, March 2011

“The point is not weather you should be doing business with Africa, but rather how.”
Leslie Rance, British American Tobacco

“Africa is the untold story, and could be the big story, on the next decade.”
Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-cola. Africa: Coke’s last frontier, October 2010

“Africa is becoming increasingly attractive to international investors and perceptions are
becoming more distinctly positive over the long-term horizon. African themselves and
emerging economies are leading the growth in investment across the continent. There is
definitely a perception gap, but this is not just a problem for outsiders. Africans must take
control about perceptions of the continent and change that perspective about Africa, within
Africa too.” Dirk Hoke, CEO Siemens Africa

3. Active Contribution Program

3.1.Definition, Purpose and Logo

It’s an umbrella program run by AIESEC in Africa that aims to positively impact and
develop a massive amount of young people, especially African youth, by offering them a
platform of projects and activities that impacts specific areas on the society, for a
sustainable development of the African continent.

The purpose of the program is to:
• Unify and align AIESEC in Africa on their activities and projects.
• Focus the region on the implementation and delivery of the full refreshed AIESEC
Experience to deliver more and better AIESEC XPs.
• Foster a collaborative and innovative environment.
• Increase external (in the society) and internal (within the AIESEC network) positioning.
• Bring financial sustainability to entities and generate revenue from funds and grants.

ACP is represented by a map of Africa resembling the shape
of a heart to show the compassion, love and caring attitude of
the African people. Their warmth and hospitality is shown by
the warmth of the red colors and the aim of ACP is
represented by the hands in the midst of Africa, a hands-on
attitude for impactful and sustainable positive change in Africa.

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3.2. Structure

The program is structured in five key areas of impact, defined according to African external
outlook and capturing current good case practices happening in the region. The reason for
choosing 5 areas is to keep the entities focused, but not limiting their space to innovate
and customize the program to their reality.
Four areas of impact are already pre-defined and we believe it represents the whole
region, while the 5th area can be customized according to the different country realities.
The 4 areas of impact defined are: (1) Leadership & Career Development, (2) Health
Improvement, (3) Education & Literacy and (4) Economic Growth.

The program is supported by the “Africa in Me” Branding Campaign, which aims to
showcase the continent to the world and make AIESEC in Africa the first choice
destination for AIESEC’s international experiences, especially for GCDP and GIP.

AIESEC in Africa
Active Contribution Towards
1. Leadership &

3. Education &
Improvement
Development

4. Economic

Impact #5
5. Area of
2. Health

Literacy

Growth
Career

“Africa in Me” Branding Campaign

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3.3. Princliples for ACP implementation

• Entities can develop different and innovative projects, as far as they are relevant to
their societies, respond to specific needs, have a long-term impact and fulfill the
principles for each area of impact.
• All projects and activities must contribute directly to the delivery of AIESEC
Experiences, considering all its phases, with focus on ELD programmes.
• All projects should actively engage current and potential TN takers, EPs and TMP/TLP
participants to create more AIESEC XPs.
• All projects related to GCDP and GIP must connect the interns with local communities
and should have externals involvement from the creation to the delivery.
• Entities can name the projects freely, as far as they are connected with the description
and purpose of the program and areas of impact.
• All projects must be financially sustainable through direct sales and/or financial models
that enhance sustainability.

The principles shall only be used together, and not as single statements.

4. Area of Impact 1: Leadership & Career Development
This area of impact aims to create and strengthen
professionalism, leadership and entreprepreneurial
capacity on African youth talent, to drive and prepare
them for employment and for a strong contribution
towards the development of their countries.

The type of projects and activities to be run includes:
• Projects that strengthen the impact of an
AIESEC’s Leadership experience on individual
development, while showcasing AIESEC’s
impact on youth.
• Projects focused on building professionalism through ethics and hard skills training.
• Projects that address youth leadership and employability, and local
entrepreneurship.

Examples of projects

• LEAD Program: Provide the elements of AIESEC’s Global Learning Environment
to TMP/TLP participants.
• Leadership Challenge: Conference hosted by AIESEC with soft and hard skills
building workshops, leadership case competition.
• Career Development Events: Employability skills workshops (CV writing and
interviews), Company visits, Career Fair, Youth to Business Forums, Skills building
trainings to different target audiences.
• YES Project: Deliver trainings and case studies competition around
entrepreunership to unprivileged people, university and high school students.
• Technological Solutions for career advancement: Education on portals and
platforms for connection, learning, showcasing and fund raising.

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5. Area of Impact 2: Health Improvement
This area of impact aims to improve the quality of life by creating a healthy and disease
free environment, with projects and activities committed to deliver great impact to large
and relevant groups of people, without prejudice and discrimination. Projects and activities
under this area should be focused on action and include awareness, while adding value to
the community and the interns.


• Awareness and action oriented projects around different diseases: Awareness
campaigns on HIV/AIDS, Medical students gaining practical field/professional
development experience in hospitals and clinics, etc.
• Sanitation and Environment Projects for diseases prevention (e.g. Malaria,
Cholera): Training local communities, Build infrastructure and clean affected areas
for prevention.

6. Area of Impact 3: Education & Literacy

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you
can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela,
Former President of South Africa

“For everyone everywhere, literacy is...a basic
human right.”
Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary-General

This area of impact aims to provide access to needed education to achieve equal
opportunities to different target groups for specific and meaningful purposes, on different
fields. This area of impact doesn’t include education on topics already covered in other
areas of impact such as health, leadership development and entrepreneurship.


• Literacy and numeracy projects: Classes on different fields to increase literacy
and numeracy to different groups of people in society (e.g: English and other
languages, maths, financial literacy, IT, etc).
• Technology for Kids: Teaching the teachers program, manage Internet Labs for
kids, fund raise to create IT infrastructure.
• Bridging educational gaps: Supply professors (ET EPs) to educational institutions
to fill the needs on different subjects.

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7. Area of Impact 4: Economic Growth
This area of impact aims to contribute for the economic growth
of different African countries, by tapping and capitalizng into the
top sectors that will offer the greatest potential for Africa
development in the next years. Check the top sectors for Africa
in the next 2 years, on page 3 of this document.

Examples of Projects and activities

• Work with touristic, cultural and investment agencies to promote Africa, as a
destination for investment and tourism.
• Facilitate importation and exportation, and business relations between Africa and
different investor regions/countries by supplying HR solutions in different areas.
• Market research projects/internships
• Regional integratiom projects and initiatives (e.g. EAC, SADC, ECOWAS…)

8. Area of Impact 5: To be defined by countries
We do believe that the pre-defined 4 areas of impact broadly reflect the trends, external
outlook and opportunities for the African continent, and we also acknowledge that there
might be other relevant areas in different countries, and that’s why the 5th area of impact is
open for entities to customize. Some example of other areas of impact are: Environmental
preservation, cultural awareness, etc.

We recommend that entities focus on the implementation of the 4 pre-defined areas of
impact and maximize on their full potential, unless there is another area that is very
relevant on entities markets or that entities have a very successful project implemented,
that address a different opportunity in the society.

9. “Africa in Me - AiM” Branding Campaign

“I am an African, not because I was born in Africa but because AFRICA is born in ME”.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, 1st President of Ghana

Definition

Africa in Me is the official regional branding campaign for ACP, that aims to showcase
African continent to the world to make AIESEC in Africa the first choice destination for
AIESEC’s international experiences globally, by providing high quality GIP and GCDP
Experiences. In other words, Is an opportunity to embrace Africa with heart wide open
and a hands on attitude!

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Africa in Me is based around an online portal, www.africainme.org, as well as a set of
experiences designed to enrich the volunteer or professional experiences with AIESEC in
Africa with a set of exciting activities. Through AiM young people will be able to explore the
African culture as well as document the experiences for their origin countries and cities,
through africainme.org.

Purpose of AiM

1) Promote Africa as a first choice destination for internships in the AIESEC network
2) 2) Create and showcase a multidimensional image of African continent through
stories of youth contributing to impact the society
3) 3) Create quality standards for reception to provide unique experiences to young
people in Africa

Main Activities (more details in AiM booklet)

1. ePIC Moments: Powerful African stories captured in images.
2. Untold Africa: inspirational stories from NGO’s and influential community leaders.
3. EsSense: Sensing the essence and culture of Africa.
4. Activ8 Joy: Playing for the purpose of joy, happiness and learning to children
5. ACP Ambassadors: Representing AIESEC Africa in OGX countries, to support
them in recruitment of EPs to Africa.

This activities can be implemented as a project around an area of impact of cultural
awareness, which would be part of the 5th area of impact, however is recommended that
they are run as complementary activities to the interns experience.

10. ACP Implementation guidelines steps

1. 2. HR 4. 5. Projects 6. 7.
Understand Allocation 3. Assessment Prioritization Design Delivery Showcase

1. Read and understand ACP, all areas of impact and Africa in Me concept.

2. Assign a responsible for ACP in your MC/LC, as well as a manager for AiM.
• These people will be the main point of communication between your entity and
the ACP regional coordinator and AiM task-force.

3. Make an internal and external assessment to select the focus areas of impact:
• Internal Analysis: Analyze the trends of the past years, main segments, topics
and areas which you realize GCDP, GIP and external events.
• External Analysis: Analyze the focus of the government, NGO’s and companies;
Look for possible connections between your country’s external trends and the
areas of impact of ACP.

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4. Select the areas of impact that your entity will be working on:
• Prioritize the different areas of impact to work on, based on the assessment
made and validate your opinion with an external advisor (can be BoA or Alumni)
• Its recommended that you focus on the implementation of 2 or 3 areas of impact
first, until you reach a maturity level and then explore other areas – FOCUS.

5. Design and plan the projects:
• Define the specific and different projects, activities and target audiences for
each area of impact
• Fill the ACP project spreadsheet for tracking and showcasing purposes (to be
developed)
• Commit on following and implementing ACP principles, XPP and AiM activities.
All projects communication materials should mention that is part of ACP and
have a space reserved for the ACP logo

6. Implement and deliver.

7. Showcase it and report.

11. Frequent Asked Questions
1. What is the difference between EAP and ACP?
• They’re both Regional initiatives, however ACP is more aligned with the internal and
external trends of AIESEC and Africa. ACP is focused on different parts of the
refreshed AIESEC XP, while EAP was mostly GCDP.

2. I am running ASK in my LC, is my LC contributing to ACP?
• Yes it can be. ASK specifically can be part of the projects under Health
improvement, you need ensure that all principles of the program will be followed,
and follow the implementation guidelines stated on pages 10 and 11.

3. Why should my LC contribute to ACP? What do I gain?
• ACP is a combination of efforts to make AIESEC in Africa bigger, better and
stronger. Its a way to contribute for a positive development of the continent
together, while showcasing the impact of it in a large scale. You gain coaching and
support, toolkits and guidelines, access to a collaborative network with GCPs,
ideas, strong branding and exchange cooperation’s, etc.

4. What is the difference between AIESEC Experience and ACP?
• ACP is a way to deliver more AIESEC XPs, there is no difference. ACP should
never go against the principles, definition, conditions and policies of AIESEC XP
and AIESEC Way.

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5. I am organizing a career fair to contribute for “Leadership&Career Development”
Area of Impact, can I bring interns to work in the project?
• If the career fair is being organized and hosted by AIESEC you should never bring
interns to work on this project, as this is an AIESEC activity and doesn’t belong to
an external organization. In this case you must have ceeders and not interns.

6. How can I incorporate ACP in my plan?
• There are different ways to incorporate ACP in your plan, for example have as part
of a strategy to grow in 1 or 2 specific ELD programmes (e.g. projects around
economic growth for GIP ICX growth). You can also plan having the areas of impact
as focus areas.

7. What is the difference between ACP and AiM?
• ACP is the umbrella program that includes AiM, which is the way to brand ACP
externally, both for the AIESEC network and other stakeholders. It includes an
impact-showcasing component, as well as specific experiences to enrich the
experiences lived by AIESECers working with AIESEC in different countries in
Africa. You cannot do one without another.

8. What happen if I implement ACP but I don’t follow all the principles?
• Then you’re not implementing ACP. The purpose of the program is not to control
and limit entities, is to ensure alignment, quality and focus for AIESEC in Africa.

9. If I need more information, where can I find it or who should I contact?
• If you’re from Africa Region you can approach your MCP. If you from outside Africa
or an African MCP please contact the AI VP Entity Development responsible for
Africa at femia@ai.aiesec.org, Africa Regional Chair at enoch.wong@aiesec.net, or
the sub-regional coordinators at robert.tetteh@aiesec.net (West Africa),
rahul.maira@aiesec.net (Southern Africa) and kaz.paul@aiesec.net (East Africa).

12. What’s next?
1. Select a regional coordinator for the initiative – End of July
2. Launch the program for the whole network at IC – IC 2012 in Russia
3. Start implementation and coaching countries around the program – September
2012 to June 2013.

13. Appendixes (Available soon)
1. Good case Practices of projects and Planning process around ACP
2. Africa in Me guidelines

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