Youth Futures for Systemic Justice: Anticipation and Innovation Praxis in East and Southern Africa

This report details a research initiative in East and Southern Africa that employed participatory foresight to engage youth as co-creators of systemic justice. It advocates for transforming interlinked social and economic structures and recommends shifting from tokenistic youth inclusion to authentic co-governance and futures literacy in education.

• The research initiative utilized participatory foresight and action research to position youth as co-researchers and co-creators of futures, focusing on domains such as governance, well-being, ecological sustainability, and economic resilience to challenge dominant development narratives.
• The report defines systemic justice as the intentional transformation of epistemic, economic, and social structures that are interlinked, shifting the role of youth from mere advocates to catalysts for long-term systemic change.
• To address youth challenges like educational gaps, political marginalisation, and exclusion from decision-making, the report recommends that policymakers, civil society, and funders adopt authentic youth co-governance, fund relational processes instead of isolated outputs, and embed futures literacy in education.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2025). Youth Futures for Systemic Justice: Anticipation and Innovation Praxis in East and Southern Africa. https://saiia.org.za/research/youth-futures-for-systemic-justice-anticipation-and-innovation-praxis-in-east-and-southern-africa/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Youth Futures for Systemic Justice: Anticipation and Innovation Praxis in East and Southern Africa. 2025. https://saiia.org.za/research/youth-futures-for-systemic-justice-anticipation-and-innovation-praxis-in-east-and-southern-africa/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Youth Futures for Systemic Justice: Anticipation and Innovation Praxis in East and Southern Africa |date=10 June 2025 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/youth-futures-for-systemic-justice-anticipation-and-innovation-praxis-in-east-and-southern-africa/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2025youth, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Youth Futures for Systemic Justice: Anticipation and Innovation Praxis in East and Southern Africa}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/youth-futures-for-systemic-justice-anticipation-and-innovation-praxis-in-east-and-southern-africa/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }