ZIMBABWE

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are growing faster than almost anywhere else on earth. For millions of young people, that growth is not an opportunity — it is a pressure. Informal settlements expand. Public space disappears. Jobs don't materialise. And the systems that should support young people — housing, education, health, local governance — stretch and sometimes break.

Youth City is Dreamtown's most ambitious programme: a multi-country, multi-year effort to change what urban life looks like for young people across Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, and Denmark.

The programme works through three interconnected pillars. The first is entrepreneurship — building the skills, networks, and confidence for young people to create income and economic resilience in their communities, with a target of 40% of participants scaling or launching a new enterprise.

The second is public space — working with communities to reclaim, create, and maintain safe, green, and creative spaces where young people can gather, express themselves, and belong. The target: 800 young people directly involved in developing and shaping those spaces. In Kenya and Uganda, it means urban agriculture and climate-smart infrastructure.

The third pillar is advocacy — equipping young people to engage with local authorities and influence the decisions that shape their cities, with 800 young people taking part in joint advocacy campaigns.

Across all five countries, Youth City has directly engaged hundreds of young people as active participants — not as recipients of development, but as its architects. The programme is guided by a Youth Advisory Panel, ensuring that young voices shape its direction at every stage. Youth City is Dreamtown's theory of change made visible at scale: cities are made by people, and the young people who live in them have both the right and the capacity to make them better.