The Building Youth Livelihoods Resilience Initiative is among the first, among a series of other prototypes, to be set into motion by the AAYMCA in 2020.

The initiative was preceded by an online youth survey to establish the exact needs for young people, particularly those in entrepreneurs and aspiring to be entrepreneurs. Among the needs that were most highlighted is the financing (grants, loans, investors) for their businesses, business management skills, financial management and marketing strategies. This provided an indication of the most relevant content for young people. While searching for the most relevant online platform to host the initiative, Mighty Networks was identified as an ideal space due to its capacity to host a large community of participants, host events and content. This coupled with the results of the survey laid the necessary foundation for the launch of the initiative in July 2020.

This initiative was especially built to respond to the youth livelihoods crisis resulting from the COVID 19 Pandemic. The pandemic has accelerated already existing vulnerabilities faced by young people in Africa. These vulnerabilities include that very few young people in Africa are wage earners. Those who are employed are informally employed and in temporary jobs and mainly in food, agriculture and tourism sectors which were adversely affected by the pandemic and have social protection and no teleworking opportunities. The Building Youth Livelihoods resilience initiative was therefore a prototype to address these vulnerabilities in and post the Covid 19 Pandemic.