African Union Youth Envoy’s Outfit Design Challenge 2020 for young African designers (Opportunity to Showcase at the AU Summit 2020)

Deadline: January 24, 2020

The AU Youth Envoy is calling on young African designers to collaborate on creating an exceptional outfit for this year’s African Union Summit in February drawing inspiration from the theme of the year, “Silencing The Guns”.

Are you a young African designer? Apply to show off your skills at the next African Union Summit! Aya Chebbi, the African Union Youth Envoy is looking for a young African designer to collaborate with to design an exceptional outfit for her to wear to this year’s African Union Summit in February. This is a fantastic opportunity for designers to show off their creative genius at the AU Summit in Ethiopia.

The outfit should draw inspiration from the theme of the year, “Silencing The Guns”. This theme focuses on ‘ending all wars, civil conflicts, gender-based violence, violent conflicts and preventing genocide in the continent by 2020.’

Aya will announce the winning designer on the African Union Youth Envoy social media channels and website on 26 January 2019.

The purpose of the Challenge is to; 

1. Engage the youth in the creatives, fashion and textile industries in understanding and contributing to the AU theme of the year “Silencing the Guns.” We want to ensure that they are informed and active players in discussions about their futures. In addition, we want to harness their creativity and skillsets by providing a platform to showcase through their art, the impact of this year’s theme on their lives and those of other African youth. 
2. Ensure inclusive participation and provide young designers across the continent, whether they are based in Kampala, Mogadishu, Accra, Marrakech, Joburg or Kinshasa, an opportunity to show off their creative genius at the AU Summit in Ethiopia 
3. Showcase the diversity of African youth and the sectors within which they engage while highlighting their power as economic drivers.
4. Link the role of the fashion, textiles, and creatives industries as accelerators for African development. 
5. Encourage the use of sustainable materials in design to promote positive climate action. Highlight the importance of artisanal/indigenous techniques in preserving the continent’s history while welcoming technological innovations within these industries. 

Benefits

• The chosen designer will be fairly remunerated for their creation by the Youth Envoy’s personal resources.This challenge has no official budget nor has an official sponsor. The chosen designer will also be featured and promoted on our platform(s) to continue to bring attention to African youth working in fashion, textiles, creative industries and to help achieve the objectives outlined above. 
• All advocacy for youth issues at the AU summit will reflect the recommendations and ideas that have been shared with the OYE through different channels including online, national and regional consultations, country missions and diverse engagements, networks and platforms.

Please note that this Challenge is not related to any speech to be delivered to the Heads of States and Government at the AU summit 

Eligibility

• Open to young African designers across the continent

Application

Click here to apply.

For more information, visit Outfit Design Challenge.