About Teams up! Youth Exchange for Sustainable Development

International, development-related youth-group exchanges

Teams up! Youth Exchange for Sustainable Development provides funding for international, extracurricular youth exchanges and accompanying/pilot projects linked to them. It enables youth groups from African countries, Germany and in triangular cooperation also from other countries on the DAC list, to work together on a joint project, in which they address one of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The projects, which run for a maximum of two years, include a visit from Germany to the african partner country and vice versa as well as online collaboration before and after the visits. The exchanges are funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Photo of a participating youth group standing in a field. There are buildings and a South African flag on a flagpole in the background.
Teams up! promotes international exchange

Teams up! – Aims

  1. Nurturing a new generation of global citizens

    The Teams up! programme offers young people between the ages of 16 and 30 an opportunity to develop global awareness and discover the active role they can play in shaping our One World as “global citizens”. Through the direct interaction between youth groups from Germany and African countries, participants learn that issues of vital importance to the future of a just world concern each and every one of us. Inspired by their personal experiences, their images of and ideas about the partner country become more nuanced. They develop an understanding of what it means to play a responsible role in a globalised world and how important it is to be aware of the consequences of one’s actions and to make them sustainable.
  2. Strengthening global partnerships and training opportunities

    These international youth-group exchanges strengthen equality-based, global partnerships and extracurricular youth exchange structures. The implementing organisation from Germany and the project partners organise the project in close collaboration. In addition, the programme is a way of providing additional training for those responsible for teaching others how to conduct youth exchange projects since knowledge and expertise are passed on through the dialogue and collaboration on the projects.
  3. Raising awareness of and implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030

    The joint project work carried out by the youth groups is the core of these development-related youth exchanges. Each project deals with one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set out in Agenda 2030 (SDGs). The projects help to raise awareness of the goals and to translate them into practice.
A participant is standing at an exhibition stand, explaining something to a man and a woman. There are posters hanging in the background, showing the development goals and the question, “What does sustainability mean to you?”
Teams up! Youth Exchange for Sustainable Development promotes action for Agenda 2030.

Agenda 2030

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all UN member states in September 2015. It sets out the belief that the challenges facing our globalised world can only be solved in a concerted effort, which is why it applies to all countries in our One World.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Agenda 2030
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Agenda 2030

The Particularity and history of Teams up! Youth Exchange for Sustainable Development

The Teams up! Youth Exchange for Sustainable Development programme builds on the experiences of the African-German Youth Initiative (AGYI), which was piloted from 2016 to the end of 2020, and on the funding guideline weltwärts Exchange Projects in the Context of Agenda 2030. The programme focuses on extracurricular development-related youth-group exchanges between African countries and Germany. The Teams up! programme thus differs from other (development-related) youth-exchange programmes and other development-related exchange programmes for individuals or school groups. (At Engagement Global gGmbH, such programmes include the weltwärts development volunteers service, the ASA development and training programme and the ENSA School Exchange Programme for Development Education).