WAG ARC- Youth to Youth Flagship Women and Girls Advancement and Resource Centre (WAG ARC) Project Summary:

Voice Innovation lab aims at establishing a virtual andphysical space (which will nevertheless often bring actors together) for exploring innovative ways of addressing issues affecting the Youth, a target beneficiary of Voice. This lab will engage the youthful exuberances and intellectual prowess of Nigerian youths, in and out of school, to amplify their voices in addressing the most marginalization and discrimination they face in Nigeria.

The Innovation Lab will bring together a diverse group of marginalised and discriminated youth. This diversity will consider the intersectionality aspect and the representation of VOICE target groups. The Lab will facilitate learning fromthese youth activists, explore new tools for policy engagements and develop new insights.

The overarching strategy to implementing the Lab is by working for youthas beneficiaries (target groups); engaging with youth as partners (collaborators); and supporting youth as leaders (initiators). Tocarry out the many activities proposed, the strategy takes a four-pronged approach: SUPPORT through capacity development of young people, including youth representative bodies,  to empower them and prepare them better for the future; ENGAGE through outreach, advocacy and mainstreaming of youth issues in all spheres of development planning;  INFLUENCE through thought leadership training, national policy dialogues, debates, that include the voices of marginalized youth via radio programs and build on improved data collection (VOICE dairies,Hotlines, Research Competition) to monitor development process; SUSTAIN through support to operationalizing institutional framework (of Youth2Youth Network for Social Change) formore effective strategies to protect young men and women from exploitation,neglect and support their informed and active participation in all spheres of society. The Lab will among other things be:

-Challenging violence, abuse and exploitation againstyoung girls in Nigeria, by highlighting how deep rooted social norms perpetuate these social ills against girls. Take for instance the high rate of rape cases and sex for mark scandals making waves in the NigerianUniversities.

-Challenging discriminatory practices against young people with Disability and ensuring their inclusiveness in government policies particularly with respect to their employment and access to resources, public infrastructures and spaces in Nigeria.

-Launch a flagship Youth2Youth Network for Social Change to promote youth active participation in the coming election in 2019, addressing unemployment and empowering girls with IT skills and knowledge to be technology savvy.

Voice Innovation lab would be a greatforce in Nigerialinking VOICE target groups, CSOs and NGOs etc together; generating discourse and mobilizing thoughts across the nation, particularly through its social media platform. The Lab may not necessarily solve the entire problems of youth in Nigeria but would be able to showcase and demonstrate POSSIBILITY that change is possible

Thehead office of WAG ARC is in Abuja, but the centrehas program links in Enugu State. The innovation lab will operate virtually and physically with meeting points in Abuja, and Enugu,while the project will be coordinated from Abuja.