Singapore is committed to playing a key role in leadership development, to foster ASEAN community building at the regional level. One of Singapore’s contributions to the ASEAN Work Plan on Youth 2021-2025 is the ASEAN Youth Fellowship (AYF) which was established in 2018 in conjunction with Singapore’s ASEAN chairmanship that year.
Strengthening people-to-people ties is essential in creating a close-knit ASEAN community. Through leadership development programmes, young talents who will form the next generation of leaders will be given the opportunity to form networks and connections to bring the ASEAN community forward.
ASEAN Youth Fellowship (AYF) 2024
Into its 6th run, the AYF continues to be an exclusive regional leadership development programme that cultivates and connects established ASEAN young leaders from across diverse sectors.
Programme Objectives
AYF aims to achieve the following objectives:
To engage youth leaders in ASEAN through an immersive learning experience;
To build a strong network among youth leaders from diverse sectors;
To expose ASEAN youth leaders to opportunities in the region.
Target Audience
The target participants are professionals aged between 27 to 35 years old, who are citizens of ASEAN member states. They should be proficient in English.
The nominated youth leaders must have established track record in their communities of influence, with high potential to take on prominent leadership positions in the future. Past AYF Fellows included department heads in national government bodies, CEOs and founders of national-level start-ups and civil society organisations, or management of private corporations and businesses.
Programme Structure
The AYF 2024 will be held from 3 to 10 November 2024 as an in-person programme with two legs – the first half of the programme will be held in Singapore, followed by the second half of the programme in Laos. There would also be a compulsory hybrid pre-programme on-boarding session in mid-October 2024.
The programme will feature the following key elements:
Dialogues with senior policy makers and prominent thought leaders;
Immersive institutional visits;
Exclusive learning journeys to key installations and organisations
Inspired by the theme of Laos’ ASEAN Chairmanship 2024, “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience”, AYF 2024 focuses on Innovation and Connectivity which are key drivers for economic growth and integration in the region. AYF 2024 will explore ASEAN’s economic potential and the multifaceted dimensions of how innovation and connectivity enhance resilience and address shared challenges effectively. ASEAN youth leaders will embark on a journey that equips them to be at the forefront of driving collaboration and paving the way for a more sustainable, resilient, and interconnected region.
After the programme, ASEAN Youth Fellows are encouraged to work collaboratively on joint regional or bilateral projects stemming from AYF or in areas of need assessed by fellows and / or AYF Alumni. Projects scoped in partnership with other organisations could also be considered. To support their collaborative ground-up initiatives, fellows and AYF Alumni are encouraged to tap on the Singapore-ASEAN Youth Fund (SAYF) and the ASEAN Youth Fellowship Impact Fund (AYF Impact Fund) . In addition, Fellows will continuously be re-engaged through various platforms as participants, speakers, moderators, etc.
