Aya Chebbi , is a Pan-African activist, Tunisian diplomat and feminist. She became the first appointed African Union Envoy on Youth in November 2018. Appointed by the chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E Moussa Faki on November 2018, as the youngest senior official in the history of the African Union and youngest diplomat in the chairperson's cabinet. She supports the Chairperson in addressing his thematic priority of working with and for young people and advocate to Silencing The Guns by 2020
Biography
Born in Dahmani, Chebbi came to prominence and international attention as a blogger during the 2010 Tunisian Revolution. Her blogs were published on OpenDemocracy and Al-Jazeera among numerous media outlets. She subsequently traveled across the African continent to support and train thousands of social movement leaders and activists on mobilization, blogging, leadership and non-violence as a scholar, mentor, speaker and activist. Chebbi earned a BA in International Relations from Tunis El Manar University. She went on to receive a Masters in African Studies with Distinction from SOAS University of London, where her research focused on state-youth relation linked to their subscription to Jihadism, with a dissertation titled “Youth Radicalisation, a comparative Study of Tunisia- Kenya”. In 2013, Chebbi co-founded with her feminist friends and bloggers, Konda Delphine from Cameroon and Rose Wachuka from Kenya, the Voice of Women initiative, a feminist collective that empowers women through advocacy and access to the digital space. VOW-I trains correspondents in various cities around the world to document the stories of ordinary women doing extraordinary things. The platform published about 200 stories, trained 35 correspondents and successfully implemented field projects on health, peace and the safety of women. In March 2015, she was invited as the Youth Speaker for UN Women’s celebratory event for the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, to an audience of some 2,000 people including world leaders, celebrities and activists. In 2016, Chebbi was selected as one of the most influential young Arabs under 40 years of age, by Arabian Business magazine. Aya was appointed as an emissary of Tunisian youth in 32th summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa. On the 1st of November 2018, Aya Chebbi was appointed as the first African Union Special Envoy on Youth by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat for a two-year mandate to serve as a representative and advocate for the voices and interests of African youths. Chebbi also works with various AU organs, Regional Economic Communities, governments, civil societies, and academia to enhance, empower and strengthen the position of young people within and outside of the African Union. Chebbi started her mission by launching the game changing 2019/2020 Action Plan outlining four Models of Action ; Innovation, Advocacy, Intergenerational & Policy and Communication. June 2019, Chebbi was featured in the Visual CollaborativePolaris catalogue, under the Voyager series for humanities, she was interviewed alongside 25 people from around the world such as; Seun Kuti, Berla Mundi and Dawn Okoro. She prides herself as a firm believer in Pan-Africanism and Agenda 2063 and believes with the right investments in young people, they can contribute significantly towards attaining the seven aspirations of the AU agenda. Aya Chebbi also contributes to the consolidation of peace efforts at the forefront of the AU campaign on Silencing The Guns by 2020.
In 2012, received the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship Award
In 2011, received the MENA Democracy Fellowship of World Affairs Institute in Washington DC where she served in the US Congress and American think tanks.
Publications
Aya Chebbi became a world renown blogger and commentator since Tunisia's Revolution and her pieces have been published by numerous Regional and Global media outfits. Euronews: Jeune Afrique: Der TagessPiegel: Africa.com OGP: CNBC Africa: Op-Ed: All Africa: Africa: UNIDO, Daily Maverick Metro Addis Standard https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/yarmouk-camp-victim-water-wars-syria-201514102955303689.html https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/author/aya-chebbi/ https://www.una.org.uk/strengthening-civil-society-engagement-united-nations https://www.opengovpartnership.org/trust/youth-radicalisation-and-distrust/ https://www.dandc.eu/en/contributors/aya-chebbi https://30thingstothinkabout.org/voices/
