Imiti N'ashikula
Readiness through contribution, not permission. A direct challenge to the proverb Imiti ikula empanga: we are not tomorrow's forest, we are today's.
The problem
Skilled, motivated, and told to wait
Over 65% of Zambia’s population is youth, yet young people remain largely excluded from economic ownership and decision-making. The real barrier is not skill. It is that young people are taught to wait for permission from systems that were not built for them.
Training programmes produce skilled, motivated youth who then hit the same locked doors. Another certificate does not open them. Evidence of contribution does.
What it is
Action-based activation across three tracks
Community Contribution Projects
60 daysParticipants design and execute a visible community solution, such as a waste collection scheme, a school garden, or a peer tutoring programme, from idea to delivery in 60 days.
Micro-Enterprise Cohort
90 daysCohorts of 8–10 participants launch or formalise a micro-enterprise over 90 days, with business model support, financial literacy, and market linkage.
Civic & Policy Contribution
Ward levelParticipants produce a ward-level issue brief, observe council meetings, and present community solutions directly to local authorities.
Core philosophy
Participation is the proof of readiness
Most youth programmes treat readiness as a credential to be earned before participating. Imiti N’ashikula inverts that: the completed project is the credential. Every delivered community solution, every formalised enterprise, every issue brief presented to a council becomes evidence a young person can point to: currency that opens funding, media, and institutional doors that certificates alone do not.
Why this name
A direct answer to an older narrative
Unseen Minority is named for the Bemba proverb “Imiti ikula empanga,” trees grow to become a forest. Taken as instruction, that proverb teaches patience: wait your season, and permission will come once you have grown into it. Imiti N’ashikula is our answer to that instruction, not a rejection of the proverb, but a challenge to reading it as permission to wait.
Read our full theory of changeInstitutional partnership
The Citizen Academy initiative
Imiti N’ashikula is the programme under which Unseen Minority is developing the Citizen Academy initiative. It is designed from the ground up for institutional partnership: defined cohorts, a 50% female participation target, and outcome measures aligned with youth civic and economic inclusion agendas.
We are actively seeking institutional partners for this initiative; no partnership has been agreed at this stage.
- Participants
- 30 young people, ages 18–30
- Location
- One Lusaka constituency
- Gender target
- 50% female cohort
- Cohort structure
- Three parallel tracks: community contribution (60 days), micro-enterprise (90 days), and civic & policy contribution
Partner on the Citizen Academy
We are seeking institutional partners for the first Imiti N’ashikula cohort. Full programme framework and outcome design available on request.