Regional
YouthConnekt: 6 years of building young Africans’ resilience
From
October 13 to 15, all roads lead to Kigali for the YouthConnekt Africa (YCA)
Summit. First hosted in Kigali in 2017, the convention has grown to become
Africa’s largest such event connecting young people from across the continent
and beyond.
Initiated
in 2012 by the Government of Rwanda in partnership with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) as a multifaceted youth empowerment model that
focuses on leveraging youth employability, entrepreneurship, and civic
engagement through innovation, the fifth edition of the summit will be held
under the theme “Accelerating Investments in Youth: Resilient Youth, Resilient
Africa.”
Rwanda
is always open and ready to receive all young Africans. Over the last six years, the
annual event draws more than 10,000 delegates from across the continent. They
include policy influencers, political leaders, as well as public, private, and
development sector institutions, to engage, discuss, design, and accelerate the
future of Africa’s youth.
Today,
YCA is a fast-growing continental platform with a presence in 28 countries. It
has grown to constitute YouthConnekt Convention, YouthConnekt Dialogue and
YouthConnekt Awards, all of which have a focus on economic empowerment.
Africa’s
solutions to Africa’s challenges is the core mission of the initiative.
For
young Africans, the platform opened doors for them to participate in most of
the national dialogues especially those that strengthen peace building and
reconciliation and participate in dialogues that can inspire and motivate real
actions.
Beyond
the summit, the YCA impact can be seen through significant numbers. Since 2017,
four YouthConnekt boot camps were organized in Rwanda to coach 360 young
innovators, awarding a total of 120 innovators. Within only three years, the
YouthConnekt boot camp resulted in the creation of about 1,000 permanent jobs
and 2,700 temporary jobs.
Since
2012, the annual YouthConnekt awards and program has seen more than 600 young
entrepreneurs awarded in different domains, coached and trained on how they
could improve their production and scale up their businesses.
More
than 20 YouthConnekt debates known as Hangouts were organized, raising
awareness among more than 13,000 youths on issues such as employment,
entrepreneurship, and ICT.
Five
ICT competitions were organised aimed at boosting the ICT and mobile
application, resulting into the training of 100 youth and the creation of 25
startups.
To
date, more than four million youths have participated in YouthConnekt months
organized to engage them to actively participate in their own countries’ development.
The YCA
aims at creating 10 million jobs, connecting 100 million young Africans, empowering
25 million youth with skills, nurturing a million youth and closing the gender
gap.
This
fifth edition will provide a platform for African youth to connect and exchange
ideas with like-minded people from all over Africa and beyond. Creating good
networks through the initiative will offer practical advice, funding and
investments, clients, referrals, and many more.
African
youth have a huge potential to leverage their collective capabilities, ideas,
and innovation to design the Africa they desire for themselves and others.
The YCA
Summit opens doors for so much good to happen.