YouthConnekt Africa: A Youth Empowerment Programme in Africa
Connecting African youth for socio-economic transformation
Challenges
Over the last several decades, Africa has been experiencing rapid technological and economic development, creating new opportunities for millions of people all over the continent. However, with more than 226 million people aged 15–24, Africa has the youngest population and the highest youth unemployment rate (60 percent) in the world.
Lack of employment opportunities, low levels of education and skills, combined with limited access to sexual and reproductive health services have resulted in a generation of young people with limited association to the formal job market. However, Africa’s youth could represent a significant asset for sustainable growth if the demographic transition (characterized by an increase in the working age population) would be appropriately harnessed.
Towards a Solution
YouthConnekt is a youth empowerment programme that was launched in Rwanda in 2012 and is currently being rolled out across Africa. Before it became continental in 2017, YouthConnekt was launched by the Government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Youth and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a multifaceted initiative aimed at providing a comprehensive answer to the several challenges faced by the youth. It aims at connecting young people with peers and role models, skills development, access to finance and entrepreneurship.
YouthConnekt takes a ‘platform approach’ to solving challenging development issues, and brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including heads of states, business leaders, development partners and the civil society, to address the multiple needs of young people while also fully involving them in the solution-building process. More specifically, UNDP and the Ministry of Youth and Culture coordinate the entire project, while the District Authorities and National Youth Council identify young innovators. Coaching and capacity building on entrepreneurship skills are supported by civil society organizations and public institutions (e.g. Business Development Foundation). The competition panel is also represented by public institutions (Rwanda Development Board, Rwanda Cooperating Agency, etc.), the private sector (mainly banks), civil society (Akilah Institute), and development partners (e.g. UNDP). The seed funding or financial award is provided and managed through the private sector (Brasseries et Limonaderies du Rwanda, Bank of Kigali, Tigo), CSOs (World Vision, Techno Serve, DOT, etc.). YouthConnekt is a great manifestation of partnership for shared goals.
Some of the project results are as follows:
- YouthConnekt Dialogue aims at providing a platform for young people to address dimensions of unity and reconciliation based on truth and trust.
- Results/Impact (since 2013): More than 1,000,000 youth in Rwanda and abroad participated.
- YouthConnekt Hangout uses Google+ Hangout and other technologies to connect youth with role models, resources, skills and socio-economic opportunities.
- Results/impact (since 2013): Twenty YouthConnekt Hangout sessions have been conducted on various topics, where 13,000 youth have been engaged.
- YouthConnekt Convention is an annual event for youth throughout the country to discuss their development and innovations and showcase their achievements.
- Results/impact (Since 2012): Around 24,000 youth have participated in the Convention and shared their ideas.
- YouthConnekt Month & Holiday Program is marked by youth-led activities that are innovative and that impact positively on society while raising awareness among communities about the youth’s contribution to nation-building.
- Results/impact (since 2012): More than 4,000,000 youth have been involved in YouthConnekt Month activities. They constructed 30 houses for vulnerable families, worked on the rehabilitation of 789 houses, and on planting 1,000,000 trees across the country.
- YouthConnekt Champions aims to celebrate young achievers and awards extraordinary accomplishments by youth at the forefront of innovative businesses, and social and civic innovations. This programme also recognizes significant institutional efforts to promote youth employment.
- Results/impact (since 2015): Three champions and seven young achievers have been recognized.
- YouthConnekt Boot Camp and Award aims to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among youth. Three best innovators from all over country are trained in business development and given the opportunity to pitch their projects to potential investors.
- Results/impact (since 2012): More than 1,200 young innovators were trained through bootcamps, which created more than 10,000 jobs.
- YouthConnekt Africa Summit is an annual meeting that connects youth from across the continent. It provides a platform for all partners involved in youth development to synergize efforts in policies, programmes and partnerships that will connect youth for continental transformation.
- Results/impact (since 2017): three editions of the summit have been organized in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda, UNDP, the African Union, the African Development Bank, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and other partners, including United Nations agencies, private sector companies, donors, and non-government organizations. The YCA Summit 2019 brought together 10,000 participants from 91 countries, making it the largest Pan-African youth event to date.
In terms of sustainability, more than 20 partnerships have been established with government, development partners, civil society, academia and private sector organizations (Liquid Telecom, KOICA, United Nations agencies, Higher Life Foundation, Steward Bank, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). For instance, in 2019, the Rwandan Ministry of Youth, UNDP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) signed a partnership agreement with KOICA to support the scaling-up of the YouthConnekt initiative in Rwanda through a four-year programme (2019–2022).
The YCA provides extensive technical support to forge effective partnerships, design implementation mechanisms, assist in implementing policies and systems, and develop institutional capabilities for the national YCA programmes to operationalize and fulfil its mandate. Through the YCA network, partnerships are forged among national YCA initiatives to learn, replicate and implement relevant good practices and initiatives that improve the lives of young people.
Inspired by the achievements of the YouthConnekt Rwanda initiative, several other African countries and UNDP country offices have demonstrated strong interest in learning about and replicating its model in their respective countries. As a result, YouthConnekt has scaled up beyond Rwanda to 17 African countries (Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Republic of the Congo , the Republic of the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), while numerous other countries are in advance stage of launching YouthConnekt country programmes.
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