World Bank hosts second annual African Youth Forum
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Last year, the World Bank Group-International Monetary Fund Young African Society (YAS), hosted its first African Youth Forum, which resulted in the creation of recommendations to end Africa’s rising numbers of under and unemployed youth. These recommendations included improving access to finance for young entrepreneurs and increasing vocational training for youth. The event was well received, bringing in 1.1 million people connected on Facebook alone and nearly 3,000 tweets on the day of the event.
This year, YAS is happy to announce that the 2015 African Youth Forum, to be held May 22-24, will be hosted in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
This is an undoubtedly youth-driven initiative, with every person on the forum’s organizing committee being of African descent and below the age of 35. This committee rallied support from World Bank and IMF senior directors, as well as government officials on the continent. Most importantly, the committee consulted with over 1,500 young Africans during the planning of the event.
The three day event will bring together young innovative leaders from around the African continent to pitch practical and scalable solutions that advance social and economic development in their communities. The forum will also connect young entrepreneurs with experts from academia, development institutions, civil society organizations, the private sector and government in order to support a youth-led development agenda.
The forum will include career building and leadership workshops, a career fair and a development case competition. Five project finalists will be announced at the event, and project leads will present their proposals to elicit funding from investors.
There are several ways to engage:
- Registration for the public is still open here.
- To particpate online, you can RSVP on our Facebook event page which will send you updates and a notification right before the forum begins.
- To join the live discussion, please follow @WorldBankAfrica on Twitter and use the hashtag #AfricaYF2015.
We must invest in an education curriculum that prepares our youth for entrepreneurship, that encourages them to think and question and innovate. Many of us were educated purely for passing exams and this becomes a problem later. We also need education policies that promote the education of girls and make general primary education accessible to all.
This is the way to go if Africa is to have hope for a good future.There is still hope for Africa's social and economic development.Thumbs up to the Pioneers of this Programme.
This is the way to go if Africa is to have hope for a good future.There is still hope for Africa's social and economic development.Thumbs up to the Pioneers of this Programme.
I do gladly be the happiest person if am awarded this great opportunity to be part of those who will champion the great opportunity Africa and Africans has been yarning for. God bless the world bank, God bless africa.
Dear all.
am glad with you guys, you are doing a good job and i would like to joining you brothers and sisters if you can offer for me the opportunity to participation that upcoming forum 0n 22th M ay 2015. Hope to hear from you
feeling great to be updated n will wish to be an active participater
There is yet hope for us in africa. Let this exercises engage every youth
This is the future we've been waiting for. Gracias.
Dr. David-Victor Joel Charima
This the future we've been waiting for. The Making of Leaders begins from giving the youths a platform of expression. Dr. DJV Charima
IT IS INSPIRING TO KNOW THAT WORLD BANK IS COMMITTED TO ENSURE A VIBRANT AND PRODUCTIVE YOUTH GENERATION. THE ESSENCE OF LEADERSHIP.
Greetings?,Any Possibility of Individual/personal grants??,Eligibility??.Thanks.{kenyan Citizen}
Capital injection in the youth population to a did to foster youth employment in Africa is needless to say a continueing white elephant projects. This practice has been ongoing more than 4 decades and still no enormous impact. The reality is, African youth truly feel curious about WEST. No matter how much money or resources spent, 99 percent at some point will want to leave that investment to out WEST before realizing the hidden reality about migration to WEST. For Africa to ultilize its youth population, world bank should try motivating dual national of Sfrican living abroad to consider entrepreneurship ventures. See Akon Lighting as an example, he develop the work ethics and have the insight what hardworking in the West can do. Spending millions on youths in Africa has minimal effects because they are still been dictated by the corrupt leadership and rogue governments. 99% of Africans engagement online is sway on non educational surf, such as facebook, movies, viral vids, sex, dating, and solicitation. I am an African living in America and still have big heart for African growth but the current status core in Africa on social engagements is still a question.
Brilliant idea t engage the youth