Kigali – A beautiful, noisy thunder shower greeted delegates arriving in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday for the Mastercard Foundation’s second annual Young Africa Works Summit, shattering expectations of cracked skin and dry taps after a terrible year of drought in many parts of Africa in 2016.
The trip from the airport to the Marriott Hotel, where the summit takes place on Thursday and Friday, gave an indication that many more expectations would be shattered.
Hopefully the 300 delegates at the summit will still take serious note of the various warnings about being water wise but, as for other old expectations, they might as well flush them away.
New stereotypes are being minted by the day in Africa, with its burgeoning population of young people and blossoming cultures of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The summit will focus on discussions about finding ways to achieve sustainable and meaningful livelihoods for youth in the agricultural sector.
Sessions, formal and informal, will cover everything from rabbit farming and insuring against drought to transformational technologies. The Mastercard Foundation said it hoped the meetings would “foster collaboration, share learning, provoke dialogue and elevate the perspectives of young people”.
Deals were already been made on Wednesday before we had arrived at our hotels, giving a taste of what was to come.
The foundation described the Young Africa Works Summit as bringing together 300 “thought leaders” from government, non-governmental organisations, funders and the private sector who are “committed to developing sustainable youth employment strategies in Africa”.
The event directly involves young people, 50 of them as delegates this year, “to help understand and explore their journeys, including the challenges they face, in securing meaningful economic opportunities”.
“In 2017, we would like to shift the discussion from how to engage youth in agriculture, to youth as drivers of agricultural transformation,” the Mastercard Foundation said.
This transformation holds tremendous promise for catalysing prosperity and creating sustainable livelihoods for young people in Africa.”