The YouthConnekt Africa Summit is an annual convening that connects youth from across the continent and beyond with policy influencers, political leaders, and public, private and development sector institutions to engage,discuss, design, and accelerate youth empowerment efforts at the continent level. In addition, every year the summit intends to create a platform for a larger number of young people from all over world to learn and engage in YouthConnekt Africa’s youth development program.
YouthConnekt Africa Summit provides a platform for all partners involved in youth development to synergize around policies, programs and partnerships that will connect youth for continental transformation.
32 African Countries have launched YouthConnekt and more are scaling up their efforts.
YAS! is a portal-platform for Africa’s young entrepreneurs. The portal-platform supports the development and growth of youth entrepreneurship in Africa by providing the following pillars of support:
Learning to help entrepreneurs begin their journey by providing the answers on the key concepts relevant to enterprise development.
An eco-system map so entrepreneurship stakeholders across the board - from corporates to entrepreneurs - can locate the different entrepreneurial eco-system service providers.
Challenges to award financing for youth to develop or scale and implement their innovations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the United Nations. The SDGs focus on ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring that all people everywhere enjoy peace and prosperity.
Opportunities to learn more about funding and networking relevant for the entrepreneurship eco-system.
The YCA Innovation & Entrepreneurship Academy will be the center of excellence for African youth’s untapped potentials to create/scaleup innovative solutions, to impart trainings on market-based competences and skills and conduct evidence-based research on youth empowerment.
The Inner Circle: is a closed online platform, reserved for those participants, who have either successfully received business training from the YCA boot camps or were awarded with a grant for their project/business. will act as an instrument to keep beneficiaries in touch and let them share their valuable stories to future applicants and nominees to come. Through that, their lessons-learnt can be spread to current participants, who can benefit from these cases to flourish their own businesses.
YouthConnekt Africa recognizes and awards outstanding and high achieving youth with exemplary work in their communities. Likewise, the awards recognize organizations, institutions and enterprises dedicated towards supporting African youth through their activities. The purpose of CYAH is to reward young African talent who are striving in the fields and making their name globally in applied sciences, entrepreneurship, athletics, social work, art, education, and health.These celebrated young African heroes will serve be the good will ambassadors of the YCA.
The YouthConnekt Africa Action Awards were created to honour outstanding achievements by young African innovators. The Awards is presented at the YouthConnekt Africa Summits editions each year, one each in the categories of economic development, social inclusion, environmental protection, digital inclusion. The winners will be highlighted in a ceremony at YCA Summit every year, meet distinguished attendees from government and business, and have the chance to make connections and increase the impact of their work. Top 12 contestants will be invited at YCA Summit for boot camp. All 12 contestant will be given opportunity to present their projects. However, four will be awarded financially.
The YouthConnekt Empowerment Fund is designed to increase direct funding available for youth-led ventures on the continent as well as for innovative national youth initiatives. The Fund will use a leveraged approach to ensure that it catalyzes larger amounts of capital from multiple partners to increase Youth enterprise access to finance. It will focuson bridging three strategic gaps:
i) increase equity financing available to African SMEs seeking to scale (growth capital);
ii) de-risk youth enterprise through a guarantee scheme via banks & credit lines to MFIs;
iii) catalyzetechnical assistancefunds to enhance access to knowledge, skills and markets for the Youth entrepreneurs. In addition, the YouthConnekt Empowerment Fund will finance YouthConnekt initiatives in countries’ members with the goal of supporting the deployment of YouthConnekt Africa.
Investing in young women’s economic empowerment and skills development is one of the main principles of YCA to drive progress on gender equality, poverty eradication, and inclusive economic growth. The ConnektedGirls will bridge the widening digital and gender divide and its compounded effect on the overall economic empowerment of women. It will generate debate on fostering girls’ inclusion in the digital economy, as well as addressing ingrained stereotypes and social norms that limit the girl’s ability to benefit from the opportunities offered by the digital transformation in Africa.
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