I had the privilege of attending the Youth Connekt Africa Summit at Kigali which was held from July 19th to July 21st 2017. If you are wondering, I did not misspell conneKt that is indeed the name of the conference.

I was invited to speak about the youth driving SDG goals during a panel session with policy makers and fellow youth. At first when I received the invitation I got nervous and then proceeded to Google to find out more about the United Nations SDG goals. SDG means Sustainable Development Goals and every country that is a member of the UN is expected to achieve and of course I knew that, I am just putting out the first thing that popped up in my search. Some of the questions that were asked is whether the youth are informed about the goals and whether they are working towards them. First of all, I had to Google more about the SDGs in preparation for the panel session. I felt like I wasn’t well equipped to answer those questions. Maybe a youth with extensive knowledge on them should have been invited instead. I then realized that I was the perfect candidate in speaking about it since I qualify in being a youth and in particular an ignorant one in matters concerning the SDG goals. I learnt a lot during that panel session;

  1. We have the Agenda 2063 which was developed for African countries which is very similar to the SDG goals. I like the example that was given by Prudence Nonkululeko Ngwenya, Head African Union Youth Division, Ethiopia. She said what is probably SDG 11. Sustainable cities is probably Agenda 19.
  2. The youth do not necessarily start out solving the SDG goals, they solve a problem in society then later find out it is addressed by a certain SDG. This was said by Godwin Benson, Winner Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2017, Nigeria which was an emphasis on a point I had made.
  3. In Africa the youth are individuals from the age of 18 to 35 not 18 to 24.
  4. The youth need to be involved in policy making, it seems boring for most, but it is beneficial in the development of our countries. Learn about the SDG goals, the Agenda 2063 and other policies that exist.

I also learnt a lot from other sessions during the summit;

  1. Akon said that Africans should support Africans.. instead of buying that expensive foreign dress why don’t you promote clothes made by Africans?
  2. Jack Ma said that in business you should first take care of your customers and employees. Your customers never change and they are the best advertisers of your product. Share holders shouldn’t be trusted too much because they are only there due to the money you make, once they leave you will be left with your employees who will help you improve on your product.
  3. Jack Ma also said that you should hire people that are smarter than you. If you see someone and feel like that person could be my boss. Hire them!
  4. I liked in particular the humility that he had, people were so excited to see him that he stated he was not even sure if he was Jack Ma. Be humble people.
  5. The youth, we like complaining. We do not have government support, our education system sucks, we lack funding, we do not have mentors etc. No one likes to be around people who complain. Hawa Deme, a great lady from Mali said that she stopped complaining and started solving the problems she saw hit a nerve. In particular, the issue about dirty toilets in schools. Jack Ma said, if you see a situation in which people complain, that is where you should find a solution.
  6. I liked what Patrice Motsepe a business man from South Africa worth 1.6 billion Dollars said, no-one knows exactly where they will be in 10 years. Dreams change, it is perfectly okay.
  7. There was a session whereby the youth were encouraged to take part in politics. You do not have to be a politician you can just be involved in politics. The policies that are made, what decisions our leaders are making for the country and why.

It was a grand opportunity having met such great leaders.

The panel session I was part of

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