#YOUthcandoit — Empowering a connected generation through Youth Conneckt Africa Summit.
Who determines the strength of a nation’s economy? Politicians? Middle-aged people in pinstripes? The global market? Not necessarily. In fact, it’s young people that hold massive, disruptive power for modern-day economies.
Over 60% of the Mauritanian population is below 25 years of age. Also, over 60% of the working age population is between 15–35 years of age. As a well-informed group, with fresh ideas, high-speed internet and all the necessary gadgets at their command, they have all they need to organize their own entertainment, exchange goods as they like and develop entirely new ways of social interaction. Without a revolution, they are transforming Mauritania’s culture, business, and politics.
The youth of today don’t care about traditional status symbols.
If you’re from an older generation, you might remember that young people used to be motivated by the promise of status symbols. But since the ’90s, Mauritanian youth culture began aspiring to different symbols of status than their parents did. An emerging internet connectivity culture came together with a strong economy to deliver consumer goods to young people in a way they never had been before.
So, if today’s young people aren’t enticed by symbols of status, what are they looking for?
NETWORK! They want an unforgettable experience right now.
In recent years, a new metric and definition of status has developed, one that has little to do with material objects and everything to do with different experiences. Young people are always looking for ways to connect with their peers. As a result, Youth Conneckt Africa Summit have become wildly successful to share experiences and network with like minds.
YouthConnekt Africa (YCA) Initiative.
YouthConnekt Africa (YCA) is an African home-grown solution positioned to empower youth. The YCA Hub operates as a pan-African platform with the vision of connecting African youth for socio-economic transformation.
The YCA aims to contribute to the achievement of Africa’s SDGs mandate, the AU 2063 agenda, and AU Youth Charter. Through national YouthConnekt initiatives (YouthConnekt National Programmes), the Hub accomplishes its mandate by:
- coordinating a global network to create a continental ecosystem for African youth;
- sharing experience and knowledge on program and policy design, youth initiatives, fund setting and reporting and;
- providing a conduit for resources at scale and data on youth to up-skill and finance African youth-led enterprises.
As a result, YouthConnekt has scaled up beyond Rwanda to 23 African countries including Mauritania.
YouthConnekt Summit 2021
The YouthConnekt Africa Summit is an annual convening that connects youth from across the continent and beyond with policy influencers, political leaders, public/private and development sector institutions to engage, discuss, design, and accelerate youth empowerment efforts at the continent level. Every year the summit creates a platform for a larger number of young people from all over the world to learn and engage in YouthConnekt Africa’s youth development programs. This year’s 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. Mauritania was well represented, this year with a nine-man delegation led by the Resident Representative of UNDP and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Youths, Culture and Sports.
Africa Beyond Aid: Positioning the Youth for the Post COVID Economy and AfCFTA Opportunities
The youths of today are eager to find easier, less bureaucratic ways to do business.
So, young people’s consumption habits have changed and so has the economy. Nowadays young people do everything from socializing to exchanging money faster and more easily through the power of the peer-to-peer economy. This also means that with the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), soon an increasing number of the products and services that Youths are consuming will be coming from their peers instead of businesses. This trend is in large part due to the connective power of the internet, which allows all consumers to buy and sell anything they want directly to one another. The result is a disruption of every industry that stands in its path.
As you now know, the modern economy is developing an increasing number of ways for youths across the globe to support themselves by freelancing. With countless new employment opportunities, easy access to tools and training and a technologically connected world in which the next job is just a tweet away, it’s clear that we’re transforming into a society of free agents. But that’s not all that’s changing with the new peer-driven economy — it’s also producing a greater degree of independence. As the young generation expands to make up much of the working adult population, the community values it holds and beliefs it stands by, like a desire for flexibility, will dramatically shift the economy toward one of self-employment and entrepreneurship.
Finally, the technological digital revolution that is brought about by COVID-19 has transformed the Mauritanian economy into one driven by youths, which has meant a complete disruption of the beliefs of the past. It’s therefore essential to understand the driving forces of the new economy: a group known as YOUTHS.
