With thanks to: - Willy Nkamuhebwa for his expertise, dedicated training and support - Ian and the Afrinspire team for their work in generating and conducting the conference - The staff of the DSC for their warm hospitality throughout the conference - All the delegates for their innovation, dedication and ideas
Introduction rd
On Tuesday the 23 of July, 2013, 34 delegates gathered to attend Afrinspire’s first ever Young Leaders conference. The two day conference gathered 26 inspiring young leaders with a connection to Afrinspire from across East Africa for a programme packed with leadership, vision and project-management training, and interactive sessions exploring the key issues facing young Ugandans today. Delegates were given the opportunity to reflect on their own visions, and to generate project plans, to help them design new projects to tackle the issues that mattered most to them. Afrinspire’s student summer team of 8 helped facilitate and share experiences from across the cultural boundaries.
Conference Aims - To facilitate young people with a connection to Afrinspire gaining an increased sense of motivation and direction to affect change in their lives and local community (by a panel sharing of inspiring young leader case studies, engaging with others at the conference, and vision-building and self-reflection exercises) - To empower young people with a connection to Afrinspire with tools with which to start up a transformational charitable project/social enterprise (by providing vision-building, leadership and project - planning training and practical application exercises) - To learn about the challenges facing young people, how Afrinspire has already changed the lives of delegates and how Afrinspire can support and catalyse projects to tackle these in the future (by sharing stories, brainstorming the perceptions of delegates about these issues, and capturing the outcomes of the conference to apply) - To provide sustainability-planning/support for the next generation of Afrinspire leaders (by inviting the children and ‘apprentices’ of the ‘adult partners’ we work with and investing in training for them and their relationship with Afrinspire) - To provide an opportunity for young people from Africa and the UK to share ideas and experiences and learn from one another (by brainstorming and working in groups, providing opportunities for delegates from both countries to share stories and facilitate training, and encouraging relationship-building through social activities.)
Training: Vision-building for Young Leaders Led by Daniel Knights, this interactive session gave delegates the opportunity to explore the importance of vision, what their personal vision was, and what new areas this might encourage delegates to want to work in!
Results A significant part of the conference was dedicated to discussing the challenges facing the youth of Uganda, and this inspired delegates to consider how to tackle these problems using grass-roots action projects based in their local communities. Delegates were asked to decide in small groups what they saw as the biggest issue affecting Ugandan Youth, and then to rank individually the possibilities brainstormed. The results can be found below. As you can see below, the key issues that emerged were all directly or indirectly related to employment (the lack of education/skills training being seen as a key issue because it led to unemployment, for example).
What is the Key Issue Facing Ugandan Youth Today? 10 8 6 4 2 0 Lack of Education/ skills training
Unemployment
Lack of initial capital/ resources
Poverty
Corruption
Individual’s Views on the Top 6 Issues Facing Ugandan Youth 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Social Evening: A board game tournament Many of the participants agreed that the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with delegates from other countries was one of the best aspects of the conference, enabling a better understanding of the different perspectives and experiences.
Feedback “I have always had a vision but I didn’t know it was a vision. The knowledge from this conference will help me to put that vision into practice and to help other individuals.’ – Iman, South Sudan “Before I came, I did not fully understand how Afrinspire and its support worked. This conference has shown me that we have a role to play in our communities, and I understand how Afrinspire can empower us to change them. I see the key reason for youth unemployment in Uganda being the lack of skills-based training and this meeting has inspired me to develop a programme to tackle this area.’ – Kenneth, Uganda “Meeting and learning from other young leaders, and particularly hearing success stories from the panel entitled ‘Voices of Afrinspire’ has really encouraged me to keep working on my project!’ – Jules, Burundi
Best Practice for Youth Development Funds
“It was amazing to speak to so many delegates about their visions and motivations, and to hear of everything they are already session doing to make things better. I believe they can achieve a lot and hope that everyone will Interactive continue make a difference in their local communities.’ – Min, Singapore (Afrinspire UK Team) “Through this conference I have learnt what it means to be a leader and vision-bearer, and how to keep the vision and not let anyone bring you off track. Now I must put this learning into practice!’ – Robert, Uganda
Conference Recommendations Conference delegates concluded that many of the issues facing the youth of Uganda were related to lack of employment. The predisposing factors to this unemployment included a lack of initial capital to purchase materials with which to start a business and a lack of appropriate education or skills training. It was acknowledged that the number of jobs available for youths was perhaps at most 5% of the number of youths leaving school, and that the education provided in Ugandan schools is modelled on those in the UK and therefore highly unsuitable. Many delegates felt that advanced knowledge and abstract training suitable for these 5% of jobs but neglected to provide even basic training in entrepreneurship or business management, when inevitably the majority of young people in Uganda need to start or manage their own small business in order to survive. Additionally few schools taught the vocational skills required for these businesses and those that do have lower status in Uganda. Thus the Ugandan educational system is training a generation of job seekers, whereas what is really required is a generation of job creators. Delegates suggested that this inability to find employment, often exacerbated by personality factors and attitudes to work, then often led to poverty, and poverty in turn often caused hopelessness and unhappiness which might be expressed by drug abuse, lack of spiritual awareness and poor health. These features were thought to be maintaining factors in keeping youth trapped in unemployment and poverty. Solutions: Due to the complexity of the factors leading to the unemployed and poor status of many young people in Uganda, delegates felt that a holistic package of interventions was required in order to tackle this problem. They felt that interventions only targeting a single aspect of the problem would fail to enable beneficiaries to create and maintain a job. The package of interventions they felt was required was the following: - A vocational skill which is required by the local economy - Basic entrepreneurship, budgeting, financial planning and business management training - A small initial start-up capital It was also felt that programmes would be enhanced by factors such as: a peer group of other delegates learning the skill/joint financing e.g. with a revolving fund, an apprenticeship with already running programme of the same nature and long-term mentorship and follow-up etc Next Steps: Following this conference, many of the successful applications to the Young Leaders fund focused around providing the necessary interventions for job creation, and those proposing a holistic package of interventions were more likely to succeed. The 2014 Young Leaders Conference aims to explore the entreprenurship skills required to set up and run a business or social enterprise in greater detail.