Build Young Social Entrepreneurs Across Africa

Introduction

Africa needs effective leadership and without it, the continent might never be able to overcome its challenges to achieve its full potential. What is often forgotten is that Africa's leader may come from its youth boom. The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program (AMAP) has been working with 15 young African leaders over the past seven (7) months to help them realise their full leadership potential. The 15 AMAP Ambassadors were selected from over 2002 applications, and 100 interviewed applicants from Algeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Botswana.

Cohort of 2022

The average age of AMAP Ambassadors for the 2022 cohort is 25 years old. The following countries have AMAP Ambassadors represented:

Botswana - 1

Kenya - 4

South Africa - 3

Cameroon - 3

Tanzania- 1

Sierra Leone - 2

Algeria- 1

Total AMAP Ambassadors - 15

AMAP Update/highlights:

The learning modules that have been completed so far have integrated relevant content and activities to provide a rich and interactive learning experience for the Ambassadors. To date, the Africa Matters Ambassadors Program has completed 11 out of the 15 modules over the past seven (7) months. 

Namely, 1: Personal Development, 2: Soft Skills Building & Career Development, 4: African Identities, 5: African Leadership & Youth Activism, 7:African Feminisms, 8: Cultural Differences and Similarities, 9: Financial Literacy in Africa, 10: Social Entrepreneurship. We have also had three (3) Community Engagement Project (CEP) sessions so far to coach, advise and discuss the Ambassadors' progress on their community projects. We currently have four (4) modules remaining before their Community Engagement Projects are executed. Thanks to your support, we have been able to assist up to 2 gigs of mobile data to the Ambassadors so that they are able to attend and fully participate in the learning modules. 

Community Engagement Project (CEP)

The Community Engagement Project (CEP) is a crucial part of the program as it provides our Ambassadors with the opportunity to apply and gain a deeper understanding of community work and leadership. This component tasks the Ambassadors with identifying key issues within their community, then planning and executing their own community project to address this problem. One of the core goals for this component is to assist the Ambassadors in building long-term and sustainable projects that can support the advancement of their communities. This year, some of our AMAP Ambassadors have chosen to focus on youth unemployment and skills empowerment, taking what they have learnt through the AMAP program and sharing the knowledge and skills with their own communities to help upskill youth in their communities. Other Ambassadors have identified issues such as climate change and women empowerment as issues to address. 

By supporting and believing in our mission, we need your help to reach our goal of providing the Ambassadors with $250 in seed funding to help fund their projects, which we will be rolling out in August 2022 as the cohort begins implementing their CEP’s.

Mentorship Program

In addition to the learning modules and Community Engagement Project (CEP) component, AMAP has a mentorship component providing Ambassadors with an opportunity to engage with experienced and accomplished professionals to assist in their personal and professional development. We facilitate the creation of successful relationships between AMAP Ambassadors and Mentors outside of the AMI community. These mentors are to guide and support our AMAP Ambassadors to manage their own learning to maximise their full potential, develop their skills, and improve their performance throughout their program. The mentorship program officially began on 12 May 2022 with a Mentors Meet and Greet session with all the mentors. Since then, each Ambassador has had regular meetings with their mentors to help facilitate personal and professional development on the part of both the mentees and the mentors. 

Residential Summit 

After the virtual leadership development component, AMI will invite all 15 AMAP Ambassadors to meet in Tanzania as a unit to attend the residential summit. During that week, participants will listen to dynamic keynote speakers, members of the Africa Matters team and past program alumnae will lead sessions that will uplift and encourage AMAP Ambassadors with further resources for the future. They will also engage on topics surrounding additional professional and personal development skills. AMAP Ambassadors will also be asked to showcase their projects to their cohort. The residential serves as an opportunity for young African leaders who have completed the virtual modules and project executions to physically network and engage with one another around possible solutions for closing the gender gap and issues their projects focus on. After the residential summit, we encourage the participants, as thought leaders, to go back into their communities and reframe their thinking around how their projects will impact their communities with a sustainable and intersectional focus. They should be open to discussing ways to actively fight systems of oppression while creating targeted interventions leading to cascading change.

Conclusion:

As we approach the final section of the year, the Ambassadors will be focusing on the execution and implementation of their CEP’s as well as continuing to develop their skills and knowledge through the learning module session: Global Citizenship and African Advocacy. 

We look forward to sharing more updates with you as the program continues to run until its completion. Please continue to share details of this program among your networks to help us raise the full $100,000 needed for 2022. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empower-17-young-africans-as-agents-of-change/

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at amap@africamattersinitiative.com

Links:

• Meet the 2022 Africa Matters Ambassadors!
• South African Ambassador's take on Social Entrepreneurship
• What is African Leadership?