Leaders of tomorrow must wake up today

Angela Gichaga at the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Presidential Summit July 28, 2014 in Washington, DC. Ms Gichaga is a medical professional and one of the 46 Kenyans selected to take part in the program. PHOTO | COURTESY | ANGELA GICHAGA

What you need to know:

  • Civil conflicts, human rights violations and wars are fanned by the frustrations of young men and women who often cannot help but accept the whims of politicians who fuel their emotions.
  • Let us formally abolish the experience requirement for employment. Level the playing-field and let the best person for the job be employed — regardless of age.

For the past eight weeks, I have been among a select 500 young African leaders who have been in the US as part of President Barack Obama’s Young African Leadership Initiative.

The programme, now dubbed the Mandela Washington Fellowship, was structured to place the young leaders in 20 leading universities in the US, and thereafter meet with President Obama and his leadership team over the course of three days.

With almost 200 million people aged between 15 and 24, Africa has the youngest population in the world. This population will double by 2045.

In addition, most African countries are pretty young on their own right — most being less than 100 years old as independent states.

What this means is that there is not a lot of experience the continent can look back on. On the flip-side, there has never been a better time to be optimistic about Africa’s future. The continent has high ratings where innovation is concerned, and as the middle class grows at unprecedented rates, so will consumerism and the appetite for these innovations.

It is hardly a surprise to economic pundits that at least seven of the world’s fastest growing economies are in Africa. Happily, HIV infection rates have about halved as have malaria deaths. Democratic self-governance in many countries, including Kenya, goes from strength to strength.

The issue that remains on the minds of policy-makers is this: while the biggest resource that is fuelling the continent’s fast growth is its young people, they are also its greatest danger.

Civil conflicts, human rights violations and wars are fanned by the frustrations of young men and women who often cannot help but accept the whims of politicians who fuel their emotions.

Many countries in Africa often teeter at the precipice of high crime and conflict, and it does not take much to push them over the edge.

What this Fellowship helped me to understand is that young people have the capacity to drive their own destinies and they are capable of pulling the continent up with them. But we must change our approach to addressing their developmental challenges.

Our recent history is littered with short-lived, well-meaning initiatives that were ineffective in improving the opportunities of young people. Notable examples include the Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative.
Over the past 10 year, the government has mooted loans for young people that were monuments of loss, as they failed to repay them.

While money and opportunities to start businesses are critical components, we must design a model that develops the most important resource of all — their minds.

Besides money and opportunities, young people need to be infused with hope and confidence — the belief that if they apply themselves, they can fulfil great visions for our nation.

To achieve this, I have two suggestions. First, let us formally abolish the experience requirement for employment. Level the playing-field and let the best person for the job be employed — regardless of age.
Secondly, create programmes like the Washington Fellowship for young leaders. These have the advantage of building confidence in young people.

Mr Kags is the founder of the Open Institute and a Mandela Washington Fellow.