Gaborone, Botswana — The University of Botswana (UB) and Michigan State University (MSU), both members of the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), announce a youth transformation roundtable on 12th October 2023 at the University of Botswana (UB) conference centre.
AAP is a consortium of African (The University of Botswana included) and US Universities aimed at promoting sustainable development efforts across Africa. It has been actively involved in facilitating dialogues and funding programs to advance youth entrepreneurship and empowerment in the continent through research.
The roundtable is aimed at uniting multi-sector stakeholders to address critical issues related to youth empowerment and employment in Botswana.
As of 2022, Botswana's youth represented 70% of the country's population, positioning them as the nation's most vital asset for economic transformation and sustainable growth.
Despite various governmental initiatives and programmes, youth unemployment remains at a concerning 24.7%, including an increasing number of unemployed college graduates. The roundtable aims to address these gaps by leveraging on collective insights and efforts of key stakeholders in the ecosystem.
The event aims to convene policy makers, private sector leaders, financial institutions, youth leaders, civil society organisations, and academic representatives from the UB, MSU, and other tertiary institutions in Botswana.
The objective is to develop a blueprint and multi-sectoral action plan for youth empowerment and entrepreneurship in Botswana that can be scaled up to SADC and the rest of Africa as well as to define roles of different stakeholders in fostering youth employment and entrepreneurship. Further, the roundtable is expected to come up with a strategy for integrating entrepreneurial education into existing curricula besides proposing an effective monitoring and evaluation system for youth empowerment and entrepreneurial initiatives. It will also Identify a strategy to align training, skills development and entrepreneurship with economic sectors in addition to identifying potential funding opportunities for the youth empowerment initiative.
Expected Outcomes:
•A draft action plan for strengthened partnerships among stakeholders to support an evidence-based youth empowerment and entrepreneurship programme in Botswana.
•A list of individuals and organizations that will facilitate the development of the final action plan and implementation strategy.
•A commitment of all actors to the actual implementation of the programme
*DR. FAITH TUELO RAPULENG is director of Public Affairs, UB.
