YouthConnekt is a high profile event bringing together a variety of stakeholders, including heads of states, business leaders and civil society. Through its sustained efforts, YouthConnekt is creating a network of empowered young individuals, aware of their social and human capital and ready to leverage their ICT skills.

UNESCO YouthMobile Initiative is a strategic partner of YouthConnekt. For the 2018 edition, UNESCO YouthMobile is organizing a set of workshop in mobile apps development, and inviting several former participants to its activities. Several Field Offices have been included in the organization of the activity, including those in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.

YouthConnekt was launched in 2012 by the Government of Rwanda in collaboration with One UN Rwanda. In 2017, the initiative grown to constitute YouthConnekt Convention, YouthConnekt Dialogue and YouthConnekt Awards, all of which have a focus on economic empowerment. The aim of the YouthConnekt convention is to inspire thousands of young people with new ideas to promote sustainable development, economic growth and social progress. As the international conference is a reference for bringing together business leaders, academia, civil society, representative of the government and young people from a wide array of country, it is expected that young people will be able to showcase their technology developments and acquire skills and knowledge about running business.

Through the proposed project, UNESCO YouthMobile wishes to further highlight the importance of coding education as a lever for socio-economic development. Moreover, the project aims at bringing together a young generation of coders and previous beneficiaries of YouthMobile trainings to connect them with each other and with the actors present at the conference, including business developers and members of the government, so as to further empower them.
With the support of Rwanda’s K-Lab (https://klab.rw/), YouthMobile aims at inviting a selection of previous YouthMobile projects’ participants to attend YouthConnekt and help revitalizing some of the Apps. YouthMobile alumni could be selected from the most dedicated ones in countries such as Kenya, South Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal or Ghana. YouthConnekt will represent for them the opportunity to improve their hard and soft skills, network and increase their employability. The experience could also help expanding YouthConnekt and involve more countries.

The proposed YouthMobile activity will seek the active engagement of the private sector and the organizers of the YouthConnekt convention. It will look at the existing network of innovation centers and start-up incubators to reinforce its impact and establish partnerships.