Project Pakati staff attended the launch of the Africa Union Commission (AUC) 1 million by 2021 Initiative at the 2nd Pan-African Youth Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from April 24-27. We were invited by the AUC and African Union Youth Envoy. The forum was attended by more than 400 youths representing more than 50 African countries. All were in favour of the newly-launched AUC 1 Million by 2021 Initiative, which was rolled out under the theme: Africa Unite for Youth: Bridging the gap and Reaching African Youth.

The initiative was headed by the AUC chair Moussa Faki Mahamat and is aimed at generating action for youth development in Africa by providing one million young Africans with opportunities in its four key areas.

Those areas - which were named the four 'e's - are: education, employment, entrepreneurship, and engagement. The #1MBY2021 initiative's objectives are to invest in Africa’s youth to break intergenerational poverty; address inequalities; and help the continent achieve the goals set within the vision of Agenda 2063.

Project Pakati – an initiative of the African Leadership Institute - seeks to harness the collective influence of Africa’s young leaders by building a networking platform that affords young leaders the ability of reaching a critical mass to impact the issues that Africa faces. AFLI and Project Pakati work with various partners and leadership organisations across Africa to build networking platforms and a community of programme curators to which youth challenges can be scrutinised, debated, learnt and solved collectively for greater impact for good. This is where AFLI and Project Pakati will seek to further partner with the African Union (AU) to try and address continental youth issues.

The Youth Forum in Addis Ababa served as a great opportunity for young African leaders who attended to lend their voices and come together to formulate a “workplan” that the AU Youth Envoy, Aya Chebbi, and her team will implement. Young leaders were seen joining their intelligence, strengths and other expertise to fight for their common interests as they pertained to the four e's mentioned above.