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Africa\u2019s reality is that we are currently sitting with a huge percent of the total population under the age of 40. There are many conversations happening across the continent on how we can harness this youthful population.<\/p>\n
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In response to this, The Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust (GMT) and the Mandela Institute of Development Studies (MINDS) have over the last 18 months engaged 27 leading networks in the youth empowerment sector to build a formal support network for the next generation of leaders.<\/p>\n
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The process has involved asking critical questions on the role youth-led networks and organisations can play in influencing the challenges that exist on the continent with specific focus on education, entrepreneurship, political participation, arts and culture as well as youth employment.<\/p>\n
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2018 is an important year because it marks Nelson Mandela\u2019s centenary. Mandela was one of the greatest leaders of our time and thus it is befitting to build a movement that will identify, strengthen and support Africa\u2019s youth networks to produce the next generation of leaders who will embody his values. On the 20th<\/sup> and 21st<\/sup> of July, GMT and MINDS will bring together youth leaders and change-makers from across Africa in a historic meeting of minds for the inaugural African Youth Networks Summit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Besides connecting organisations to each other and exchanging ideas, this gathering should help to forge among the delegates consensus around a common youth-led agenda to take the continent forward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Something to watch out for:<\/strong><\/p>\n In the days leading up to Nelson Mandela\u2019s birthday, GMT will take time to share stories of young people who are already making strides in transforming the continent in their own ways. We will profile stories of resilience, innovation and courage that focus on young women, whose voices are less often heard in public spaces. We will engage in inter-generational dialogues to marry the wisdom of our elders with the disruptive energy of youth to tackle difficult societal problems. We will also celebrate game changers who are creating opportunities through social enterprises that will put Africa on the map of progress. Read more here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The #MadibainYou campaign is also a celebration that each one of us contains a touch of that Madiba magic with the power to be the change we want to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Africa\u2019s reality is that we are currently sitting with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-highlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}