(Guest Post)* SAWIP – Driving the African Century: Youth, Technology, and Entrepreneurship

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Africa Rising, African youth, entrepreneurship in Africa, impact investing in Africa, SAWIP, South Africa, technology in Africa, Wilson Center

* Guest Post by Sharon Czarnek

On June 26th, the Wilson Center hosted the South African Washington International Program (SAWIP) event.  While I wasn’t able to attend all 3 of the speaker series’, I did make it to two out of three. The first was entitled Business, Technology and Entrepreneurship in Africa.  The moderator was Tom Wheeler, the Managing Director of Core Capital Partners and the two panelists included Andile Ngcaba the Executive Chair of Dimension Data and David Frankel the Managing Director of Founder Collective.

Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellow Abdulrazaq Alkali on Nigerian Governance, Human Rights, and Culture

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Abdulrazaq Alkali, African youth, Dave Peterson NED, Goodluck Jonathan, Jerry Rawlings on Nigeria, Kano, National Endowment for Democracy Congo, Nigeria, Nigerian national unity, Occupy Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellows, YOSPIS

Saturday afternoon I sat down with Abdulrazaq Alkali, a Reagan – Fascell Democracy Fellow of the National Endowment for Democracy.  Mr. Alkali gave me several hours of his time, you can also hear him speak on “Strengthening Youth Participation in Nigeria” at NED’s office this Wednesday.

The State Department Values African and Diaspora Youth

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Africa Society, African youth, Bernadette Paolo, Cyrille Oguin, David Gilmour, Young African Leaders Initiative

I was pretty critical of the Africa Society for honoring Chinua Achebe in an event at the Nigerian Embassy sponsored by Chevron.  However, the Africa Society hosted a great networking event tonight to introduce its anticipated Youth Advisory Committee.  I’m under 30, so it’s good to feel appreciated and I think that’s particularly important in the African context, where elders are often excessively venerated or cling too posiitons that should be forwarded on to the next generation.

Two representatives from the State Department were on hand to discuss Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (while I laud it, I do think that it gets an excessive amount of attention from the administration) and Cyrille Oguin, the Ambassador of Benin gave some brief remarks as well.  He mentioned that Benin has a youth Service Corps that was inspired by the US Peace Corps (although I imagine that the AmeriCorps would be a better example).

While their flyer doesn’t indicate this, Bernadette Paolo, the Society’s Director did intimate that the Society is looking mainly for those in the Diaspora to join the Committee.  I was intrigued to see that the crowd was primarily composed of individuals born in or very recently removed from the Continent.  While that’s certainly good, it does concern me about the level of interest America has in Africa.

David Gilmour from State repeated an increasingly used line about developing Africa to promote America’s economy.  Read a piece on AGOA where I touch on this and expect another post on this theme (via US participation in the World Economic Forum in South Africa) in the coming days.

In the meanwhile, let me know if you agree with the idea that ‘what is good for America is good for Africa.’

USAID Engages African Youth

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African youth, Blaise Compaoré, CSIS, Earl Gast, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Kenya, USAID

Unfortunately, DC offers too many events for me to cover.  One event that I missed today (which I would have greatly liked to attend), was a CSIS convocation on “Building Youth-Inclusive Democracies: Lessons from Kenya.”  Given the recently concluded election, this couldn’t be more timely.  Kenya only knew 2 rulers for its first 40 years; Kenyatta will be inaugurated as the 4^th head of state in Kenya’s 50^th year of independence.

In general, I believe that a major problem facing African governance is the lack of new (and young) blood, which fuels resentment and discontent with normal channels of representative governance.