WEF: Global Shapers’ initiative, Coke’s move to rebuild Africa
Hosting the just concluded World Economic Forum in cold Cape Town, the second largest city in South Africa instead of the warm Johannesburg, Durban or Limpopo is deliberate. From the map of Africa, Cape Town is situated at the base. Therefore, it was necessary to further hold discussions on changing Africa’s narratives from the base which was the focus of the WEF.
At the forum, the participants across the world were full of optimism of Africa rising but they agreed that this must be driven by political will and commitment to tackle the observed socio-economic challenges.
Some of these challenges and solutions include scaling up investment in energy to unlock Africa’s potential, boosting agriculture, services and the value chain, increasing inter African countries trade through free movement of people, boosting capital market and among others engage in effective mobilization of capital through partnerships with the private sector.
On energy alone regarded as central to Africa’s economic development, WEF regretted that most African households living on less than $2.50 a day collectively spend $10 billion every year on energy-related products, such as charcoal, kerosene, candles and torches, a development that has not helped the economies.
On its own, Coca Cola which has been in Africa for 86 years and has been supporting development initiatives on the continent believes in changing the African narratives through three prong approaches. While it aligns itself to the participants’ suggested approaches, it is also deepening conversation on women empowerment and youth engagement as further push to Africa’s economic transformation.
The organization with footprint in all African countries strongly believes that the youths are critical factor in Africa growth. In most African economies, the youth under 35 years represent about 70 percent of the various populations. With this understanding of engaging this large percent of the population in productive activity, Coke keyed into the sponsorship of WEF Shapers Community initiative.
The purpose of the initiative is to provide coaching and mentorship to the young entrepreneurs and the company sponsors best ideas among the Shapers Community across Africa who get part sponsorship for their ideas.
Among the global shapers community are graduates who have started their business and some are employed by organizations that are helping to shape and drive the future of those organizations.
Globally, there are 341 hubs in different countries. At the South African forum, there were 80 members of the Shapers Community principally from 40 African countries. They represent different hubs who are engaged in various entrepreneurships.
While building the young entrepreneurs, Coca Cola is also empowering women who form larger percentage of African population basically for Africa growth in line with the objective of the WEF.
At their session in Cape Town during the WEF, the session was also tied into the women empowerment initiative, Susan Boya, Coca Cola Group director for women economic empowerment for Eurasia, Africa group who is also the president of Coke African Foundation challenged women to take ownership of their career. “They cannot expect that somebody is going to think for them. They have to have a clear picture of where they want to go and be willing to ask for help and what is their due”.
She strongly believed that when women who are in the majority in Africa are empowered they will successfully key into the theme of forging Africa ahead. “If I am working with half of my workforce, I will only get half of what is needed. There are more women who can do more. They need to be engaged”.
As women in leadership she believes in providing guidance and support to younger women but to also to create the enabling environment for younger women in the society.
Also sharing the same view at the Shapers Community forum, Auxliar Ponga of UN said the organization is ensuring that gender equality is not just seen just as a women issue but that it is society issue. “An example that is usually given is when you invest in women economically, the health of the home improves, more children go to school and the living standard for the family also improves and that means for the whole society.
“There are lot of inequalities but when we partner with men and they see it from their perspective, they can make interventions”.
She said “If you conduct a research and look at boards where women are present, they are not only making impact on terms of improvement in the social wellbeing and culture but improvement in decisions. So the more diverse people you have on the table to make decision the better for the community”, she said.
She emphasized that if African nations really want to bring Africa in to the future, then they should look at the entire population where 51 percent in most of the African population are women. It just makes economic sense to bring everyone on board to eradicate poverty and increase income. She has strong convictions that women empowerment will actually leapfrog Africa economy.
To underline its commitment to youth empowerment initiative, Coca Cola Foundation at the Economic Forum pledged $4.5 million towards a new youth empowerment initiative that will provide life skills training, business skills training and access to employment and mentoring for 25,000 young Africans.
The Youth Empowered for Success (YES!) program will empower marginalized youth in six African countries and will leverage technology and strategic partnerships to accelerate and scale the initiative to provide opportunities to many more youth across the continent.
The YES initiative will be introduced in Kenya, Tunisia and South Africa in phase one before being implemented in Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda through the foundation and implementing partners Mercy Corps, Microsoft, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and Kuza Biashara.
“Harnessing the incredible energy and ambition of a young and growing population will be critical to Africa’s future economic advancement,” said Nathan Kalumbu, Chairman, The Coca‑Cola Africa Foundation. “Over 10-12 million young Africans are entering the workforce each year yet less than half this number of employment opportunities are currently available. The YES! initiative underscores our commitment to identifying a sustainable long-term solution for youth economic empowerment and creating opportunities that will help overcome this employment gap.”
Kalumbu said that the programme will create entrepreneurship opportunities to some of the YES beneficiaries through the YES! Hubs, a unique retail and social services center, that will be owned and run by youth, and provide young people with connectivity to technology platforms and access to training, mentors and skills training as well as ongoing support and advice for retail entrepreneurship.
Daniel Obi