Background 

Youth Connekt Africa is a pan-African programme developed in Rwanda in 2012, aimed at connecting youth and  their role models, peers, resources, technology, skills and economic opportunities. Overall, it is an initiative aimed at bridging the gap between youth and opportunities by building a patriotic and economically empowering environment. The overall objective of Youth Connekt Africa is to enhance the ideal environment  for job creation, strengthen and expand leadership skills, entrepreneurship as well as employment opportunities for youth for inclusive growth and social cohesion in Africa.

Through the project Empreende Jovem, it is an opportunity for its launch in Sao Tome and Principe to connect young Sao Tomeans with the rest of the African continent in fostering entrepreneurship, and to become agents of sustainable development, promoting citizenship and civic participation through community work.

Implementation

Sao Tome and Principe became a member of Youth Connekt Africa in early 2020 and hopes to launch the programme in the near future. It should be noted that a national delegation represented São Tomé and Príncipe, headed by the Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneurship, Vinicio de Pina, and the UNDP Representative, Katarzyna Wawiernia, at the latest edition of the Youth Connekt Africa Summit, held on 9-11 October 2019, which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, in order to address the major challenges of youth unemployment, through new policies highlighting the focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Through the Empreende Jovem project, this will be an opportunity to launch it in Sao Tome and Principe, with a view to connecting young Sao Tomeans with the rest of the African continent, building capacity to foster entrepreneurship, become agents of sustainable development and promote citizenship and civic participation through community work. Sao Tome & Principe became a member of Youth Connect at the beginning of 2020.