Young entrepreneurs meet in Windhoek

The Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Entrepreneurs (CAYE) – Southern Africa hosted a Visioning Workshop between 26 – 28 April, in Windhoek. The delegates that made it from various African countries were here to discuss ways in which the youth can proactively engage in entrepreneurial ventures across the southern African region, as well as strengthening existing programmes that address the entrepreneurial plight of young people in the region.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and almost 73 million youth (about 40 % of the global labour force) are seeking employment opportunities. Most young people, especially in the developing world, face little prospect of obtaining employment in the formal sector.
Within the Commonwealth, there have been concerted efforts by various leadership bodies to encourage youth entrepreneurship as a pragmatic strategy to address spiralling youth unemployment and to positively harness young people’s potential.
Towards this end, the Youth Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat has been supporting the formation of alliances of youth entrepreneurship, in order to ensure them a bigger voice on issues that concern them the most, and provide additional opportunities for learning and trade. The Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs – Asia (CAYE-Asia), formed in November 2011 for the Asia region, is a product of this work.

Opportunities
The expected outputs of the Vision Workshop are to present opportunities for youth entrepreneurship, as well as discussing models of good practice for national/regional youth entrepreneurship alliances and potential connections with other regional and global young entrepreneurs were presented.
The delegates were also looking to further extending a clear understanding of the role the Commonwealth can play in supporting the work already undertaken in the region and how it can help increase impacts further afield for all stakeholders.
The target participants totalled between 25 – 30 delegates, representatives of national networks of young people entrepreneurs, organisations which support and connect young entrepreneurs at a national level and organisations that are working on youth entrepreneurship at regional level.
The following Commonwealth member countries were invited to the workshop, namely; Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia. Members of the government were also informed about the workshop and consulted on the selection of the participants that were invited to the meeting.
Some of the objectives of the workshop include examining the opportunities and challenges for networking of young entrepreneurs in the region, reviewing models of good practice of young entrepreneurs alliance, consider strategies for building regional young entrepreneurs alliance, as well a (depending on buy in) the development of a common vision and strategy for young entrepreneurs alliance, including a charter, MoU and an action plan.
Some of the speakers at the workshop were Karabo Songo, founder of Olive Communications in South Africa, who showed a presentation on Innovative Practice in Youth Entrepreneurship, as well as Innocentia Motau, who presented on the role of young entrepreneurs in promoting youth entrepreneurship.
There were several plenary discussions where the delegates were discussing the lessons learnt, opportunities and lessons learnt from CAYE and G20 YEA, as well as discussions on the critical success factors for young entrepreneurs’ organisations and alliances, which were rounded off with discussions centred on identifying key issues and opportunities specific to the Southern African region.
The workshop was rounded off with the formulation of a roadmap for CAYE Southern Africa which looked at the best ways to address the needs of CAYE Southern Africa as well as looking into resource mobilisation and the building of partnerships to sustain and support CAYE Southern Africa.

Youth awards celebrating Namibian talent
The Windhoek Country Club saw one of its conferences halls filled to the rafters last week Thursday night, as young people from across the country came together to be part of the first ever national youth awards hosted in the country. The awards which saw its nominees waiting silently in anticipation for their names to be called ran smoothly under the guidance of the MC’s for the night Thaddeus Shigwedha and Mavis Braga.
In the first year of its existence the National Youth Awards drew more than 400 nominations from across the country. All 121 constituencies and regions were reflected amongst the nominees. One of the first winners of the night was Robert Hidishange, who had also designed the trophy that was handed out to the winners as well as the pelt that was given to the winners. Hidishange is a well-known jewellery designer and artist that has been involved in training youth at the College of the Arts in marking jewellery from recycled materials such as aluminium, leather pieces, ostrich egg shells and feathers.
The Business Innovation Award was given to Regto Ndemufayo David who was introduced at the awards as an innovative, hardworking and bold young person who also holds various academic qualifications including a master’s degree in philosophy and labour law. David is also a self-starter who has started six subsidiaries under his company Namibia Industrial Group, with his own funding.
Regto Ndemufayo David was not done for the night winning another award in the Personal Achievements Awards category for his involvement in creating employment for young people.

Awarded
The Philanthropy and Youth Academic Excellence Awards were handed out to Samuel Kapepo, and Lukas Komeya respectively. Kapepo runs a soup kitchen in the informal parts of Katutura with Komeya improving the lives of young people through his tutoring and training workshops for young people.
The awards also looked at giving structures awards for their work, through the Best Regional Youth Forum and the Best Affiliate Organisation Awards. The award for Best Regional Youth Forum went to the Ohangwena Regional Youth Forum, which has been successful in establishing forums in all 12 of its constituencies within the region, which are meant to empower youth as well as create youth activities and establish youth businesses.
The Best Affiliate Organisation Award when to SPYL for being instrumental in establishing structures in places at branch, district, regional and national level. It was also mentioned how the SPYL promotes social justice and enforces the spirit of hard work amongst the youth.
The Social Justice Award for this year was given to a well-known advocate for people with disabilities, Julia Ndahafa Paulus. Paulus is a well-known advocate for people with disabilities and has thus far achieved numerous things, one of them being finding employment for eight young people with disabilities during the 2014 elections. Julia who was described as a go-getter with a positive attitude was said to always put the needs of others before her own.

Community Service
In the same spirit, the award for Volunteerism and Community Service was awarded to Matheus Stefanus, who uses his own money to buy soap and detergents and sets out to clean public restrooms in his own time to ensure that they are healthy and clean for public use. His aim is to eradicate and reduce preventable disease spread through the unhygienic usage of sanitary facilities in his community. His job also requires education around the sanitary use of toilets and maintaining hygienic practises when using the bathroom.
The International Ambassador Awards and the Youth Leadership Award were handed to Luis Munana and Jacon Hamutenya. Both young men were honoured for their leadership skills and their pride in representing the country. Munana is said to have advocated for youth development particularly through the Arts and Culture Sector. The native of the Kavango region is also a model and is looking to groom more male models in the country.
Hamutenya who is university graduate is set to use knowledge in agriculture and horticulture sectors to ensure market access for small scale farmers and also to ensure food security as Regional Manager for one of the National Fresh Produce hubs.
The Youth Veteran Lifetime Award when to Loivia Valungameka who has been mobilising youth to make sure that there developmental goals in various constituencies are in line with those of the NYC’s.
The Best Young Woman Award went to Natasha Haksteen from the //Kharas Region. Natasha is a young woman with many accolades to her name. She co-initiated a community radio show, namely the Young People Speak Out programme in an attempt to give her peers a voice.
The last two awards for the night were the Best Differently Abled Award and the Youth From Marginalised Background Award.
The Best Differently Abled Award went to Agnes Hausiku from the Kavango region, who is the co-founder of Wheel Ability Sports Club in the Khomas region, which aims to improve and develop the lives of people with disabilities.
The award for Youth From Marginalised Background went to Tertu X’aga Fernandu who is the co-founder of //AnaJeh San Trust which is a student based initiative that is mandated to work towards a diverse set of issues facing San students as they transition into different lifestyles from traditional ones as they pursue an academic route to gain an education.
KEITH VRIES