Join us on June 25 for a webinar in partnership with Ashoka to mark the launch of a new 360° on youth employment in Africa.

Around the world, communities with the brightest futures create innovative opportunities for youth to build sustainable livelihoods, pursue meaningful careers, and shape better realities for themselves and for those around them. Unfortunately, in many communities within sub-Saharan Africa, youth find themselves jobless and entrenched in systems that do not welcome innovation or change.

Future Forward, a partnership between Ashoka and the MasterCard Foundation, is identifying and supporting the innovators in Africa who are changing these systems, while convening a conversation to reframe how we think about work and the evolving workplace based on ideas and solutions at the cutting-edge.

In partnership with Fair Observer, we will explore the theme: Who is responsible for addressing youth employment in Africa? From June to September 2014, we will be developing online events and a series of articles that will gather multiple perspectives and provide a 360° analysis on the topic.

Tune in and Share Your Thoughts 

1) Tune into the kick-off webinar for this exciting 360° series on Wednesday, June 25 at 9am EST (1pm GMT) via LiveStream by clicking here.

2) Share your thoughts, insights and reactions live on Twitter, using the #AfricaYouthFwd and #SocEntChat hashtags during the webinar and afterward.

3) Mark your calendars for the closing webinar to be held on September 17 and sign up to get more details about future online events, such as a planned Twitter chat to coincide with International Youth Day on August 12.

4) Read the latest on the topic from our community and beyond.

5) Share your stories, insights and knowledge relevant to youth employment. Refer to Future Forward’s contributor guidelines for the community blog.

6) Use the Twitter handles: @changemakers, @ashoka and @myfairobserver.

Panel Conversation: June 25 at 9am

The facilitator for the webinar panel will be Ashoka’s Regional Representative for West Africa, Josephine Nzerem (@jonzerem). The webinar will include Joy Olivier, social entrepreneur, Ashoka Fellow and founder of IkmavaYouth; Xola Booi, a youth leader from IkmavaYouth (@IkamvaYouthSA) joining from South Africa; and Eme Essien Lore (@EmeEssienLore), who is the Senior Associate Director of The Rockefeller Foundation (@RockefellerFdn) Africa Regional Office and lead for the Digital Jobs initiative joining from Nairobi. It will also feature Atul Singh (@atulabhas), founder and editor-in-chief of Fair Observer (@myfairobserver), who joins us from California.

#AfricaYouthFwd Tweets

[seperator style=”style1″]More About the Panel[/seperator]

Josephine Nzerem

Nigerian-born Josephine Nzerem joined the Ashoka West Africa Team in 2010 as the Ashoka Anglophone West Africa Representative. She holds a degree in Dramatic Arts from the renowned Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife and a Master’s Degree in Public and International Affairs (MPIA) from the University of Lagos, Akoka. Nzerem’s passion for creating social change drove her to pursue a career path in activism and social entrepreneurship. In 2004 she received an award from Junior Chambers International as the outstanding young person for the year, in the area of contribution to children, world peace and/or human rights.

Xola Booi

Xola Booi is a 19 year old self-motivated leader in her community and has been an activist for education since her childhood. Booi is a youth representative at IkamvaYouth, where she was a former learner from 2010-2012. She currently volunteers as an IkamvaYouth career guidance counselor and served as an IkamvaYouth Branch Committee Member in 2012 and 2014.

Eme Essien Lore

Eme Essien Lore is the Senior Associate Director of The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office. Lore helps lead the strategic development and implementation of the Digital Jobs Africa initiative. Digital Jobs Africa aims to impact 1 million lives in six African countries by catalyzing sustainable, Information Communication Technology-enabled (ICT) employment opportunities, and skills training for high-potential but disadvantaged African youth.

Joy Olivier

Joy Olivier is a social entrepreneur, an Ashoka Fellow and one of the co-founders of IkamvaYouth, an after school program that strives to improve students’ graduation results, and has been involved in all aspects of the organization from the outset. Previously, in addition to her role as Director of IkamvaYouth, she established TEACH South Africa in the Western Cape. All her work is focused on redressing inequality and injustice in South Africa through promoting equal access to quality education and opportunities.

Atul Singh

Atul Singh is the founder and editor-in-chief of Fair Observer, a global media platform that examines the deeper issues behind the news focusing on analysis and presenting a “plurality of perspectives” from around the world. Fair Observer has been recognized as one of Forbes’ “Audacious Startups By South Asian Entrepreneurs.” Singh did an MBA with a triple major in finance, strategy and entrepreneurship at the Wharton School; he worked as a corporate lawyer in London; studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford on the Radhakrishnan Scholarship; debated extensively at the Oxford Union; and led special operations as an elite officer in India’s volatile border areas.

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