Thursday, July 2, 2020

MS TCDC Youth Leadership Development Program Announces partnership with Tsavo Innovation Labs (Tsavo Labs)

"This partnership is part of an ongoing journey creating economic opportunities and decent work for East African youth."

Arusha, July 2, 2020. YouLead- East Africa's largest Youth Leadership Development Program, today announced that it has partnered with Tsavo Labs.

The strategic partnership seeks to spur on innovative ideas amongst the youth in East Africa, empowering those with innovative ideas and building on their enterprises to craft the region's economic advancement.

The parties shall form a joint planning committee to coordinate, mobilize, and co-host the East Africa Youth Leadership Development Program and the YouLead Summit.

“A major focus area that dominates plans and conversations of YouLead Program is Youth in Business and Enterprise - how youth might meaningfully engage with cross border entrepreneurship/business. This partnership is part of an ongoing journey creating economic opportunities and decent work for East African youth,” said Ivan Atuyambe, Head of Leadership and Governance Academy and Director, YouLead Program.

Micah Shako, the Chief Executive Officer Tsavo Labs said, “The youth is a crucial element of our engagement in the region, and it is partnerships such as this with YouLead that continue to allow us to make significant contributions to, for and with the young people across the East African Community.”

This year's pre-summit meeting will focus on building recovery and resilience for youth-led businesses in the region following the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The partnership will engage the youth on opportunities, policy changes, and interventions in the East African Community that they could tap into.

"We are grateful yet again to be part of the consortium partners with YouLead. Ours has been a journey of growth and learning, and this has enabled us to continually serve our demographic, the youth of the region, and empower them to engage in activities that will improve their lives and wellbeing," Anthony Karanja Kabiru, the Programs Lead at Tsavo Labs, said.

It is the second time YouLead is partnering with Tsavo Innovation Labs to host the Kenya pre-summit events. In 2019, Tsavo Innovation Labs successfully implemented the Young Women in Business and Enterprise Forum.

The forum brought together 100 women and youth-led businesses in Kenya, with discussion points focusing on common markets, access to finance, and the business policy environment.

It culminated in the preparation and presentation of a summit paper at the annual YouLead Summit in Arusha. See the event highlights link here.

About YouLead

YouLead is East Africa’s flagship Youth Leadership Development Program seeking to unlock youth leadership potential for a prosperous region. YouLead is a collective action program hosted by MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MSTCDC) in Arusha, co-owned and supported by the YouLead Consortium of State and Non-State Partners across all the 6 East African Community (EAC) member states in the spirit of United Nations Agenda 2030 – “Leaving no one Behind”

YouLead Summit is YouLead’s annual climax event and is now East Africa’s largest forum of young leaders, mentors, government officials, and youth organizations representatives from all the 6 EAC Partner States to focus on crafting responses to the region’s rapidly growing youth population, their challenges, and opportunities. Two focus areas define YouLead’s programming and conversations: Youth in Politics (how youth leadership can be entrenched) and Youth in Business and Enterprise (how youth might meaningfully engage with cross border entrepreneurship/business in East Africa taking advantage of an already existing enabling regional policy and institutional environment).

About MS TCDC

MS-TCDC is a Training Center for Development Cooperation in East and Southern Africa, situated in Arusha, Tanzania. The Centre was founded in 1967 on the basis of a bilateral agreement between the governments of Denmark and Tanzania. The Centre offers a lively international atmosphere promoting the sharing of experience and cross-cultural mediation. MS-TCDC offers technical assistance and capacity building programs for the state and non-state actors in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Arab regions to enhance their ability to influence democratic governance, equitable, sustainable, and transformative change on the continent. MS-TCDC program priority areas are good governance and transformational leadership, gender equality, youth voice and participation, and climate governance.

Tsavo Innovation Labs

Tsavo Innovation Labs – A Centre for Social Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, promotes and utilizes social innovation and social entrepreneurship to contribute towards the reduction of poverty, marginalization, and loss of human dignity in East Africa. The Centre promotes an open exchange of ideas and values, champions a shift in roles and relationships, and seeks integration of private capital with public and philanthropic support in the East African region. We accomplish this through our 3 main functions, that is, the Programs Lab, The Entrepreneurship Lab, and the Design Lab.