ADDIS ABABA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday launched a joint African Young Women Leaders (AYWL) initiative that aspires to develop the next generation of young African women leaders and experts to serve Africa and the world.
The joint AU-UNDP initiative, among other things, will provide fellowship opportunities for young African women leaders with an aim to equip outstanding young African women leaders with leadership skills and experience required to contribute effectively to decision making in public, private and multilateral institutions, it was noted.
Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said that the initiative is "an important component of the strategic AU-UN partnership to strengthen and harmonize the complementary between the UN's Agenda 2030 and the AU's Agenda 2063."
"It is also a key activity by the AU Commission to accelerate investment in the youth, in order to achieve sustainable development by ensuring access to opportunity in the world of work for the youth of the continent, especially young women," Faki said.
Chairperson of the 55-member pan African bloc also stressed that "with more partnerships from players in the development space and the private sector, we can pool resources and build a sustainable ecosystem to accelerate economic development for the Africa we want."
The joint AU-UNDP initiative, which is said to be in line with the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African 50-year development Agenda 2063, mainly envisaged to build on the AU's "One million by 2021" youth initiative that seeks to connect 1 million young Africans to opportunities through education, employment, empowerment and engagement, it was noted.
The African Young Women Leaders Fellowship programme is also said to be in line with UNDP's Youth-Connekt Africa initiative that envisaged to support young Africans to enhance their entrepreneurial skills.
The Youth-Connekt initiative had recently launched an entrepreneurship programme targeting 100,000 youth in Africa.
According to UNDP, the joint AU-UNDP innovative fellowship program is another "unique opportunity to involve the youth in advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa."
"Investing in youth, especially young women, is critical for inclusive, sustainable and transformative development in Africa," Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa.
"We need to grow the next generation of women leaders and experts to drive the future of development, enhance gender parity in the political, economic and social domains and unlock creativity and innovation for the achievement of agendas 2030 and 2063," Eziakonwa added.
The joint fellowship program will start with a cohort of 20 leading young African women this year, while the target is said "to train and mentor several young experts from each African country," with financial support from UN member states, the AU, private partners and development organizations by 2021.
The growing network of African young women professionals, who are expected to serve in locations such as UNDP's headquarters, regional offices worldwide and in Africa, will engage in promoting innovative, sustainable and inclusive development through South-South development exchange, it was noted.
