In 2010 the President of the United States of America H.E Barack Obama began the Young African Leaders Initiative to support young African leaders as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa.
An initiative of the United States Department of States, YALI is a programme aimed at
committing significant resources to enhancing leadership skills, bolster entrepreneurship, educating and encouraging networking among young African leaders. Some of the activities embedded in the program include; a fellowship to study in the United States for six weeks, follow-up resources and student exchange programs.
In 2014, the program was expanded to include four regional “leadership centers” in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa. These Centers provide a 12-weeks program which is nothing short of transformational, eye-opening, energetic and visionary.
This innovative leadership training runs across three tracks of study Business and Entrepreneurship, Civic Leadership, and Public Management to provide Quality Leadership Training, Support Entrepreneurship: Enhance Professional Development and Networking to young African leaders.
“YALI is like an incubation center for young African leaders. The initiative does not only open minds of African youth to the reality of the continent but also mentor, and mold them on how to develop solutions on the several challenges in their communities. I will never forget the design thinking class that helped me to effectively use my brain to design solutions on challenges affecting my community using my profession,” said Nabatte Proscovia, a cohort 5 Alumni.
YALI RLC East Africa Alumni Chapter of Uganda: Empowering Transformation
In an effort to create a ripple effect across the multitude of young people across Africa, the YALI RLC East Africa created chapters in the 14 East and Central African countries to enable young leaders with potential and ability to develop solutions to everyday societal problems that continuously affecting the continent.
The Alumni Chapter of Uganda is driven towards empowering, inspiring and providing alternative solutions to issues affecting young people in Uganda. The chapter wills also aiming at establishing partnerships, collaborations and networking with government, nongovernment, civil societies and potential stakeholders with similar objectives.
“Our aim is to galvanize and bring women and men together to reflect on what today’s youth are capable of doing, formulate solutions and build partnerships across sectors.We must not wait for anyone to make the change we want in our country. We are the change we have been waiting for, we are the solution we seek and we are the Africa we hope for. And it starts now. So be a part of this new generation of sustainable young African Leaders,” said Esther Namboka- Chairperson YALI RLC Alumni Chapter of Uganda.
To enhance its activities in Uganda, the YALI RLC East Africa Alumni chapter of Uganda with Kampala International University organized an entrepreneurship workshop on 12th November 2016.
Supported by UNITED and Coca-Cola Uganda, the training that attracted over 70 KIU students exposed the students to modern day business skills, tools, and possible networks to exploit in pursuit of their own business initiatives and ideas.
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