Let's Create The Future

The Africa-EU youthlab is a modern think-tank from the youth for the youth. 20 young digital changemakers from Africa and the EU were invited by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to participate in the Africa-EU YouthLab on 27 November in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. This marked the launch of an enthusiastic collective, motivated to work together on sharing experiences from various changemakers, digital entrepreneurs, and community managers, committed to inform policymakers and international cooperation agencies. 

Main advocacy areas the Youth Lab is involved in is how to support young innovators in founding and growing digital working and living, how to enable local ecosystems that support founders of digital companies, and how to improve access to digital skills and knowledge through technology. Several local ecosystem meet-ups took place on the African continent in autumn 2017 to select the best candidates for the YouthLab. 10 African and 10 European digital innovators and entrepreneurs were selected to meet as the YouthLab in Abidjan on 25-27 November. 

In addition to having had great fun with each other, the YouthLab worked on policy recommendations, formulated and edited with the help of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, that they presented at the 6th EU-Africa Business Forum in Abidjan (Palais de la Culture). Mostly present at the YouthLab Stand at the Digital Start-up Fair, respective members of the YouthLab participated in further high-level panels of the forum. Read more about our recommendations here. 

The concept of the YouthLab is based on a merger between the two German initiatives implemented by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development 1) the Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative Make-IT and 2) the German G20-Presidency initiative #eSkills4Girls