Global Student Initiative to promote African youth entrepreneurship

The WSC-SD African Initiative focuses on contributing to developing entrepeneurship among African students and recent graduates.

During the annual meeting of WSC-SD 2009, the Student Summit for Sustainability (S3) in Switzerland, members from Africa, Europe and North America formalized outcomes from the  annual meeting in Canada and launched the WSC-SD African Initiative in order to build support for entrepreneurial development among student communities in Africa. The initiative aims to actively stimulate and assist students and young professionals in start-up phases, and to connect with potential partners, investors and support outside  local communities which in some cases lack initial resources.

The initiative centres on entrepreneurial ingredients and help to self-help for wealth creation and promotes alternative ways to societal development aside from typical aid-thinking.

WSC-SD Student Summit participants at Kreutzligen (2009), Switzerland and Regina, Kanada (2008)

Initiative Objectives:

• Provide support and opportunities for student and young entrepreneurs in targeted African communities to launch businesses which benefit societal development.
• Facilitate and support contact with the number of potential partner organizations and companies currently existing within WSC-SD network.
• Act as communicators and actively help students connect their entrepreneurial ideas with potential support, investment and partners.
• Via WSC-SD internal resources, as well as external senior partners (e.g. the WSC-SD Advisory Committe), provide expertise and feed-back in the development process.

The initiative is carried out through collaboration between students in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Sweden and USA. In this phase the initiative focuses on student communities in Nairobi, Kampala and Fort Hare:

• Students for Global Sustainability, University of Nairobi (SfGS-UoN), Kenya.
• Students for Global Democracy – Uganda (SGDU), (Kampala)
• WSC-SD Fort Hare, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

Initiative Project team:

	Christopher Hedvall, Project leader Student at Chalmers Univ. of Technology and Univ. of Gothenburg, Sweden. Member of the WSC-SD Executive Board.		Tendai Mariri, Project coordinator (Uganda) Student at Univ. of Fort Hare. President of WSC-SD Fort Hare, South Africa
	Otieno Nickson Otieno, Project coordinator (Kenya) B.Arch. student at Univ. of Nairobi. President of Students for Global Sustainability, University of Nairobi (SfGS-UoN)		Carl Justin Kamp PhD student at Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Sweden. Advisory board member – AGS-Chalmers, Vice Chairman of the WSC-SD
	Mike Munabi, President of Students for Global Democracy Uganda		Philip Osano (Sr. Advisor) PhD student at McGill University, Canada. Member of the WSC-SD Advisory Committee
	Willis Alalas (Advisor) Architect, former student at the Univ. of Nairobi.		Robert Kintu, Project coordinator (Tanzania) Student at Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Sweden

Contact:

Christopher Hedvall, christopher.hedvall@wscsd.org