Organizers launch #AfricaNeedsYou campaign, visits Banjul, Johannesburg, Enugu, others

The Central Working Committee (CWC) of Africa’s biggest youth event, The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) has officially launched the media campaign for the 2015 edition – which celebrates 10 years of inspiring Africa.

The campaign is themed #AfricaNeedsYou, and it will be driven by a tour of 100 cities across Africa. The tour will re-focus attention on the issues young people are facing across the continent, the case studies of how TFAA’s global brain trust has solved these issues, and then set up hubs in each city - made up of past winners, nominees, partners and volunteers at community-levels – to solve these problems.

“Over the past 10 years, we have created a platform that has spotlighted, invested in and grown businesses amounting to over $100 million dollars in revenue, supported and created change organisations reaching over 200 million African youth, transformed governments and institutions, and has inspired millions of young Africans directly with these stories told strategically through its 10-year cycle of global media partners,” says Ohimai Atado who is chair of the CWC.

“There is plenty to celebrate in the ground we have covered and the impact we have made with our partners. However, there is still so much work we all have to do – and we are fired up to engage these problems, and to galvanise the continent to solve them.”

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“As Africa’s biggest youth platform, we have a rare capacity to spotlight the weight of the challenges that still face young people across major issues like education and entrepreneurship to existential challenges including erosion, malaria and preventable illness,” says Mohamed Diaby who is a CWC member based in Abidjan. “It is even more important to spotlight the anecdotal trend lines of these challenges as the world has launched the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. On our 10th anniversary, we want to engage these problems, at scale, bringing together the full force of TFAA's influence and network.”

According to Bukonla Adebakin, Project Manager for The Future Project, after each visit, #TFAAHubs will be set up in each city - in conjunction with local organisations.

Hubs have already been set up in Enugu with the Access to Good Health Initiative, Lagos with Street to School, Abuja with the Global Shapers, Kano with the Africa Focus for Youth Development, Port Harcourt with the Africa Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation, Ibadan with the One Life Foundation and Banjul with the National Youth Council, Gambia. These hubs will work with the Global TFAA Secretariat to pull resources and media attention to solve the identified problems in each community.

10 alumni of the awards will be unveiled on 8 November as ambassadors to drive this campaign.

The Future Awards Africa 2015 is powered by RED and held in partnership with the Ford Foundation, Microsoft, the US Consulate, the Canadian High Commission Nigeria and The Tony Elumelu Foundation. The event will be hosted in Lagos on Sunday, 6 December, 2015.