Ambitious.Africa - A new youth movement
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
There is a consensus among researchers that we are not reaching many critical Sustainable Development Goals with the speed at which they are needed. This combined with the global COVID-19 pandemic creates a ticking time bomb with global repercussions. To reach unprecedented results, we need an improved testing bed for radical, new solutions. This testbed can drive sustainable development, inclusive economic growth and create jobs. This testbed is Ambitious.Africa.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Ambitious.Africa decided on three core pillars to drive change, namely Education, Entrepreneurship and Entertainment (Triple E). These pillars were identified due to their deep links with the root-causes of most significant societal challenges the continent of Africa is facing. Meanwhile, they are strongly associated with the massive opportunities that exist in Africa. Through improved education, we can equip people with the right skills, competencies and attitudes to drive socio-economic development. Through entrepreneurship we create new jobs, prosperity and innovations emerging from the local context and through entertainment we create the needed cultural unity and alignment locally and optimally across borders and raise awareness about the vibrant African cultures globally.
What is unique about our approach, is that within the three areas, Ambitious.Africa is employing new methods to increase the efficacy of interventions. The main ingredients are youth-led, lean, agile and scalable. This is the biggest initiative so far that applies startup entrepreneurship methods to development cooperation. We seek to employ the elements as inspired by the success of the Finnish startup ecosystem - put the youth in charge, build their entrepreneurial mindset, foster grassroots projects at scale and create long-term impact.
In a world that is ripe with donor-based and top-to-bottom development initiatives, Ambitious.Africa provides a platform for the youth to create their own projects for transformation. The youth can select the area in which they want to contribute (the Triple E) to celebrate their identity and use their own voice while creating positive societal impact. The societal norms in typically hierarchical communities such as the ones in Africa might not encourage individual action by the youth. This is why Ambitious.Africa is needed - having a platform for genuine youth empowerment is important if the development is intended to be inclusive.
Key objectives for sustainability
The outcome of Ambitious.Africa is not only that projects are cheaper to implement and have excellent short-term results. It is an opportunity to validate whether the radical new methods are, in fact, improved, and if a dynamic community that learns together, creates even better programs. We believe this is the way to sustainably create jobs now and in the future, and that we can through this, plant the seed for resilient roots to develop. From what we have seen so far, the platform cultivates leadership skills among the community members with potentially far-reaching impact. Our motto is: “You join as a volunteer, learn world-class skills and then you go out and elevate your society.”
All operations of Ambitious.Africa are designed to be sustainable. This is evident in our grassroot-level approach, the Lean and agile organisation structure and in the core mission which aims to develop employable skills for the rapidly growing youth segment.
What is relevant to our pilot project as proposed here is that by March 2022 we have secured further funding to continue our operations for the remaining 5-year plan, according to which we aim to have reached the following goals by 2025:
- The National Teams have solidified their position locally
- The ambitious mindset is transfering effectively from local alumni members
- A solid movement has been established so that the country teams no longer needs the support of the global team
We will achieve this because the Ambitious.Africa approach combines bilateral skills development programs, economic collaboration between Nordic and African markets, and the creation of new local solutions to address these development challenges.
The founding team is committed to pass on knowledge for the next generation of managers until 2026 in a 3-month period of transfer. These factors coupled with a functioning alumni-network will ensure the long-term success of the program.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The problems we are aiming to solve are the critical social and environmental challenges that the National teams are interested in and able to solve by project.
Our key audience consists of a diverse range of stakeholders, of which the youth are the essential one. We welcome stakeholders where their mission and activities bring value to our operations.
Our entry point to reach our audience is mainly through social media, media partners and educational institutions. We attract like-minded youth, enterprises and other stakeholders with purposeful communication and phenomenal branding.
Steps needed for change are related to mindset, connection and action, and we will be successful only if the steps are effectively implemented.
The measurable effect of our work is based on awareness raising, network building and project implementation. These are reached with SMART target setting, suitable Monitoring and Evaluation, and the engagement of National teams.
The wider benefits of our work are more opportunities for youth, increasing their employable skills, increasing the number of startups created and more importantly, how they succeed. We aim to ignite a culture of collaborative youth activism to solve sustainable development challenges.
The long-term changes we see as our goals are the cost-efficient targeting of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This we achieve with the project implementation and the wide economic and social collaboration between the regions.
Key objectives for inclusion
Our approach is designed to fit the organizational structure of our community. At its core, Ambitious.Africa is a startup organisation consisting of young social entrepreneurs. The Ambitious community is made up of agile national teams supported by a Global team, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland.
The national teams consist of 50 % Nordic and 50 % local African youth volunteers operating in each of the African countries implementing societal projects.
The Global team operates from Finland and its six operational teams are tasked to support all national teams in implementing various projects.
The advisors are sourced to support both the national teams as well as the Global team, resulting in a resource with both youthful energy and professional experience.
The best suited approach for this type of an organization is startup-minded, informed by ecosystem best practices and most common methodologies. The ecosystem example we are inspired by is the success story of Slush. Slush has shown that youth activism and volunteerism are major drivers of transformation for a better future. We apply a similar philosophy to our approach by having an organization structure that allows volunteers to join our operations easily.
Innovative character
Our uniqueness comes from being inherently digital, lean and volunteer-based. This makes us globally operational, agile to change, and cost-efficient. Our operations started in April 2020 with only a bold mindset and a grassroot level approach, and we are secure to say we have validated the unique approach we have.
Throughout 2020, we have demonstrated that we are quicker to act and more ambitious than traditional NGOs and donor-funded development programs tend to be. We embrace digitalization and put the youth in the drivers’ seats, and this approach has been welcomed by policymakers, corporates, NGOs and the youth. The potential of our network has been noticed. Government representatives in several African countries as well as in Finland have heralded our approach, and over 100 articles have been written about us in the international media. Nevertheless, for us, the most critical and validating indicator has been the rapid scaling of our community, which validates the demand for Ambitious Africa (300+ volunteers in 25 countries).
In the future, we plan to advance our unique approach through continuing on the path we are on and applying lessons learnt. In the future, the impactful projects to be implemented by our growing community will be strengthened and scaled with funding and strategic partnerships, such as the partnership the network has with Wärtsilä (more on partnerships in chapter 4).
The uniqueness of Ambitious Africa is:
- Cost-efficient in human resources: large volunteer base.
- Cost-efficient in tangible resources: Lean operational strategy.
- Resilient and adaptive projects strategy: Agile project management.
- Rapid approval and execution speed for projects: flat organizational structure.
- Large network: partnerships as tools to optimize operation.
