Report on Global Youth Innovation Workshop Held in Cotonou

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Report on Global Youth Innovation Workshop

Held in Cotonou, Benin 10-13 October, 2011

By: Mamadou Edrisa Njie

The Government and the people of Benin under the dynamic leadership of HisExcellency Dr. Yayi Boni hosted a good number of youth around the world to attend theGlobal Youth Innovation Workshop- Fair from 10-13 October, 2011 at the Palais DesCongress in Cotonou, Benin

The Global Youth Innovation Workshop -Fair is organized by Phelps Stokes and

the International Fund for Agricultural Development to honor and celebrate

young entrepreneurs achievements. The specific objectives of this event are: To bring together youth to share their perspectives and ideas in

relation to their business models,

To work toward solutions to common problems, and

To enable the participants to showcase their products and services

and share best practices.

Phelps Stokes and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in

collaboration with the Government of Benin, Activos Culturales Afro (ACUA),

Palmares Fundacao, Songhai Center and Give1Project organized this event andcordially invited sixty youth from fifty countries globally to attend.

The entire workshop Fair was entirely managed by young people from different

background, all as Participants, some as Facilitators, and other as Youth Advisory

members,


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The official opening of the ceremony was characterized by cultural groups; and

statements by the Minister of State for National Defense Issifou Kougui Ndoro on

behalf of the Prime Minister of Republic, His Excellency Pascal Irenee Koupaki, Mr.

Pape Samb, Chairman of GYIN Steering Committee who also doubles as the

Phelps Stokes Director of Programs for Africa and Freedom Endowment (PAFE),Honorable Didier Djobode, Minister of Youth for Sports and Leisure, Mr.

Mohamed Beavogui, Director of West and Central Division, IFAD, and Mrs. Nardos

Bekele- Thomas, Resident Coordinator of United Nations and Resident

Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Benin.

The four-day GYIN workshop- Fair dubbed Youth Entrepreneurs Agents of

Change, brought together young entrepreneurs, representatives of agribusiness

companies, business associations, civil society, as well as representatives from

national, regional, and international development agencies to share theirexperiences on the promotion of agribusiness development and innovation in

Western and Central Africa, and Europe.

Participants were cordially invited from all over the world but primarily from

Western and Central African regions. UN agencies, youth organization and

entrepreneurs organizations in the region also take part to share with other

participants information on programs to support youths in agribusiness,

entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership.

The four- day program also included plenary sessions, workshops, business

meetings, a fair, and the launching of GYIN Website.

Delivering his welcome remarks, Mr. Pape Samb, chairman of GYIN Steering

Committee expressed his profound gratitude to the youth for accepting their

invitation and turning out in large numbers.

The timing of the conference, Samb said is perfect as he puts it, we observe the

International Year of the Youth (IYY) saying that there is great need for thepromotion of holistic development of youth.

According to him, youth are the future leaders of tomorrow pointing out that

youth needs to be supported in all their activities but emphasizing his speech on

innovation, leadership, agribusiness and entrepreneurship.


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He further thanked GYIN Ambassadors who have chosen to participate actively in

the GYIN workshop-Fair and advised them to share the gained knowledge with

their colleagues who are unfortunate to attend the four-day workshop.

Speaker after speaker at the official ceremony expressed their kind appreciationto the GYIN Ambassadors, while cautioning them to be pro-active in what ever

they are doing in life. They also encourage youth to acquire skills and be

responsible as they are the future leaders.

They advised GYIN Ambassador to network, share information and engage in

agribusiness, leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship for the development of

the globe.

The official opening ceremony was declared opened by the Minister of State for

National Defense, Issifou Kougui Ndoro on behalf of the Prime Minister ofRepublic, His Excellency Pascal Irenee Koupaki and was witnessed by Honorable

Didier Djobode, Minister of Youth for Sports and Leisure, Mrs. Nardos Bekele-

Thomas, Resident Coordinator of United Nations and Resident Representative of

the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Benin, members of the

Press, Diplomatic and Consular Corps, Youth Groups amongst other dignitaries.

As part of the official opening ceremony, GYIN Honorary host awarded His

Excellency Dr. Yayi Boni through Miss Mahawa Sylla, GYIN Youth Advisory Group

(YAG) member, Facilitator and a Participant.

The GYIN website was official unveiled by Miss Aissatou Padane, Participant,

Facilitator and a Youth Advisory Group from Senegal then follows a family picture.

The Minister of State for National Defense, Issifou Kougui Ndoro on behalf of the

Prime Minister of Republic, His Excellency Pascal Irenee Koupaki, officially opened

the Fair.

After the award, unveiling of GYIN website and the opening speech, side a press

conference was held involving the Minister of Youth for Sports and Leisure,

Honorable Didier Djobode, who told a group of journalists that the government of

Benin under the dynamic leadership of His Excellency Dr. Yayi Boni, will give all his

support to the youth of Benin and assured journalists that the government will

implement all the recommendations that emerged during the workshop.


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Mr. Alejandro Riascos Castillo, Cartagena Colombia, presented on the 2010

Cartagena recommendations, as indicated in the recommendations, he told GYIN

Ambassadors that they need direct support of finance to the international

market.

Again, he said develop training for culture and research is very important so as to

have universal knowledge adding that as youth, we are limited to our actions as

far as funding is concern.

He advised youth to find other means of getting funding for themselves but was

quick to appeal to IFAD and other partners to come to the aid of youth

programmes by funding their activities.

He stated that IFAD and other donors should facilitates and gives technology

capacity to youth and also to gives scholarship to deserving youth to promote

eco-tourism in Colombia.

He revealed in Colombia, they have problem in accessing funds from international

donors, while appealing to IFAD support their activities as they are capable to

implement programmes that are in with IFAD action plans- support rural youth.

Mr. Mordekia C. Shumba, Participant, Facilitator and YAG from South Africa

presented the IFAD 2011 Governing Council, Rome, in his own words, he said that

many youth are not empowered; as a result many of them do not belong to youth

organizations.

Agriculture, Shumba said should be promoted noting that youth should venture

into agriculture. He also called on governments to develop policies that promote

rural farming for the rural youth.

He observed that many youth organizations are led by few individuals who are

the pioneers of the organization saying that good leadership does not encourage

such leader in an organization.

The second day of GYIN workshop was based on four thematic sessions;

Innovation and Leadership (InnoLead), Innovation and Agribusiness (InnoAgric),


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Innovation and Entrepreneurship (InnoEnt), and Youth self-employment in Benin

(YoSe).

During the thematic sessions, youth from different backgrounds, , religions, races,

etc shared their experiences, the work their organizations, networks, andassociations that operate in their respective countries. They also shared their

success stories, challenges and way forward as youth of the same voice.

Three field visits was organized for the participants to get first-hand information

with respective institutions as well as to showcase the progress, have interview,

discussion with institutions in Leadership, Innovation, Agribusiness and

Entrepreneurship.

The Songhai Centre and Young Agropreneur Farm in Porto Novo by the InnoAgric

site group, ONG Share, Sike Codji, Cotonou visited by InnoLead group and InnoEnt

group visited Youth Pineapple processing Centre, in Allada.

As a member and Rapporteur of InnoLead group, we visited the Cotonou

International Forum for News Discovery (CNIC) known by its French acronym,

CINC. The group was led by Mr. Pape Samb, Director; Programs for Africa and

Freedom Endowment called PAFE, Phelps Stokes United States and were warmly

welcome by Mrs. Macon Barbara, the young and enterprising Chairperson of

CINC.

The CINC initiative, according to Barbara, is a project of the NGO, SHARE

Association, which was created in April 2009 in Benin by a group of young

dedicated and committed youth. She added that the idea of creating CINC came as

a result of the advice given to them by their then University Professor, Amen

Abiasse. The latter gave them the courage to be innovative and pushed them to

work towards transforming their ideas into reality after graduation. CINC is now

recognised nationally and internationally due to their innovation and the research

ideas they put into reality.

Among the many objectives of CINC, emphasis is placed on the development and

promotion of innovators, the industrialisation and commercialisation of

innovations, the promotion of a sense of creativity and innovations and a spirit of

youth leadership. She told group members that many African youth do not spend

much time on research and innovation. Also, the lack of support and passion from


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partners is also a challenge. She intimated that to succeed in life one does not need

only money but also to be innovative, creative and be committed to whatever one

is doing; and stressed that one needs to build a strong working team and shareideas and experiences with other members in the group.

She further highlighted leaders of any organizations and members need to have

common objectives and vision and work as a team towards achieving their

aspirations as young entrepreneurs. She also said that young people need to

communicate and have the requisite skills and always strive to acquire more skills

in order to guide them in their activities. She also emphasised on the importance of

having dreams, finding good team members, time management, humanity,

courage, value, determination, and appreciation of other people's work in the

organisation.

She then touched on some of their past activities such as the fair in Cotonouorganised by CINC which was well attended. The fair attracted many participants

from Benin and outside, including Senegal, France, and Mauritania among others.

In total, 10 nationalities were represented; 65 innovations were present, 14

innovative companies, 59 private partners, over 500 young people and more than

5000 visitors. At the end of the fair, CINC awarded three prizes to innovators from

Senegal, Togo and Benin respectively.

She announced that the upcoming fair will be held in Cotonou, Benin 26 October -

3 November, 2012. She then entreated the group members to make use of the

opportunity by registering online for the event on their website: www.lecinc.organd for further information. Their email address is:[email protected] telephone

number: (229) 21 076 220, 95345707, and 66764476.

The following, she alluded as challenges;

Finding committed members

Try to reach that Beninese in rural area still difficult and they limited to only.

Lack of fundingalso consider as a challenge

During the ensuing discussion the following points were highlighted as

recommendations:

Steering committee should be set up a GYIN Basket Fund
http://www.lecinc.org/http://www.lecinc.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.lecinc.org/


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Report on Global Youth Innovation Workshop Held in Cotonou