Kenya’s Valarie Neema Waswa is among the inaugural cohort of the Generation Connect Young Leadership Programme (GCYLP) fellows who completed their development week in Switzerland. The GCYLP, an initiative launched by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in partnership with Huawei, supports thirty fellows each year for a period of three years. Aged between eighteen to twenty eight years, the fellows receive mentorship and financial support in their projects to use digital technology in driving community development through the course of one year.
The week-long activities include leadership fireside chats, an intergenerational panel discussion, and visits to Geneva University, Palais de Nations, as well as Huawei Switzerland in Zurich. In addition to the initial development week, the programme also provides online mentoring sessions, virtual “fireside chats” with industry experts, group projects with other participants, and other online programmes.
Youth envoy
Ms. Waswa is among the thirty initial fellows who were selected by a global jury from a pool of 5,249 applicants from over two hundred countries worldwide. She is an up-coming lawyer, who is passionate about women and youth inclusion in governance and decision making processes. She has worked with different organizations- from youth activist, to youth envoy and woke advocate, in causes that seek to promote peace and socio-economic development of women and youth.
“Seizing opportunities and creating new ones, being collaborative and resilient, as well as adopting a multi-disciplinary approach for a multi-sectoral world in which we find ourselves, will go a long way in helping you succeed and in impacting people’s lives around the world,” said Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau.
Selina Wen, chief representative to the EU Institutions and Vice President of public affairs for Europe at Huawei, said young leaders have played and will continue to play an important role in the digital era. This comes at a time when the enabling power of technology should be further harnessed to address the most pressing social challenges. “The projects you have presented are exactly what the real world is calling for,” she said.
The fellows’ project ideas cut across fields from inclusive healthcare, innovative digital skills training to efficient energy storage and circular economy. The programme was announced in November 2023 and applications for the inaugural cohort opened in February. Over the next two years, two more groups, nearly one hundred young visionaries from around the world, will embark on a similar journey.
