Young people represent around 77% of the population In Africa. Since they are generally endowed with creativity, potential and enormous abilities that make them agents of positive change in society, they are considered to be the engine of the continent's economic prosperity in the years to come. But valuing this potential of African youth through decent jobs remains a huge challenge.According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), 11 million young Africans knock on the doorstep of a job market which, according to estimates, can only create 3 million jobs per year. With a gap of around 8 million jobs to be filled each year,20.7% of young Africans are therefore neither students, employees nor interns, which means that more than one in five young Africans do not have a job and do not participate in education or to training. However, it is estimated that 95% of the enterprises of the enterprises listed in Africa are microenterprises and SMEs which alone generate 80% of the jobs on the continent. They are therefore an effective means of absorbing unemployed young people, the number of which is estimated in 2020 at 12.4 million young people. Fortunately, young entrepreneurs constitute an important segment of this sector. They are also more likely to hire their peers and are typically active in high-growth industries, according to the World Bank. According to the Indeed,even if Africa is the part of the world that benefits the least from advances in ICT and digitization, it is still recording very noticeable progress in the field. The mobile ecosystem, for example, has directly contributed to the region's economy to the tune of $ 155 billion in 2020 through job creation, funding of the public sector via tax revenues from consumers and operators. . The sub-Saharan African mobile industry at the same time largely contributed to meeting the challenge of keeping individuals and businesses connected during the Covid-19 pandemic despite changing data consumption habits. The high penetration rate of mobile technology in Africa, the adaptability of companies in this sector to the relationship of trust between consumers and the latter make this component of the digital industry sector. Emerging technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) have contributed to the acceleration of urgent response processes such as the development of a vaccine. They also made it possible to predict which public health measures would be the most effective, but also to keep the public informed of scientific developments in this area. UNESCO's Youth Strategy places part
As part of its 2020-2021 strategic plan in the information and communication sector, UNESCO is committed to promoting universal access to information through open and inclusive solutions and the use innovative ICT for sustainable development. In Central Africa, UNESCO is committed to encouraging the expansion of initiatives carried out in benefit of young people and by young people as well as partnerships between different stakeholders to promote local innovations resulting from ICTs and the possibilities of business creation for and by young people in the sub-region.
It is with this in mind that the UNESCO Regional Office for Central Africa joined forces with the eSTEMate Association to organize the first #UNESCO Youth ICT BoostCamp for Central Africa which is a meeting of expression, exchange and enhancement of the entrepreneurial potential of young people from Central Africa in the field of ICT.
Any registered participant can intervene during the workshops to develop a theme or present a project. Each workshop is headed by a moderator whose mission is to manage a list of topics proposed in advance by the volunteers. The presentation of each project should take 5 to 10 minutes. The audience can then discuss it openly for 15 minutes. Applications from women are eagerly awaited.
Space will also be granted to institutions to exhibit on the programs and policies to promote youth entrepreneurship in ICT
A space for exhibition stands will be set up on the site of the event in the Campus of the Protestant University of Central Africa.
The UNESCO Youth ICT BoostCamp Central Africa 2021 will be held on 22 and 23 October 2021 Face-to-face activities will take place on the campus of the Protestant University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, Cameroon and on a dedicated videoconferencing utility incorporated into the official website of the event.
Day 1 : 22 October 2021eSTEMate's mission is to educate in the proper appropriation of web-oriented media, through an e-learning and fact-checking platform www.estematedu.com based on teaching STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) and MIL (Media Information and Literacy). This association aims to help eradicate hate speech, fake news and violent extremism, which has become virulent in the various classical and digital communication channels in Cameroon. eSTEMate intends to educate, inform, connect and promote social interaction through Communication for Development, advocacy for peace and civic responsibility of Cameroonians, young people in particular.
eSTEMate is also a bilingual, English-French e-learning platform, with an opening by default on the language of first use of the Internet user. Its target audience is Cameroonians and Africans. This platform is about providing an adequate response to the training needs of the public in new media and STEM, in compliance with the laws, ethics and professional conduct that govern the fields of communication and digital. eSTEMate gives priority to priority education areas as well as disadvantaged people.
The recent activities of the eSTEMate platform, 2020-2021, fall within the framework of the #CoronaVirusFacts global disinfodemia coalition, where the #SocialMediaCure digital campaign has been deployed online and in person across Cameroon.
Objective: To provide education in digital media and information in the COVID-19 context by the transmission of 90 “therapeutic pills” against Infodemia.
Before that, eSTEMate and its partner Barcamp Cameroon organized a special edition of Barcamp Cameroon 2020 all-online on the COVID-19 issue.