By virtue of their relatively easy depiction in the media, landscapes lined with high-rise buildings; or roads dotted with unrecognizably advanced vehicles center the portrayal of a future developed Africa. But this aesthetic of “the Africa we want”, besides bordering on the sensational, may obscure the reality of what an actual progressed continent looks like: one in which complete political, economic, and social transformation inspires development. In essence, our evolution should encompass much more than just tall buildings, hybrid trains, or countless flyovers. Rather, it should foster the Africa fit for its people, particularly children. Experts today agree that more than a quarter of the worlds people would be in Africa by 2050, they also express their worry regarding the 3.1 million African children that die from undernutrition each year, Malaria that kills one African child every 30 seconds, the 32 million children of primary school age remaining uneducated, and all the 55,000 grave crimes that were committed against the African Child over the past five years. Conversely, today an average teenager will be in their fifties by 2050. It is therefore right to say that to get the Africa We Want, the key contributors to its realization i.e., the children today that are soon branching to the working population, have to be catered for first. The African Child is expected to attain 85% of the jobs not yet created on the continent, strengthen the political stability in African states, and devise social and economic strategies to ensure that “2063 Africa” achieves complete political, economic, and social transformation. Thus, there is a need for a happy, healthy, educated, and patriotic population, not the impoverished we have for so long been perceived as. We, therefore, call out for a change. A change that helps protect the African child, one that preserves the African identity and substantially adds to the current efforts to attain all the goals of Agenda 2063 effectively. We call out for a change that creates the land that is fit for its people. To attain this, the African Union introduced Agenda 2040: Fostering an Africa fit for children - a 25-year agenda for the long-term and strategic progress in implementing children’s rights in Africa. Agenda 2040 provides a child-centered focus based on the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Today we hope that many are inspired to advocate and fight to shed more light on the right and needful thing. We hope that everyone’s motto becomes uplifting the African Child and ensuring that they are equipped with the right tools, to carry out what the likes of Mandela, Kadafi, Kagame, and many more who have dedicated their lives to help many Africans understand their worth did. “My role in achieving development across Africa is to have a strong sense of patriotism. This is because Africa needs people that love and appreciate it, people who dont see Africa through the lens of laziness and poverty but people that have hope and strong confidence in Africa. We thus should stop living to just gratify our personal needs but instead live to meet everyone’s needs.” Says a fellow African Child from Ghana when we asked her to fill out this short survey. It is therefore no doubt that we all have the ambition and dedication to protect, develop, support, and indulge our motherland in the dream it longs for and deserves. In the end, supporting Agenda 2040 paves the right path to procure economic development, political integration, improvements in democracy and justice, the establishment of security and peace on the entire African continent, strengthening of our cultural identity through an African renaissance and pan-African ideals: gender equality, and political independence from foreign powers. Joining efforts from all corners of the continent is necessary to accelerate the fortification of the African Child against all the plausible threats of hunger, diseases, and lack of education. Africa is its people, and children are the future people, so it is not an understatement to say that without them in the picture of the developed world we want, there is no picture at all. Audrey Gatera Umurerewa is a senior six student at Riviera High School. She is the winner of the July 2019, as well as February 2020 iDebate Kigali league debate competitions, best speaker of the advanced league debate competitions in the dreamers academy in 2019, part of the Rwanda National debate team that has to represent Rwanda in the 2020 world school debate championship, part of the Rwandan team to represent Rwanda in the 2020 Coolidge cup debate competition, Winner of the May Online iDebate debate league, Winner of the 1st edition of the Rwanda Virtual Debate championship organised by Aspire Rwanda, Imbuto foundation, Save the Children, Ministry of sports and culture, Bank of Kigali. Joel Benjamin Manzi Ruzandana is a senior six student at Riviera High School. He was named Best speaker in the 2018 Advanced league at the Dreamers Academy Camp, Winner of the EAC Debate Championship, Winner of the May Online iDebate debate league, Winner of the 1st edition of the Rwanda Virtual Debate championship organised by Aspire Rwanda, Imbuto foundation, Save the Children, Ministry of sports and culture, Bank of Kigali
