Over 500 young people representing over 100 countries from around the world are in Rwanda for the inaugural Generation Connect Global Youth Summit, which kicked off on Thursday, June 2, with a mission to collectively shape a safe, inclusive and sustainable digital future. The summit, which is a precursor for the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) that will be held in Kigali next week, will among others discuss how to narrow the digital divide, with special focus on the youth. This is a timely meeting because you cannot talk about technology and innovation and leave out the youth. They are the drivers and, if well guided through such structured fora like this meeting, they will create wonders. The meeting is happening at a time when the world is coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the global order in many ways, but principally cemented the role of technology in the future of work. You can therefore not talk about that future and exclude the youth. The summit, and the subsequent WTDC meeting will therefore not only help them discuss global challenges in the world of technology, but also help them create global connections that they will then leverage to innovate with a global outlook. This platform should be maintained because it will help the youth speak with one voice in pushing their governments to invest in creating an enabling environment for them to innovate. Innovation has limitless opportunities and examples abound. Rwanda which has over the years positioned itself as a greenfield of proof-of-concept for digital innovation and this is paying off, with the country having midwifed the use of drone technology to deliver lifesaving medical supplies to hospitals. Zipline, the company that championed this innovation was founded by young people just five years ago is now a billion dollar company. This and many examples show that given the necessary support, both regulatory and financial, the young people, using ICT can create a difference in the world.
