Our office is proud to be launching this initiative, to find and award Africa’s strongest early-stage social innovators who are contributing to SDG attainment in areas such as health, education, poverty, hunger, economic growth, climate and more.

By fostering collaborations, and harnessing the ingenuity of local African innovators, the competition will also serve to help achieve the objectives of SDG 17 - building partnerships to drive SDG attainment.

Social entrepreneurship is an essential piece of the puzzle in this quest to improve job prospects for African youth, and also to reduce poverty, and promote economic growth at a critical time for our region.

With well over 200 million youth in Africa - a population that is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years - addressing barriers to gainful youth employment must be a top priority for all sectors of society.

”In the larger perspective we ought to talk more on the way we look upon children; do we really see them as being their own actors? Do they have a voice? Or are we just seeing them as a possession of their parents? The adult world can learn a great deal from children if we just open our eyes and ears”

”I think a lot of the work in preventing child abuse has to do with changing norms. I believe that Sweden has taken a leading position in this work and should be seen as a role model to other countries. Children are not just a possession of their parents, they are their own individuals, whose well-being lies in the interest of the whole society”