In Case You Missed It: 7/18/16–7/24/16

This week’s most impor­tant head­lines out of and about Africa.

In this week’s news, Bill Gates invests $5 bil­lion into the African con­ti­nent and a look into the Man­dela Wash­ing­ton Fel­low­ship for Young African Leaders.

Bill Gates to invest $5 bil­lion into the African con­ti­nent over the next 5 years

Bill Gates, the founder of Amer­i­can tech giant Microsoft,  will vis­it the African con­ti­nent this month, tak­ing his tour across mul­ti­ple countries.

At the Nel­son Man­dela Annu­al Lec­ture in South Africa on July 17, Gates deliv­ered a speech in which he said he wants to find inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to the prob­lems that pre­vent peo­ple from mak­ing the most of their lives in devel­op­ing countries.

“I believe, (as Nel­son Man­dela did), that progress is pos­si­ble,” Gates said. “We can help peo­ple every­where live health­i­er, more pro­duc­tive lives — if we make sure that inno­va­tion reach­es every­one who needs it.”

He addressed the obsta­cles fac­ing African youth and pledged to con­tin­ue to invest in the con­ti­nent. Past invit­ed lec­tur­ers include Arch­bish­op Desmond Tutu, for­mer U.S. Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton, and Liber­ian Pres­i­dent Ellen John­son-Sir­lea. The annu­al lec­ture series offers promi­nent lead­ers a plat­form to address social issues.

Gates encour­aged break­throughs to ful­fill the con­ti­nents poten­tial. Focus­ing on edu­ca­tion, gov­er­nance, health and agri­cul­ture, the Bill and Melin­da Gates Foun­da­tion seeks to invest in youth. The orga­ni­za­tion strives to sup­port African part­ners to resolve issues that do not sup­port nation­al devel­op­ment goals.

The Man­dela Wash­ing­ton Fel­low­ship for Young African Leaders

The Man­dela Wash­ing­ton Fel­low­ship empow­ers young peo­ple through aca­d­e­m­ic course­work, lead­er­ship train­ing and net­work­ing. The pro­gram was launched by the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion in 2014 under the Young African Lead­ers Initiative.

The fel­low­ship sup­ports the ideas, busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions of these African lead­ers through pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, men­tor­ing, net­work­ing and seed fund­ing in their home coun­tries. Fel­lows are often offered a pro­fes­sion­al intern­ship with Amer­i­can NGOs, pri­vate com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ment offices.

Fel­low demo­graph­ics are between the ages of 25 and 35 who pro­mote inno­va­tion and pos­i­tive change in their orga­ni­za­tions, insti­tu­tions, com­mu­ni­ties and countries.

The Young African Lead­ers Ini­tia­tive, intro­duced by the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion in 2010, brings 1000 African lead­ers from across the con­ti­nent who are then host­ed at 20 U.S. uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges. The six-week pro­gram admin­is­ters a train­ing and men­tor­ing cur­ricu­lum focused around busi­ness, entre­pre­neur­ship, civic engage­ment and pub­lic administration.