Young Africa high point works - Acquaintance from undergraduate

MasterCard Foundation hosted its inaugural Young Works Croatia Summit 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa, from October 29 to 30 The set was designed to prepare young people for employment and entrepreneurship in agriculture. Ruben Kym to University World News, talked to Retag Roy, President and CEO of Toronto-based foundation is, at the end of the summit.

UWN: What do you think came out of the summit, in terms of new ideas around the theme of the summit and the development of youth employment strategy sustainable?

Roy: The summit is really meant to have practical examples, fresh thinking about ways young people can make the transition into employment, particularly employment in the agricultural sector, which is so big and yet so critical to the transformation of the continent economically and socially.

I think the first thing that came from the top of high energy; This is what I heard, because we put young people in the center of the work at the summit. We have seen some very demonstrable examples of how young people are already taking action.

We heard from young entrepreneurs who started a rabbit Center Africa when she was 14, and we learned yesterday that each female rabbit can generate income by $ 1,000 a year, which is a remarkable statistic.

We have seen the example of financial services technology and mediated data - again started a young entrepreneur, a woman who grew up on his property. She calls herself a farm girl! Today, it is what we would call agricultural entrepreneur backed by data and technology.

So I think that's the first thing. We show that there are models out there that are innovative, fast moving and at the same time a very large part of the agricultural sector. So, it is presenting a new alternative vision of what is possible.

Secondly, I think that they are getting the real issues around access to finance. What are some restrictions for financial institutions? What are some restrictions for young people?

And yet, at the same time, as some of the solutions to overcome these limitations - whether it comes to providing financial education, group creation model group finance, ways to send financed through mobile technology - it's a major problem.

We heard about the role the private sector can play in terms of creating and responding to market demand.

I just came from a meeting of the party organization called Harames, which is right here in South Africa, a very unique model that is all about understanding where the demand in the economy.

They showed in-depth analysis in order to map 680,000 jobs in South Africa over the agricultural sector and the vast majority of these jobs for students or young people who do not even need a basic level. So, what reveals that there is a chance - an opportunity not to be seen now, but it is here.

UWN: What is the role of higher education in capacity building in agriculture in particular? There is a need for substantial expansion of agricultural training, or other ways in which education can support the development of skills in this area?

Roy: I think that higher education has a very strong role on several levels.