Antony Karanja from The Youth Café in conversation with Katie Hyson from Business Fights Poverty about his ambitions to connect young people to positive futures. From tackling poverty and inequality to accessing education and building resilience.

At The Youth Café we believe in African solutions to African problems. We see the population of 845 million youth as a great resource not just to the continent but also to the globe. We have 845 million reasons to work with them! The Youth Café works with young men and women in Kenya and around Africa to foster community resilience, propose innovative solutions, drive social progress, youth empowerment and inspire political change. Young people are a tremendous and essential asset worth investing in. We hope to open the door to an unparalleled multiplier effect as our message spreads.

Recently during the world bank spring meetings there was a theme on Economic Recovery: Toward a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Future. The president of the World Bank Group, David Malpass highlighted some of the problems that the World is experiencing during this period in time. Among them was rising poverty and inequality. In October 2020, data from the World Bank Group indicated that by this year Covid-19 would have pushed about 150 million people into extreme poverty. The data goes to show that 8 of 10 of the “world new poor” would be from middle income countries.

Covid-19 has totally ravaged the poor and has pulled more people into abject poverty. Studies show that most of the countries that could have the deepest, long-lasting impact of COVID-19, with the exception of Venezuela and Yemen, they are all in Africa.

Tune in to learn more about the emerging trends of poverty in Africa and how The Youth Café devises strategies like our Theory of Change to help curb the issues of poverty and empower youth in Africa.