On the sidelines of the Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, a group of young people from across Africa and other parts of the world convened in Kigali for a round table meeting to discuss the role of youth in eliminating Neglected Tropical Diseases. Neglected Tropical Diseases are a group of preventable but debilitating infectious diseases which affect over 1.5 billion people in 149 countries.
The conversation was organised and curated by Future Africa Forum, with youth participants representing various sectors that include, policy; advocacy; innovation; media, water and sanitation health as well as philanthropy. One of the participants Ms. Christelle Kwizera, a 25 year old social entrepreneur from Rwanda who recently was the third prize winner in the Jack Ma, Netpreneur prize, spoke about the importance of access to clean water for individuals living in the areas where access is a challenge, as this is one of the leading causes of NTDs. She emphasised the importance of a systems approach to addressing the challenge and not just look at it from a single lens.
Dr. Ursin Bayisenge, a young healthcare professional and NTD advocate from Rwanda spoke about how NTDs are also neglected among health professionals who do not know of them, and how it is important that health professionals themselves are educated about the diseases and get to understand them better. He committed to working with and training young health professionals like himself about NTDs.
Phillip Chigiya from Zimbabwe, who was representing the Global Shapers Harare hub, challenged those present that this conversation should go beyond the conversation in the room and lead into actual action being taken by young people. He challenged the project implementers to see to it that this project is youth-led and youth-driven. The young people made it clear in the words of Jenny Njuki from Kenya, that “there should be nothing for the youth without the youth”.
The event attracted participants from Cameroon; Kenya; Rwanda; Tanzania; Zimbabwe; United Kingdom and USA as well as youth representatives from regional and local organisations that, include AU Youth Advisory Council member, Ms. Petrider Paul, who underscored the need for political buy-in and support at country and regional level in the successful fight against NTDs. The outcomes and recommendations from the event are being reviewed and will be used to inform the implementation of a youth-led initiative funded by Uniting to Combat NTDs, that is being launched in February 2020.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the Future Africa Forum.