Two young Batswana have been invited to join the World Economic Forum on Africa Conference in Abuja, Nigeria commencing 7 May, 2014. Lebogang Maruapula and Tsholofelo Mokgoabone, members of the Global Shapers Community-Gaborone Hub, were invited to join this prestigious conference subtitled “Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs”.
The event is the 24th World Economic Forum on Africa and it will bring together regional and global leaders to discuss innovative structural reforms and investments that can sustain the continent’s growth while creating jobs and prosperity for all its citizens.
Early in 2014, the World Economic forum sent out a memo to all the Global Shapers Hubs around the world asking interested members to submit a 3 minute video addressing the question: How are you working to shape your community? Multitudes of applicants sent in their videos, leading to a deadline extension due to the overwhelming response. From those many, few were selected to join in the festivities in Abuja. Maruapula and Mokgoabone said they are excited and proud to represent young Batswana at such a crucial time in the nation’s history.
“Botswana’s development is Africa’s prosperity,” they said.
The two departed on Saturday, 3 May 2014, and have their first engagement- SHAPE Africa- on Monday, 5 May 2014. SHAPE Africa will precede the Forum on Africa as the youth oriented gateway to inform the youth voice at the bigger event. SHAPE is an annual regional meeting of Global Shapers from the African continent focused on building stronger international bonds and engaging shapers in catalytic partnerships with fresh ideas critical to the development in Africa. SHAPE Africa can be followed on shapeafrica2014.com, on twitter via #SHAPEAFRICA2014, or you can follow @GlobalShapersGC (Twitter) and Global Shapers Community Gaborone Hub (Facebook) for up-to-date info from Abuja.
Spokesperson for the Gaborone Hub, Katlego K Kolanyane-Kesupile, said she is hopeful that the example of excellence and commitment to service set by the two will inspire their peers to be Global Shapers in all walks of life. The Global Shapers Community is a worldwide network of Hubs developed and led by promising young leaders who want to build on their achievements and entrepreneurial drive to make a positive contribution to their communities. Nominated under the age of 30, Shapers form a multi-stakeholder community and come from a variety of backgrounds including business, government, civil society, journalism, social entrepreneurialism, arts and culture. The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum and is independent, neutral, non-political and not for profit.
