GBY End of Year Event: The Youth Dividend

DECEMBER 12, 2019 | HARRY FRANK GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

In an intimate meeting held in New York, Global Black Youth convened professionals from the private, public and third sectors to discuss the Youth Dividend. Drawing on their work and experiences, GBY Co-Founders, Niousha Roshani and Nyeleti Honwana discussed the importance of harnessing the talent and ingenuity of young Black people. From Africa, The Caribbean and Latin America, to the United States, Europe and even in the Middle East and Pacific Afro-descendents are rethinking and asserting their place in the world. They are global thinkers acting locally and hungry to connect to their counterparts in other regions of the world. From social movements, to health, economic and digital innovations, they are thought leaders whose untapped potential has the power to enact large scale systemic change.

Opening remarks, by Neil Gordon, Global Black Youth Strategic Advisor, touched upon the importance of the current moment. Saying in part that the time has come to call upon a Pan-African tradition to unify Black people of the world in their collective home: The African continent. The evening was both a retrospective of GBY’s activities to date and an unveiling of upcoming initiatives, including the inaugural Global Black Youth Fest (2021), the launch of the Global Black Youth Fellowship (2021), the creation of the Global Black Youth Sustainable Development Goals Working Groups (2021) and the establishment of the Global Black Youth Webinar Series (2020).