Kenya and Africa now have the opportunity to build dignity among its young people, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said.
Mudavadi said with the reality of diminishing availability of donor funding, it is time for the continent to use its resources more efficiently and end corruption in order to improve the lives of its people.
Speaking at the inaugural Africa Xchange meeting convened at a Nairobi hotel, Mudavadi reflected when he served as treasury minister in the early 1990s and noted that globe-trotting with a begging bowl was not dignifying.
“We need to look at this exercise of the diminishing donor funding as a moment for us to give dignity to the young men and women in our respective nations. They need respect. They need dignity,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi said that it is time for the continent to rededicate itself to the spirit of Harambee, not just the raising of funds but the pulling together of people for better tidings.
“We have lost what was the actual principle slogan “Harambee” that means pulling together, used by the Indian immigrants during the construction of the Kenya-Uganda railway at the time of the last century, we should go back to it,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi said what the administration in the US was putting in place would become very difficult to undo once they were done, and that it would take a very long cycle, perhaps it will take a couple of decades for some of those policy positions to be reversed if any.
In the context of this environment that is changing,he said whether it is the health, education sector or any other sector, Africa needs to re-look and place its priorities right.
“We need to talk to ourselves in our societies to realize that we all have to look internally,think, better work, better use our media resources more efficiently,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi said that the world is experiencing significant shifts, presenting challenges and opportunities that compel the continent to redefine how to empower communities across Africa.
For far too long, Mudavadi said Africa relied on donor-driven community support models that, though well-intentioned,reinforced dependency rather than promoting self-sufficiency.
“Africa has long been a recipient of philanthropic aid but the time has come for us to recognize that aid only provides temporary relief that is not sufficient to transform people’s lives,” said Mudavadi.
He said the cutback on aid bythe United States and the planned reduction in aid budgets by the United Kingdom and several European countries underscore the urgency of finding better ways to operate.
Mudavadi emphasized that while international support remains valuable, Africa must now leverage its ingenuity and partnerships to bridge the gap between its needs and available resources.
“Philanthropy must focus onlong-term strategies including building schools, financing innovation,supporting entrepreneurs, and creating an ecosystem for Africa to thrive fromwithin. It should collaborate with development institutions to scale up funding to enable Africans to create, innovate, and lead in this new digital age,” said Mudavadi.
He noted that Kenya and Africa must invest more in its youth, who constitute over 70 percent of Africa’s population because they were the architects, disrupters, and builders of a more prosperous Africa.
Collaboration between governments and stakeholders he noted presented a great opportunity for enhancing the dreams of Africa’s youthful population by deepening their access to capital, mentorship, and markets.
“Philanthropy can fill the void left by dwindling foreign aid and build ladders of opportunity for our youth to transition from job seeking to creating jobs. It must focus on enabling long-term economic resilience through funding for youth mentorship programs, tech incubators, and skills training aligned with future jobs,” he said.
Philanthropic work in Africa, Mudavadi said, must look at a number of issues including the high cost of administration, and should streamline operations to increase funds flow to community activities at the grassroots and invest in local enterprises, which will create wealth and reduce aid dependency.
“Transparency, accountability,and community involvement must become the cornerstones of modern philanthropy.Governments, private sector partners, and funders must work together to cut waste and ensure that every dollar delivers maximum impact to the target beneficiaries,” said Mudavadi.
