Where will you gain a lot of experience, leadership skills, and technical skills from different sectors if not from YouthMappers? My name is Gladys Adjei, YouthMappers Leadership Fellow and a member of the UCCYouthMappers chapter and I truly testify that YouthMappers is a global hub to build your capacity through mentorship programs and the opportunity to know of and access other good resources that you may never know existed in our various communities. It is a global organization for the youth to maximize their impact through voluntary service of mapping to close gaps in society.
Also, YouthMappers are grounded in positive development principles and practices, in which young people are not only active participants in learning but also work in partnership with other organizations to lead community development. I had the opportunity to attend the recent African Green Revolution Forum, 2019 in Accra, Ghana sponsored by the YouthLead from 3rd September through to 6th September. I acquired a lot of knowledge and insights from presentations and live panel discussions on the main theme of AGRF, 2019: leveraging digital transformation to drive sustainable food systems in Africa thus growing digital at the agriculture sector. Through the process of creating awareness of the importance engagement of the youth at the agricultural sector, I have gained confidence to communicate effectively.
Adding to the above stated, I have learned to use appropriate communication skills in order to build rapport with people as well as realized the importance of networking, sharing ideas and findings with different people from different sectors and organizations to achieve a common goal of growing the use of digital technologies in agriculture. I did not only love the excitement of learning simply for the sake of seeking something new such as the transformed potential of digital solutions for agriculture and policy measures to bring about a women-targeted technology revolution but understood growing digital not only at agricultural sector but in other sectors as well is the easiest breakthrough for Africans. To a large extent, this would be a boost for large production, youth employment, and create a solid foundation towards eradicating poverty in Africa to achieve some of the sustainable development goals.
During the conference I had access to a lot of information which confirmed that it is imperative that young women should not be underrepresented within agriculture. Due to the fact that women lack access to agricultural technologies, women's lower capital and insecure land rights, encouraging adoption of new technologies by women farmers and providing knowledge on these technologies and bring it to their doorsteps are the complimentary policies that if implemented will help maximize digitization among women farmers.
Moreover, attending the conference gave me the rare opportunity to meet people of higher prominence who have done great works of promoting revolution at the green sectors. Certainly, they sharing their experiences has given me the enthusiasm to brainstorm to come with ideas to do works that will also promote the engagement of the youth in agriculture in a more formalized method.
Gladys Adjei is a 2019 YouthMappers Leadership Fellow, a student of the University of Cape Coast, in Cape Coast, Ghana, and a member of the UCCYouthMappers chapter.