The African Democracy Forum in partnership with Never Again Rwanda, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy on Africa Day (25th May 2018), launched a competition dubbed “African Image Youth Competition”. African young people were asked to share challenges to governance in their respective countries, not limited to issues in education, infrastructure, gender parity, social justice among so many others, using images and or videos.
Entries for the competition closed on July 15th, 2018 (the competition ran for a month) during which time 21 applications were received from 7 African countries namely: Democratic Republic of Congo; Kenya; Madagascar; Malawi; Morocco; Rwanda and Zambia. In the end, five winners were chosen and they were from Madagascar, Malawi, and Rwanda.
The five winners were treated to a 2-day study tour at the African Union Department of Political Affairs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Participants the opportunity to reflect on a few pictures they took with messages:
“The photograph shows a truck carrying migrants departing from the northern region of Senegal. Illegal migration is one of the biggest problems that Africa as a continent is facing because young Africans only see hope for a good life outside their homeland of Africa. Yet, young people are the potential that could help Africa rise up, and have a bright future.” – Jean Luc Habimana – Rwanda
In the Andranofasika rural municipality in eastern Madagascar, “The photograph shows that access to drinking water has always been and remains a big problem for Madagascar.” – Tiana Randrianarison – Madagascar