Delivering a Common Future at CHOGM 2022

Aug 3, 2022

Last month, Paul Mwiti, Asante Africa Foundation, Director of Global Finance and Administration, from Kenya, attended The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022. Paul spent five days in Rwanda with our partners Prince’s Trust International (PTI) where he participated in lesson shared with other PTI partner organizations from the Commonwealth, attended three sessions about the future of business, interviewed with BBC news, and even met His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), 2022 brought together opinion and decision leaders from the Commonwealth on a global stage to share ideas and discuss the future of the young people and their role in shaping the future of the world. The year’s theme was ‘Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming’.

Asante Africa was invited to the event by the Prince’s Trust International (PTI) as one of the implementing partners. Other partners were from Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, and India.

There were five key objectives for the conference:

Lesson sharing on program challenges and areas of strength with the partner (PTI) and peers while creating contacts for future collaborations;
Understand the fundraising structure of peer organizations;
Core messages / thematic areas by mainstream funders such as Mastercard;
Assess the global positioning and relevance of our programs and implementation strategy with the broader conference theme; and,
Connect with prospective individuals and partners interested in our programs.

One of the most impactful sessions for Paul and Asante Africa was the “Future of Work”. In this fascinating session, he learned that in a survey among youths under the age of 30 years in different levels of education, entrepreneurship is the most popular career route. The future of work is shifting to leveraging digital transformation for entrepreneurship, young entrepreneurs creating sustainable businesses, and digital integration in education.

As a highlight, Paul had the opportunity to meet His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles. Prince Charles was interested in learning more about Asante Africa’s activities, impact, and sustainability of programs. He was deeply knowledgeable and passionate about the communities we serve.

At the end of the conference, Paul interviewed with BBC Africa. He talked about the digital transformation initiative, specifically during COVID-19. Click here to listen to his discussion.

“It’s humbling that we had the opportunity to interview on BBC News Africa and meet His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. But our real reason for going to Rwanda was to build upon and further our work of impacting the next generation of change-agents.” – Paul

To learn more about how Asante Africa is aligned with CHOGM’s Theme: “Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming”, click here:

View more photos of Paul’s time here