“EVERYONE A CHANGEMAKER” Why Africa is Ripe for the Movement

Imagine a real-world “Metaverse”—an open and healthy space where people from all across the world come together with their ideas, perspectives and solutions to real-world problems, and work towards a shared vision: empower everyone to take part in creating a just, harmonious and prosperous world. At Ashoka, we are already creating that world and we invite you to join the “Everyone A Changemaker” movement. “Everyone A Changemaker” is not just a mantra. It is about taking responsibility for our lives and our shared destiny, birthing a new reality where every girl, boy, woman and man in Nigeria, in Africa and across the world plays a powerful and meaningful role in ways great and small. 

Stories of Young Changemaking

A child or a teenager who empathizes with a problem in her home, school or community, creates a solution to the problem, and builds a small team around spreading that solution is most likely to succeed and thrive in the new world. The child will grow up with the self-confidence, competence and resilience to take on greater challenges in the future and will inspire other young people to do same. Deborah from Ibadan, Nigeria, is the Founder of Save A Girl Africa. Growing up, Deborah always thought about the world outside herself and felt connected to her bigger purpose and how she could act on it through leading change. In her own words, “I want to leave everyone that I have met better than how I met them. I want them to begin to see possibilities in themselves, and begin to think of growth.” Marcus, a 13-year-old changemaker from Kenya, launched an e-learning platform to inspire young people like him to spend more time developing their unique skills and talents. Memory, a young Zambian, and her peers are advocating for people with albinism and activating others to create a safer and more inclusive society. 

The stories of young changemakers in Africa are as diverse as they are inspiring, and a common thread runs through them: the ability to deeply empathize with a problem, think differently and uniquely to create a solution to the problem, build a team around the solution where everyone plays an important role, and involve allies and partners who support the scaling of the solution for the good of all. The stories also show us that young people are not waiting until they become president or prime minister or hold a prominent position to start leading. They are already stepping up to lead, shape their own reality, and redefine what success means in the new world. 

Why Every African Should Be a Changemaker 

Africa has the potential to generate solutions that will outrun her problems. Happily, changemakers are already leading the way and showing that the Africa we want is possible. In fact, changemaking makes the most sense in Africa. We now live in a new reality, a new world radically different from the world of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The old reality was defined by routine, predictability, and efficiency in repetition. In some ways, Africa is still playing catchup in that old outdated reality, and could get stuck in it for decades unless we see our situation today as a historic moment and a unique opportunity to shift the continent into the new game of changemaking. For the same reason, Africa’s growth trajectory carries far greater potential for change than that of other regions of the world. And there’s a lot we can learn from what is already working successfully in other parts of the world. After 41 years of supporting over 3,600 social entrepreneurs in 93 countries, Ashoka has crystallized the elements of the new “Everyone A Changemaker” framework: Empathy, Co-creative Teamwork, New leadership, Team-of-teams, and combining all the above to practice Changemaking. 

As the COVID pandemic has shown, our world is now characterized by exponential change and massive disruption which require quick, strategic, and creative responses both collectively as a society and individually as citizens. Imagine that every girl, boy, woman and man in Africa masters empathy and owns their power as changemakers. Society thrives when we unleash the potential of individuals and communities to shape the environment they live in by taking creative action to solve social problems. “Everyone A Changemaker” movement is about unleashing that potential. At Ashoka, we believe that if everyone practices changemaking for the good of all, we can solve Africa’s most pressing challenges and create sustainable solutions. The roots of a widespread “Everyone A Changemaker” movement are already firmly grounded across Africa, from Nigeria to Kenya to South Africa and Senegal. 

Champions of the “Everyone A Changemaker” Movement

To mention a few examples, in Nigeria, Ashoka is building strong partnerships with young people and youth leaders, teachers’ unions (ANCOPSS), schools (NOUN), the media (TRACE, Voice of Nigeria, Radio Nigeria), publishers (Lantern Books, Nigerian Publishers Association), the government (Ministry of Education), changemaker companies (Nestle), civil society organizations, and citizens to champion the “Everyone A Changemaker” movement. We are building strong, growing fast, and stretching in a sustainable way to reach 20 million children and young people with the skills, tools and resources for changemaking by 2024. Our network of change-leading Ashoka Fellows, Young Changemakers, and Next Generation Leaders in partner organizations are organizing around six (6) metropolitan areas—Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kaduna, and Yola—to co-create products and solutions that will shift mindsets and spread the message far and wide. Ashoka cannot do it alone. Strategic national and pan-African partnerships are critical to building and sustaining the momentum. Working together, EVERYONE owning their power as changemakers, we all have a better chance of empowering over 200 million Nigerians and 1.3 billion Africans to take part in creating a just, harmonious and prosperous world.

Join the “Everyone A Changemaker” movement!