Ubuntu Rising Centres Youth Leadership, Innovation and Employment in Africa’s Health Future

Country

South Africa

Pillar

Network Learning & Development

• Nine recommendations across leadership, innovation and employment emerged from over 80 young people at the first ever Ubuntu Rising

Ahead of the 18th World Congress on Public Health in Cape Town, South Africa, the Africa Health Collaborative (AHC) and the University of Cape Town (UCT), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, convened over 80 young health professionals, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, higher education leaders and partners for Ubuntu Rising. The event created space for young people to directly shape youth leadership, employment, and innovation in health.

Recognizing young people as key drivers of Africa’s health systems, participants put forward nine actionable recommendations to expand youth leadership, innovation and employment opportunities.

Leadership, Innovation and Employment at the Centre

The working sessions focused on three interconnected themes: leadership, innovation and employment in health.

The discussions took place against a striking employment and health workforce paradox. Figures from the Mastercard Foundation’s Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026, cited by Prof. Brandon Collier-Reed during the event, show that 90% of employed young Africans work in the informal economy, while only 10% of youth jobs are formal. 34% of employed young Africans live in households below the $2.15-a-day poverty line, and just 9% have completed tertiary education.

In health, the gap is equally significant. According to the WHO Regional Office for Africa’s Health Workforce Reports 2024 and 2025, also cited during Ubuntu Rising, Africa faces a shortage of 5.5 million health workers, while nearly one million trained health professionals are without meaningful work.

For Prof. Brandon Collier-Reed, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the University of Cape Town, this disconnect calls for a broader measure of progress:

From Participation to Influence

In her keynote address, Dr. Nathina Pakade, Public Health Medicine Registrar at the University of Cape Town and the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, reflected on the importance of building pathways that help young people move from potential to influence. She highlighted that meaningful participation is not simply about being present in the room, but about shaping what happens within it and creating systems where young people can enter, contribute, progress and lead.

Nine Recommendations for AHC’s Youth Agenda

Through collaborative discussions, participants developed nine recommendations to inform AHC’s future work on youth leadership, innovation and employment in health. These are:

Leadership:

• Build stronger connections to health policy and systems: Create learning and networking spaces that enable young people with technical expertise to better understand health policy and how health systems operate.
• Measure influence, not only participation: Assess youth leadership through its influence and system-level outcomes, rather than simply counting the number of young people trained or involved.
• Create institutions where young people can lead: Build institutional environments that nurture young leadership and give young people meaningful opportunities to contribute to decision-making.

Innovation:

• Embed innovation and entrepreneurship in education: Integrate leadership, problem-solving and entrepreneurship capabilities into existing higher education and training programmes rather than treating entrepreneurship as a standalone intervention.
• Build young innovators’ capacity: Develop structured capacity-building frameworks that equip young people to turn ideas into viable health innovations and entrepreneurial solutions.
• Open access to expertise and existing infrastructure: Connect young innovators to cross-disciplinary expertise and existing innovation infrastructure instead of creating disconnected structures.

Employment:

• Make skills more transferable across Africa: Harmonize curricula across the continent to support employment opportunities that cross borders.
• Create stronger pathways into dignified health employment: Advance policies that expand employment pathways, including paid and dignified health workforce internships, while strengthening young people’s participation in health policy and decision-making.
• Connect training to entrepreneurship and community needs: Embed entrepreneurship and a stronger understanding of community needs into curricula and training systems.

Participants also identified practical actions and opportunities for continued collaboration beyond Ubuntu Rising, providing a basis for translating the recommendations into action.

As host of the event, Prof. Tracey Naledi, Deputy Dean for Social Accountability and Health Systems at the University of Cape Town, reinforced AHC’s commitment to working with young people as co-creators in shaping Africa’s health future. She emphasized that the Collaborative seeks to move beyond consultation by creating opportunities for young people to increasingly take the lead in shaping solutions.

What is next?

The nine recommendations developed at Ubuntu Rising will now feed into the Africa Health Collaborative’s Youth Agenda, helping to ensure that young people’s perspectives inform the Collaborative’s programmes, partnerships and engagement with the wider health ecosystem.

Elevating Youth Innovations at WCPH 2026

Carrying the energy of Ubuntu Rising into the 18th World Congress on Public Health, the Africa Health Collaborative’s exhibition brought that vision to life—offering a collaborative space for young Africans to connect, build solutions, and access networks that scale their impact in health.

Visitors to the AHC booth engaged with four innovators: Nomahlubi Nompunga, who showcased Foi Science‘s health and skincare products; Katlego Motlogelwa, whose Connctd platform offers digital mental health and wellness support; Zacharia Mashishi, founder of Chief Ralekhudu Ventures, which repairs, services and manufactures assistive devices while supporting economic opportunities for people with disabilities; and Chris Meunier of Vas MedTech, which is working to improve uterine health care for women.

Alongside interactive demonstrations, the AHC booth featured a story wall highlighting six changemakers across the Collaborative’s network whose work addresses critical health and livelihood priorities:

• Veronica Ochieng: Developing MalReBay to strengthen the detection of antimalarial drug resistance.
• Michael Danquah: Building Ozone Prosthetics, leveraging 3D printing and robotics for low-cost prosthetic solutions.
• Peter Tonka: Building Tonitel, a digital health platform designed to streamline and digitize facility operations.
• Dr. Emmanuel Asrat Mekuria: Established Ethiopia’s first geriatric one-stop integrated clinic.
• Khanyisa Jacobs: Creating a safe space for men to seek health services early in South Africa
• Muzalema Mwanza: Advancing safe childbirth in Zambia with affordable birth kits.

Join us at the Africa Health Collaborative Annual Convening 2026 to continue the next phase of advancing young people’s role in Africa’s health future.