The Mastercard Foundation has announced a commitment of $100 million in support of efforts to address youth unemployment in Rwanda.

The commitment is part of the foundation's new Young Africa Works strategy, which is aimed at reducing poverty across the continent by helping thirty million African youth, especially young women, secure meaningful jobs. Building on its work in Africa over the past decade to boost access to education and financial inclusion, the foundation will partner with governments, businesses, and organizations to design solutions tailored to each country's unique economic needs and goals.

In Rwanda, the foundation has pledged a total of $100 million to two programs — Hanga Ahazaza ("Create the Future"), a five-year, $50 million initiative, and Leaders in Teaching. A partnership between the Mastercard Foundation and Cornell University, Dalberg, GIZ, GroFin, Harambee, Horwath HTL, I&M Bank Rwanda, Inkomoko, and Vatel Rwanda, Hanga Ahazaza aims to equip thirty thousand young Rwandans with the communications and digital literacy skills they need to take advantage of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the country's burgeoning tourism and hospitality sector.

The Leaders in Teaching initiative, a continent-wide effort, is aimed at supporting teachers — who often work in poor conditions in underresourced schools for inadequate pay — as a way to improve secondary education outcomes and expand opportunities for youth. As part of the initiative, Centres for Innovative Teaching and Learning will seek to address key challenges across the continent, while country-level programs will focus on strengthening teacher recruitment, training, school leadership, and professional development. In Rwanda, the program will work to boost teachers' science, math, and information and communication technology knowledge and teaching skills, help head teachers create positive instructional environments, and recruit young people to the profession, with the goal of benefiting at least two hundred and fifty thousand secondary school students.

"Youth unemployment in Africa is the issue of our time," said Mastercard Foundation president and CEO Reeta Roy. "Together, we have an extraordinary opportunity to shape the future and increase prosperity for all. In fact, young people are leading the way. Let's support their aspirations for their communities and their countries."