The theme of the 3rd biennial Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa conference from the 18th-21st August 2011 conference is : "Spotlight on Africa : Youth Owning the Continent’s Development Wave."

As the second largest continent in the world, Africa has the largest population of youth. At the dawn of a new era of economic revival key stakeholders agree that youth participation is vital for Africa’s development to occur. The cause for youth empowerment has become so imperative that the Heads of State and Governments of the African Union have given special priority to youth development at the African Union Summit in July 2011 with the theme ’Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development.’ At YALDA, we also believe in inspiring, motivating, and empowering young Africans from different ethnicities, religions and cultures to not only effect positive change in their own lives, but to also create a platform for peaceful co-existence and mutual beneficial exchange of ideas that will lead to remarkable improvement in livelihood and harness development in communities. YALDA, is truly a youth organization BY AFRICANS, FOR AFRICA !

We invite you to join us at this year’s YALDA conference to understand what are the driving force behind Africa’s growth is, but most importantly how can Africa’s youth be both contributors and beneficiaries of it. The conference will consist of three major parts : informative panel sessions ; skills enhancement workshops and organized visits to sites to various youth-led development projects and businesses in Gaborone, Botswana. These panels and workshops will be facilitated by prominent professionals, youth leaders and organizations from a myriad of fields.