Charlene Ruto’s powerful speech selling bottom-up to African leaders in Morocco

President William Ruto’s daughter, Charlene Ruto stole the show at the MeDays Forum in Tangier Morocco when she took to the stage to champion the bottom-up economic model adopted and popularized by her father.

The president’s daughter was the highlight of the day, being the last one to give her speech at the forum that brought African leaders.

In her speech, Charlene appealed to African leaders to invest in sustainable strategies “for the next generation through a bottom-up approach to creating better outcomes for children and youth will kick start the pan-African dream of realizing shared prosperity for all”.

She noted that the cherished pan-African dream is built on the promise of “upward social mobility for all,” adding that the model would also promote Africa’s free trade policy.

"Restoring higher levels of pan-African social mobility will be among the most important political, social and economic challenges.

"The longer we wait to address the issue, the more tumultuous our politics will become," Charlene explained.

Charlene Ruto speaking at the MeDays Forum Pulse Live Kenya

She noted that with the continent grappling with high levels of unemployment and poverty, the model, if adopted by African leaders, would be a game-changer that will help the youth transition from living below the poverty line to attaining a decent middle-class level of living within a reasonably short time.

In her speech, Charlene also reiterated former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s rallying call to African leaders to provide home-grown solutions to the continent’s challenges during the 2014 Africa Sustainability Transport Forum (ASTF), Ministerial Conference.

"The time to act is now. The question is, who will lead the effort to expand and actualize these pan-African strategies? The simple answer to this is, it is us, the pan-African youth present today," Charlene added.

She noted that African leaders have what it takes to turn the continent’s challenges into new opportunities for growth by coming up with imaginative and innovative homegrown solutions.

The 14th edition of the MEDays ran from November 02-05 in Tangier, Morocco and brought together leaders from across the globe.