Réduit, 23 January 2021: The three best community-based projects implemented by the participants who followed the training on leadership under the National Leadership Engine (NLE) initiative were awarded in the presence of the Prime Minister, Honorable Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, at the NLE Convention on Saturday at the Octave Wiéhé Auditorium, Réduit.
The three best projects were as follows:
Winner: Shelter pou ene meyer lamer (Souillac Youth Centre – The project aims at providing a helping hand to combat the degrading marine ecosystem)
First Runner Up: Donn li so coco (Mahébourg Youth Centre – The project is about producing pots based on coconut shells as a substitute for normal plastic pots for plant potting purposes.)
Second Runner Up: ZEN Mental Health (Flacq Youth Centre – The project is about advocating about mental health as a vital element of overall health and wellbeing)
The NLE project, that culminated with the Convention, aims at developing a pipeline of leaders who will act as agents of positive change in the Mauritian society. The convention was attended by several hundreds of youths who had participated in the NLE project.
The Prime Minister, who was the Chief Guest at the function, urged young Mauritians to go towards entrepreneurship and use their innovative ideas for the betterment of the society and economic development.
“We know that one of the concerns of our youth today is employment. The government will surely create some employment but it is the private sector that creates most employment. Nevertheless, we encourage our young people to take up entrepreneurial activities, which is the path towards economic progress. It is for this reason that we are setting up incubators to help young entrepreneurs,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
He encouraged the youth to learn from the experience of our elders and make out the most of the opportunities being offered by the government. The Prime Minister also press on the youth to take good care of their health through physical activities and not to compromise with their health over other activities.
“The development of a productivity mindset for the development of our society through our youth has always been on the top of our agenda. Our country is facing social, technological, sanitary and environmental challenges. We will work together with the youth to face those challenges," the Executive Director of the NPCC, Mr. Ashit Gungah, said in his welcome note. He also announced that the NPCC will set up the NLE Action Drivers (NLEAD) in different regions and the participants will be members of these networks. They will work on projects related to agriculture, poverty alleviation, mobile pharmacy and a platform for unemployed low skill workers.
Some 40 projects that involved more than 300 youth, were successfully implemented in NLE 2020. Former team leaders of NLE 2019 participated in NLE 2020 as co-trainers. The projects focused on issues in the participants’ respective communities, for which they had to come up with sustainable solutions and through the whole project demonstrate their abilities and leadership skills.
NLE 2020 project has been implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Recreation. Following the success of NLE 2019, a refresher course was conducted for above 50 NLE trainers and co-trainers on the 28 and 29 February 2020.
The training of participants started on the 11 July in nine Youth Centres and at the NPCC. It consisted of 12 sessions in total with six sessions dedicated to develop personal competence, social competence, leadership, innovation and creativity, critical thinking and problem solving and project management and six sessions for working in teams to develop and implement a community project.
The NLE project aims at building leadership capabilities among youth in Mauritius. The NLE is based on the “Leadership Brand”, developed by the NPCC with various stakeholders in 2015. It consists of four differentiators: Together, Innovating, Trusted and Excellence. The project is the first of its kind in Mauritius and strongly involves the present generation of our people to learn and adopt leadership skills, which will in turn have a positive impact on our economy and society as a whole. The overall aim of the project is to influence the youth of today to emerge as self-confident leaders in the Mauritius of the future, thus creating a new breed of leaders at all levels, who can operate seamlessly in the public and private sectors and civil society.
NLE Convention in the media
500 jeunes formés dans le leadership (MBC News Bulletin - 23.01.21)
Emploi Pravind Jugnauth encourage les jeunes à lancer des start-ups (Le Défi Web - 23.01.21)
Le PM encourage les jeunes à se maintenir en bonne santé (ION News - 23.01.21)
NPCC Award Ceremony PM exhorts youth to avail of facilities put at their disposal (GIS - 23.01.21)
Cérémonie de remise des prix du NPCC Le PM exhorte les jeunes à profiter des facilités mises à leur disposition (Minority Voice - 24.01.21)
Pravind Jugnauth aux jeunes Nous sommes à l'écoute (Weekend - 24.01.21)
Pravind Jugnauth Encourager les startup (5 Plus - 24.01.21)
Sunil Bholah Le pays a plus que jamais besoin de la jeunesse mauricienne (Wazaa FM - 24.01.21)
Le NPCC récompense les meilleurs projets (Maurice Info - 24.01.21)
National Leadership Engine 2020 Le NPCC récompense les meilleurs projets (Inside News - 24.01.21)
Cérémonie de remise des prix de la National Leadership Engine Convention 2020 (Le Mauricien- 25.01.21)
Cérémonie de remise des prix du NPCC: Le Premier ministre félicite les participants pour leur créativité (Maurice Actu - 25.01.21)
National Leadership Engine: Donner une nouvelle impulsion à l'économie grâce à l'entrepreneuriat (Business Mag - 10.02.21)
Les jeunes entrepreneurs à l'honneur (Weekend - 21.02.21)
Ashit Gungah, Executive Director du NPCC "Influencer les jeunes d'aujourd'hui pour qu'ils deviennent des leaders du futur" (ION News 25.02.21)