Since founding Rural Youths in Action (RUYAC) in 2020, my development practice has been rooted in a simple conviction: development must reach those whose opportunities are most constrained by where they live and the crises they face. RUYAC emerged amid the armed conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, where displacement, disrupted schooling and shrinking economic opportunities have placed rural young people—particularly girls—at heightened risk of exclusion.Working within this challenging context, I have helped translate development ideas into community-level action through education, skills development, youth and women’s empowerment, health, entrepreneurship, climate action and peacebuilding. For me, RUYAC represents development beyond theory: building human capabilities, restoring hope and enabling young people to become agents of change in their own communities.
Development challenges are complex and interconnected, and no individual or organisation can address them alone. Meaningful and sustainable development requires partnership—bringing together communities, governments, civil society, academia, development organisations and other stakeholders around shared goals.Through Rural Youths in Action (RUYAC), I have collaborated, and continue to build partnerships, with diverse stakeholders across the globe to mobilise knowledge, resources and opportunities in response to development challenges in Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. These collaborations reinforce my conviction that lasting development is built not in isolation, but through collective action, shared learning and locally grounded partnerships that place communities at the centre of change.
