Awareness: Action-Oriented Economic Re-Education that Prioritizes the Black Experience
Alumni-Led NYU African Unification Gala with DIFFvelopment CEO as Keynote Speaker
On Sunday, April 21st, DIFFvelopment CEO, Esi Kagale Agyeman Gillo, acted as the keynote speaker at the NYU Association for African Development’s inaugural Unification Gala. This invitation came about thanks to 2021 DIFFvelopment Consultrepreneurship Alum, Emanuel Agbavitor, current NYU senior and Association for African Development Vice President. She spoke to a room of 100 African students about the true meaning of unification and dug into what steps each of them can take to foster a more unified, and therefore more successful, global Black community. Esi shared the stage with a diverse set of live performers and Ethiopian Airlines, who sponsored a raffle for a free trip to anywhere in Africa where they do business.
In her opening, Esi shared that the need for African unification is not new, emphasizing that it has been spoken about for generations by musicians, activists, and politicians alike. Quoting Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, and Kwame Nkrumah, she raised the point that “this need for unification, from generation to generation, stems from the wounds that we all secretly, and all too often publicly, suffer from as a result of Africa’s ongoing dismantling.”
She went on to challenge the students to think through some of the major shortcomings of their African forefathers—shortcomings that set the stage for disunification—all the way from Axum in the 7th century to the peak of the Atlantic Slave Trade in the 1600s. She highlighted that “Despite being one thousand years apart, the same mistakes were made: challenges were imminent, yet leaders failed to do that which needed to be done to prevent them.”
In her closing remarks, she encouraged them to be part of fostering African unification. Her advice spanned leveraging technology to work with others across the global Black community—to redefine what unification means in this present time—and educating themselves on what it has meant in the past and what it could look like in the future. She argued that “Through this lens, you can begin to leverage your knowledge, power, and faith, to build relationships and opportunities that disrupt the status quo of Black disunification, through creative and impactful entrepreneurial endeavors that solve real problems in our global community—doing so in ways that set new and higher world standards for ethical, humane and dignified economics.”
Photos (clockwise): Images 1 & 4: CEO delivering keynote speech; Image 2: CEO with ’21 DIFFvelopment Alum, Emanuel Agbavitor; Image 3: DIFFvelopment Co-Founders
Advancement: Activated & Hungry to Effect Change
DIFFvelopment Partners with Nigerian Alum’s Cyber-Centered Organization to Deliver Joint Programming
In April, DIFFvelopment partnered with 2022 DIFFvelopment Consultrepreneurship Alum, Sa’ad Abdulkarim’s startup, Digital Cyberworld LLP to deliver joint programming to 100 Nigerian youth who are eager to gain digital literacy to improve their entrepreneurial prospects. Through this partnership, DIFFvelopment sponsored and made it possible for 100 Nigerian youth to gain digital, financial, and entrepreneurial skills by participating in Digital Cyberworld LLP’s prompt engineering programming, followed by DIFFvelopment’s Black Generational Wealth Program that educates on the causes and impact of the Black-White wealth and employment gaps, what generational wealth is and how to build it through intentional financial planning, the viability of entrepreneurship as a career option, and how to develop, incorporate and launch a community-minded business concept.
Digital Cyberworld LLP currently teaches affiliate marketing and prompt engineering to ambitious Nigerian youth, seeking to create their own opportunities in an otherwise precarious job market. Sa’ad is passionate about the power digital learning has to uplift this community and shared that “The importance of learning prompt engineering is that without learning, some people may not know that AI can adopt personalities and give answers according to that personality, or that a certain delimiter may influence the outcome of your prompts.”
Shortly after completing the 10-week 2022 DIFFvelopment Consultrepreneurship program—through which he conceptualized Digital Cyberworld LLP, Sa’ad registered the business, taking advantage of DIFFvelopment’s incorporation fee sponsorship opportunity, open to all program alumni. Less than two years later, he is attracting the interest of hundreds of ambitious Nigerian youth who are enthusiastic to take advantage of his teachings.
To date, Digital Cyberworld LLP has worked with approximately 500 young people, all of whom, Sa’ad proudly shared “have been empowered to explore freelancing, delve into affiliate marketing, mentor others, and even commercialize artwork generated through AI.” In addition to exploring how else we may partner in the future, Sa’ad is actively pursuing other opportunities to expand his programming to include Generative AI and help keep his offerings free to the young people he serves.
This effort is monumental, not only because it is the first time DIFFvelopment has partnered with an alum’s business but also because it was facilitated by fellow 2022 Alum and DIFFvelopment Africa Programs Administrator, Abubakar Sani Abdullahi. We look forward to building more bridges with program alumni for community advancement!
Transformation: Developing Their World DIFFerently
New Program Launch Underway: Council on Global Black Development
In November 2024, DIFFvelopment will launch its very first think tank program, Council on Global Black Development (CGBD), purposed to examine and provide solutions to the psychological, political and economic problems that have plagued the Black world for too long.
The CGBD will give young Black researchers the opportunity to reimagine the Black world’s trajectory through solutions-based research and high-profile symposiums that call on entities and persons of influence to leverage their power to bring CGBD produced ideas to fruition. The 2024-2025 research topic is The Impact of Generational Trauma on the Global Black Community’s Economies. The research objectives are to determine the extent to which generational trauma has played a part in the global Black community’s economic stagnation and provide possible solutions to address this trauma individually and collectively. The full research proposal can be found here: 2024-2025 CGBD Research Proposal.
We invite undergraduate, graduate and Black visionary thinkers from around the world—who are committed to leading the charge in actualizing sustainable Black empowerment—to apply for consideration to be a part of our council where they will produce research-based plans of action for the advancement of Black people everywhere.
We are actively seeking mutually beneficial partnerships with research and corporate institution leaders that value group trajectory-shifting research efforts. Examples of how we aim to partner, include but are not limited to, providing high-level research supervision and playing a key role in Africa-based symposium sponsorship and influencer participation. Such partnerships will help us to develop executable research that is well received by influential business, philanthropic and political leaders who are prepared to turn our researchers’ Black-benefitting recommendations into reality.
To express partnership interest, fill out this form: https://diffvelopment.org/contact-us/!
To apply to be one of our researchers, submit this application: https://diffvelopment.org/cgbd-application/!
Learn More About DIFFvelopment
- To get a full 360 view of our impact, check out our 2023 Annual Report!
- Check out our new organizational deck that links to overviews of all three of our programs.
Organizational Updates
- DIFFvelopment CEO and Chair participated in alma mater’s scholarship fund event, honoring visionary professor and academic administrator, Ruth Simmons
- DIFFvelopment CTO participated in Santander’s grantee community reception
Fundraising Progress
- DIFFvelopment received a $100,000 grant from Experian to support its Black Generational Wealth Program and Online Resource Center. We sincerely thank Experian for their continued, growing support.
- DIFFvelopment received a grant of $5,000 from RBC to support its eighth annual flagship summer Consultrepreneurship program. We sincerely thank RBC for their continued support.
How You Can Support Our Efforts
- If our work resonates with you, we invite you to invest in our growth so we can empower more aspiring Black visionaries to develop their world differently through personal, generational and communal wealth building.
- Fill out our Professional Mentorship & Fundraising Collective Enrollment Form and let us know how you’d like to get involved with DIFFvelopment.