“It’s not just building up the youth, but going beyond that to create tangible opportunities for young people,’’ the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador said during the inaugural TIME100 Summit Africa during a panel titled “Building a Better Future.”
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Today has been indeed a very successful day.
00:03 We've had very intentional and impact-centered conversation.
00:06 And now we are going to look at how do we build a better future,
00:11 but now with the young people at the heart of it all.
00:15 When you look at statistics,
00:17 about 40% of the global population will be made up of young people by 2030.
00:22 I think I'll just start by getting views from each one of you.
00:26 How do you think we should empower as well as encourage them
00:31 in order for them to be at the front and center when it comes...
00:35 On that and create tangible opportunities for upward mobility.
00:38 Because it's not enough to just have youths be represented.
00:42 It's important for us to be able to have paths into the future
00:46 to forge and open even more doors than ever before.
00:49 So how to unwind our silence.
00:52 I think for me, that is actually very deep
00:54 because especially young people within different cultures
00:57 here within the African continent, we are silenced.
01:00 Fred, we can start with you.
01:02 Yes, so I kind of agree with Emi that for me,
01:06 it's not about empowering young people.
01:09 Right?
01:10 Because youth empowerment,
01:16 it almost sounds like they're helpless
01:19 and that young people in Africa don't have agency.
01:23 And I think that in my experience,
01:29 what we need to do is actually build confidence in young people
01:32 so that they can take their rightful place
01:36 without necessarily needing permission from others.
01:40 So if you look at what the Nigerians have done with music,
01:44 it's young people who have...
01:46 They didn't ask anyone for permission.
01:48 They just stepped into their place
01:50 and today you see the revolution that has happened.
01:52 So I think we've had a cultural problem in Africa,
01:57 which is that we have too much deference for age.
02:03 And, you know, very often they say,
02:07 "Oh, you know, you're too young to do this.
02:10 You're too young to do that.
02:11 You know, you're a small boy.
02:13 You're a small girl.
02:15 Wait until you grow up."
02:16 And the fact is we are a young continent.
02:19 So you cannot be an effective government
02:23 if you don't serve your largest constituency,
02:26 which is 60% of the population,
02:28 is young people below the age of 30.
02:30 You know, you cannot be an effective corporation
02:33 if you don't understand that 60% of your customers
02:36 are below the age of 30, right?
02:39 So it's in your interest as a government, as a company,
02:44 as any player on the African continent
02:48 to understand that this segment
02:51 is actually your most important stakeholder.
02:57 And that, you know, you're not doing them a favor
03:01 by giving them a seat at the table.
03:04 You're actually, you know, giving them the rightful space.
03:10 And it's also, you know, really a chance to see
03:15 that young people are the solution
03:21 to many of this continent's problems.
03:23 Because young people are more innovative.
03:25 They're more optimistic. They're more energetic.
03:28 They are more facile with all the technologies
03:31 that exist today.
03:32 You know, older folks don't know how to use AI.
03:35 They don't know how to use all these technologies
03:36 that are going to solve our problems on the continent, right?
03:39 So we need to flip it from thinking about young people
03:42 as a problem to the greatest opportunity
03:44 that this continent has.
03:45 - Indeed, it is a young continent.
03:47 And we'll actually come back to what you've actually
03:50 pointed out on how do we bridge the intergenerational gap,
03:54 especially when it comes to even leadership in itself.
03:57 Aya, what do you think are some of the efforts
04:00 that should be put in place in order for young people
04:02 to take central role when it comes to both economic
04:04 and social development?
04:07 - Okay, can you hear me now? Great.
04:11 I'll pick up from what Fred said around the cultural
04:15 revolution, the revolution in music.
04:17 Everything cool now is Afro, right?
04:18 To the political revolution.
04:21 Because I agree, we don't need to empower young people
04:24 because they have been leading revolutions
04:27 and have been part of one in my country, Tunisia in 2010.
04:31 But I think young people are misunderstood.
04:34 And that's what we need to do to support them.
04:36 Just understand where they come from
04:38 and why they want change and how they do change
04:41 and what sort of activism that they're carrying.
04:44 Because I think access to knowledge without access
04:49 to opportunity is access to frustration.
04:52 And a lot of young people take to the street today
04:54 because no one listens and because they're frustrated.
04:58 Tunisia is probably the top 10 African countries
05:01 with the highest literacy, university system.
05:06 So the rebels or the revolutionaries in the streets
05:10 are young graduates and young student graduates.
05:14 The 7,000 Tunisians who were recruited in Daesh in 2013,
05:19 among them my cousin who was an engineer,
05:22 they are engineers and teachers, right?
05:24 But you have the knowledge and you are in a context
05:29 where you are frustrated because you have no choice
05:31 between armed groups and dying in the Mediterranean.
05:35 And I think that's where access to knowledge
05:37 without access to opportunity is access to frustration.
05:39 So if we don't understand the drive of young people
05:43 to do change and then channel that frustration
05:46 into the positive change that we all want to push for,
05:51 we will continue to see cycles of youth
05:54 getting frustrated and doing uprisings.
05:56 And we shouldn't complain as governments
05:58 about why young people are on the streets
06:00 because you're not listening.
06:02 Sometimes violence is a language to make you listen
06:07 to what I actually need.
06:08 And I mean, I worked in the African Union
06:10 as the youth envoy and all I hear from young people
06:14 is I can die, especially in COVID-19.
06:17 I was between 2018 and 2021 and I can die of COVID-19,
06:21 I can die of hunger or I can die in the Mediterranean.
06:23 I do not enjoy basic human rights as a young person.
06:26 So I think as we talk about opportunities,
06:28 which is in jobs and skills,
06:30 employment, training and education,
06:32 it's also the opportunity to be.
06:35 Just like you said,
06:36 young people are the opportunity themselves.
06:38 They're not waiting for opportunity
06:40 or creating opportunities.
06:41 And I think that recognition
06:44 that young people themselves are the opportunity,
06:46 they have that agency Fred is talking about,
06:49 they have that power that Emmy is talking about
06:51 is the starting point to understand
06:55 why are we having this population
06:58 that is buzzing with hunger for change?
07:01 The second thing I think is to answer to them
07:05 the contradiction of the continent.
07:07 Why are we the youngest population in the world?
07:10 Better educators, the coolest,
07:12 the most innovative, the digital power,
07:16 the numbers, if young people vote together,
07:20 the voting power, they can vote anyone in and anyone out.
07:23 And yet the most unemployed, the most displaced,
07:26 the refugee, the migrants have a youth base.
07:29 Why are we nourishing European economies
07:32 and not able to feed ourselves?
07:33 Why we have the natural resources
07:34 and we have the human resources?
07:36 And these are questions I discuss
07:38 with young people every day grapple with.
07:41 Why are we not getting the justice that we deserve?
07:44 And I think once we start fixing government,
07:47 once we start fixing leadership,
07:49 we can answer to youth on these contradictions we're facing.
07:53 I would just finish
07:55 with the intergenerational aspect you brought.
07:59 Which is something I worked on.
08:01 My whole mandate was to convince heads of states
08:03 and governments of intergenerational co-leadership.
08:06 Because 64 is average age of African leaders
08:09 and 20 is average age of the population.
08:12 So if we're honest with ourselves,
08:13 we have a generation crisis, not only a gap.
08:16 Only 3% of the population is over 60.
08:20 So if we're not dealing with the transition of power,
08:24 if we're not recruiting youth into public service,
08:27 if we're not creating the enabling environment
08:30 for creation of jobs,
08:32 if we're not investing in youth startups,
08:33 if we're not creating the infrastructure,
08:35 this gap of generation will continue to widen.
08:39 And the only way forward is that co-leadership.
08:42 I'm not even talking about youth and negotiation table
08:44 and youth and decision making.
08:45 I'm only talking about just the right of diversity,
08:49 which we were talking about backstage.
08:52 Just the right to be in the room as a young person.
08:55 So I would say intergenerational co-leadership,
08:58 a way to not empower, as we decided not to use that word,
09:03 but a way to really recognize the agency of young people,
09:07 that they have the right to be themselves.
09:09 - From everything that you just said,
09:11 young people are the opportunity.
09:13 And looking at the gap that is there
09:16 even within the intergenerational gap in itself,
09:19 I think it all goes and stems from leadership,
09:22 and good leadership for that matter.
09:25 Fred, I want to bring it in.
09:26 What role do you see good leadership playing,
09:29 especially when it comes to creating opportunities
09:31 for young people?
09:33 How can we foster ethical and entrepreneurial leaders
09:37 within the African continent to be able to step up
09:41 and actually take a seat at the table?
09:43 - Well, firstly, I think the wise political leaders
09:49 in Africa will actually leverage young people
09:53 to drive development.
09:54 So Rwanda is a good example of that.
09:57 Remember, I remember the first time I met
10:02 President Kagame at international forums,
10:05 maybe 10, 15 years ago,
10:08 and he would show up with all these young people around him.
10:10 They were his staff.
10:11 The head of his, his chief of staff, all his advisors,
10:17 some of the ministers in this country are very young.
10:20 Right?
10:21 And so a lot of the development that you see in this country
10:24 has been driven by young people, right?
10:26 And so when you look at the success story
10:29 that you see in Rwanda,
10:30 it's because young people have been taken seriously.
10:32 They've been given opportunities, right?
10:33 So I think leaders need to realize that, as I said,
10:38 a lot of their problems that they face
10:42 will be solved by engaging young people, right?
10:44 And to enable young people
10:50 to develop their leadership skills,
10:53 we believe in the African issue group
10:55 that three things need to come together.
10:57 First is you need to obviously invest in
11:01 identifying people who have potential, right?
11:06 People who are extra, they have an extra dose of passion,
11:09 of imagination, of courage and resilience.
11:11 People who can really drive change, right?
11:14 Find them, nurture them.
11:15 Second thing is you have to develop that,
11:17 develop the talent, right?
11:19 And this comes from education, skills development,
11:22 but also practice.
11:24 You learn how to be a leader by being a leader.
11:26 You don't learn how to be a leader
11:28 by sitting in a classroom.
11:29 So they must be given real chances to lead,
11:32 whether it's in a community, it's in a school, it's in a,
11:35 we have to even reimagine the entire education system.
11:39 Today, most education is focused on the teacher
11:43 as the person who has the power
11:44 and the students just sit and listen
11:46 and they absorb knowledge.
11:48 But young people need to be teaching.
11:51 They need to be teaching themselves.
11:52 They need to be teaching each other as peers.
11:55 They need to be teaching the teacher
11:57 because many young people today know more than the teacher
12:00 with technology and everything, right?
12:01 So you need to, and you then start to build
12:04 the confidence and the practice at a very early age, right?
12:08 That then allows you to do bigger and bigger things
12:10 later on.
12:11 And then finally, you need to give people opportunities,
12:14 right, to practice this leadership.
12:16 So, you know, mentoring them, hiring them,
12:20 investing in their businesses.
12:22 There should be a youth investment bank in every country
12:27 that invests in young business, young entrepreneurs,
12:30 and there should be a requirement that every company
12:35 should have a certain fraction of its workforce
12:37 and leadership as people, as young people, right?
12:41 So these are deliberate ways in which young leadership
12:45 can be nurtured and not just left to chance.
12:49 And if we do that, you'll find that many innovative ideas
12:54 enter government, they enter private sector,
12:56 and the country will start to change,
12:58 and Africa will actually capture its full potential
13:02 because the gold in Africa lies in the young people.
13:07 We need to start mining that gold.
13:08 - From what you said, just even got me thinking about
13:12 then how do we involve young people who face adversities?
13:16 For example, Amy, you've traveled to refugee camps,
13:20 you've worked on various humanitarian projects.
13:23 What do you think should be done in order to integrate
13:27 the different young people who do not have
13:29 these opportunities that we're talking about
13:31 into the narrative of building a better future
13:35 for the African continent?
13:36 - Thank you so much.
13:38 I think it's really beautiful listening to
13:42 what you have to say, and I think that, you know,
13:45 what's really hard for me is that if you stand outside
13:50 of the continent, people believe that the entire continent
13:54 is facing adversity.
13:56 And so what's very interesting to me,
13:58 especially as someone who, myself,
14:00 I'm an indigenous woman, indigenous African woman,
14:02 I'm a former refugee, I was just in the camps in Cameroon
14:06 about a week ago, in the refugee and IDP camps in the north,
14:09 and I was seeing a lot of these incredible refugee-led
14:13 and indigenous-led initiatives, and all of this,
14:16 these beautiful styles of leadership
14:18 that don't necessarily coincide or correspond
14:21 with what traditionally is seen as leadership,
14:24 which is what I love about the work that we need to do
14:27 to really just transform what it is a person looks like
14:30 in terms of power.
14:31 We're not what power looks like,
14:33 but in the end, we have so much of it.
14:35 And I think what's been, I think,
14:39 one of the most painful things for me
14:41 in terms of involving people who are facing
14:43 maybe the most intense types of adversity,
14:45 and I guess the most, people in some of the most vulnerable
14:48 positions is that, I think someone said it a long time ago,
14:51 that if you try to leave young people behind,
14:54 they will leave you behind in the end.
14:56 Why do people resort to violence?
14:59 Why do people resort to doing whatever they can
15:02 with the resources that they have?
15:03 Why do people struggle?
15:05 Why do people become ignored
15:08 or have to function outside of the system?
15:10 I think it's because a lot of times we're erased
15:13 not only in practice and literally our lives,
15:16 but we're also erased in dialogue.
15:18 We're erased in conversations.
15:20 We're erased in spaces.
15:22 And what's so important about actually engaging
15:26 and co-architecting our solutions with people
15:28 who are going to be affected by that,
15:30 those solutions in the end,
15:32 is that that's where true solutions
15:33 that are fit for purpose
15:35 and really make a change in the world happen.
15:38 In Africa, like we said several times,
15:42 everything seems cool.
15:43 All of the investors are flocking here.
15:45 There's so many different initiatives,
15:47 but the majority of the initiatives that are funded
15:50 are not African created.
15:51 And the majority of the funders are not African.
15:54 So what is happening and why is our continent
15:57 and every country being essentially pillaged again?
16:00 We're essentially being re-colonized in a lot of ways,
16:02 even in conversations about the future.
16:05 And the way that people try to justify it on the outside
16:08 by reinforcing these old standards
16:10 is by saying essentially that Africa
16:12 does not have the infrastructure, the talent,
16:15 the understanding, the people even,
16:18 to really take forward or take advantage
16:20 of the resources that we have all over here.
16:22 But that's not the truth at all.
16:24 The reality is that the people who have the best solutions
16:27 are not just young people,
16:28 African people, indigenous people,
16:30 people who are working in some of the most extreme conditions
16:34 with incredibly limited resources and do incredible work.
16:37 One small example that I saw
16:39 and that it just made me cry,
16:41 I've been working with these people for years
16:44 and what was so beautiful is that five leaders
16:47 in Cameroon and one of the refugee camps in Minoan,
16:52 they got together and they just started planting trees
16:56 just with their own expertise
16:58 and their own understanding with the knowledge
17:00 that is here on the continent.
17:02 And again, I can go on forever about this,
17:04 but the knowledge, even the knowledge that we have
17:07 is devalued in traditional systems.
17:10 I come from a culture that our language is not written.
17:15 Arabic is my first language, but my indigenous language,
17:17 it's not written,
17:18 but people seem to dismiss that in history.
17:20 And if it's not written or if it's not framed
17:23 in a traditional way, or shall we say a Western way,
17:26 people dismiss that knowledge.
17:28 Now they've planted hundreds of thousands of trees,
17:30 hundreds of thousands of trees,
17:32 and they've reforested part of the Sahel,
17:35 refugees with limited resources.
17:38 And we're trying to mobilize those resources
17:40 to those places.
17:41 How do we involve people who are facing adversity?
17:44 We have to understand that one of,
17:47 I guess I'll say it this way,
17:48 we have to understand that we don't leave them behind,
17:52 they leave us behind,
17:53 and we need to actually meet them where they're at.
17:55 And one of the most beautiful things I've heard
17:57 is that one of the old commissioners for UNHCR
18:00 a long time ago, Gata, said that there are no
18:02 humanitarian solutions for humanitarian problems.
18:05 Why is that?
18:06 Because there are political solutions,
18:08 there are economic solutions,
18:10 there are financial solutions,
18:11 there are educational solutions.
18:15 So for me, the long and short answer
18:18 is that we need to stop ignoring the people
18:20 who are really doing the true work,
18:22 and we need to start valuing it more.
18:24 I think one last thing that I'll say
18:26 coming from a global health background
18:28 is that a lot of the stories that I heard in my training,
18:32 I studied anthropology and molecular
18:33 cellular developmental biology at Yale,
18:35 I got a certificate in global health,
18:37 I write poetry because I think that
18:38 you reach people where they least expect to be reached,
18:41 but when I was in school or in any time
18:43 that I'm in medical spaces,
18:44 the stories that are told about true leadership
18:47 that really change the course of history
18:50 are never told from here.
18:52 The Ebola crisis was handled on the continent,
18:57 and that was leadership on such an incredible level,
19:01 and people were facing adversity,
19:02 but they fought through it.
19:03 So I think one thing is shifting the narrative,
19:05 the other thing is just including people
19:07 and understanding that maybe to us,
19:09 refugees or indigenous people are facing adversity,
19:12 but to the world, our whole continent is facing adversity.
19:15 And if we take that same mindset
19:17 and superimpose it onto not only ourselves,
19:20 but our fellow people on the continent,
19:23 then we're just going to be repeating the same struggles
19:25 and recolonizing ourselves.
19:27 - Yeah, I mean, if time permits,
19:29 I'll come back to you to even get to understand
19:32 the power of storytelling as well as art
19:35 in actually creating opportunities.
19:37 I had to come to you.
19:39 In your bio, it reads that you are on a mission
19:43 to actually liberate African women and girls.
19:46 What does that mean?
19:47 What should be done in order for us,
19:50 for the African continent to create gender equality?
19:55 - Before I jump into that question,
19:59 I just wanted to say that as we have very good leaders
20:04 and examples of good leadership on the continent,
20:07 and Rwanda actually has the largest public service,
20:11 youth internship in public service,
20:12 that's why they absorb large number of youth
20:15 in public service.
20:16 We also have a lot of African leaders overstaying in power
20:20 and they should stop extending retirement age.
20:23 And I think in order for us to move forward
20:26 to a new model of leadership,
20:29 we need to address these issues with a new generation.
20:32 I have focused a lot in my work previously
20:35 on how do we kick out all the old man from power, literally.
20:39 At 23, I was on the street trying to end the dictatorship,
20:44 but I realized that even if you kick out everybody of power,
20:49 you will always have a vacuum
20:51 and you can continue to repeat itself
20:53 and we need to focus on the transition of power
20:57 and breeding this generation of ethical leadership
20:59 and leaders who truly can deliver the agenda 2063 and 2030.
21:04 So I think we shouldn't shy away from saying
21:09 that when a country does well,
21:13 they should scale up the solution they found.
21:15 When they figure it out,
21:16 let them scale the solution they found.
21:17 There were a lot of great panel on investment and on trade
21:22 and it doesn't make sense to be in a country
21:24 that has M-Pesa and has digital access
21:27 and then you cross the border to another country,
21:28 you cannot even have a bank account.
21:30 So I think that's Pan-Africanism and that solidarity
21:34 and that ripple effect,
21:35 the same way ripple effect in youth protesting
21:37 around the continent,
21:39 there should be a ripple effect of good leadership
21:41 and of transition to an ethical leadership.
21:43 So I think one of the things as well,
21:47 when we talk of what's the future for African youth,
21:50 it should be a Pan-African youth.
21:52 Young people should grow to think
21:54 not just of Tunisia and Ghana
21:56 and no, as a continent and not our little tiny countries
21:59 because the Africa we want should be borderless.
22:04 So we can't think within our borders anymore
22:07 and even our national identity is beyond the borders.
22:10 So I just wanted to add that on the young people.
22:14 On the women leadership,
22:16 yeah, I often say I don't fight for gender equality,
22:21 I fight for the liberation of African women and girls.
22:25 And I'm trying to build an army of women
22:29 to take charge or take over the continent
22:32 because it's radical when women support women
22:36 and women nurture women.
22:37 I think it's really sad to still live in a world
22:41 and there was a panel also on health today,
22:43 when it's okay to cut the clitoris,
22:46 it's okay to marry at nine years old,
22:48 it's okay to drop out of school because of your periods,
22:52 it's okay to be murdered for family honor,
22:56 one in three women go through some form of violence
23:01 in their lifetime, rape, abuse and so on.
23:03 And I'm not even talking about women excluded
23:06 from negotiation tables or the erasure
23:08 of women contribution in Africa's development.
23:11 So if we are talking about a future that is female
23:14 and that is young and that is African,
23:16 we have to start addressing those core issues
23:19 because it's not just about jobs and opportunities,
23:22 it's about addressing the issues of the Africa we live today
23:26 where it's a struggle to live as a woman, to exist.
23:31 And I think everybody should be outraged
23:34 of the reality of African women every day.
23:36 And everybody should rethink their entire ecosystem
23:39 if they don't have a gender lens.
23:40 We were trying to push Fred to claim that he's a feminist
23:45 and yes, and I think, I mean my father,
23:51 has been a feminist and I always say my father is a feminist
23:55 by the mere fact that he allowed me to just be,
23:58 not anything else, to just be.
24:01 That is a feminist father, that you can exist in this world
24:05 and that's what we try to do at NALA Femme Collective,
24:09 to have ownership over your body, over your finances,
24:13 over your inheritance, over your intellectual property,
24:16 to be, to exist, I think that's the liberation
24:19 that I'm talking about.
24:20 And usually when we talk feminism,
24:22 we always think it's a women issue,
24:25 but liberation, it means liberation for everybody.
24:27 Because again, Pan-Africanism,
24:29 there is no Pan-Africanism without feminism.
24:32 Pan-Africanism was led by women and men
24:35 and it is important that in whatever future
24:39 we are envisioning, women have their rightful place,
24:43 women are at the forefront of leadership in masses.
24:46 And I dream of the day where we have this army of women
24:50 and I tell Mama, certainly if her generation don't worry,
24:55 because you left an army of women warriors
24:57 who will take this continent where she deserves to be,
25:00 with the feminist men who have ethical leadership.
25:04 - Yeah, indeed, so much to unpack
25:06 from what you've just said, but because of time,
25:07 I'm just going to take one last round of questions.
25:11 Fred, I'll start with you.
25:12 What is the one challenge you see limiting
25:16 what we're having this conversation of,
25:18 having the new generation of African leaders
25:21 and what is the one quality you'd like young Africans
25:25 to actually have, one, one of each?
25:28 - I think the challenge we have is time.
25:33 We're running out of time.
25:36 We are going to have a workforce larger than China,
25:41 India in 10 years.
25:43 And by the end of this century,
25:46 we're going to be 40% of the world's population,
25:48 a young population.
25:49 So we don't have a lot of time to create opportunities
25:51 for young people, to create jobs for young people,
25:54 to solve big challenges in healthcare and education,
25:57 all these things that happens when a population
26:02 is growing as fast as it is right now.
26:05 So the entire world, I know there's a lot of distractions
26:07 in the world right now, but when you think about
26:10 the long-term century, this is going to be
26:13 the African century because of the youth bulge
26:17 that we have in Africa.
26:18 And the only question is, is it going to be a good century
26:21 or a bad century?
26:22 But it is going to be the African century.
26:24 And so what we do with our young people
26:26 is going to determine not just where Africa goes,
26:28 but where the world goes if we're going to be 40%
26:29 of the world.
26:30 So what's the great opportunity that I see?
26:32 It's technology.
26:33 Technology can be the great equalizer
26:37 that will allow young people to access skills
26:42 much faster than ever before, access healthcare.
26:44 They can work globally.
26:47 If your government is not functioning well,
26:49 you can get a job sitting somewhere else
26:52 leveraging technology.
26:54 And it opens up the landscape
26:57 of economic opportunity massively.
26:59 So young people need to equip themselves
27:01 with software engineering skills,
27:02 data science, cyber security.
27:04 We need to build the technology workforce
27:06 of the world from here in Africa.
27:09 And China's aging, India's aging.
27:11 We have the largest untapped pool of technology talent.
27:14 This is one of the things that we are focusing on
27:16 in SAAM Technologies, right?
27:18 Train millions of young people in technology skills.
27:21 Then that allows them to work globally,
27:23 earn foreign exchange, create innovative solutions
27:26 in healthcare and education and agriculture,
27:28 all these things that we need to solve.
27:30 And it will allow us to create a new form of development
27:34 in a rapid pace of time so that we can catch up
27:38 with that limited time that we have
27:40 before we can solve these problems.
27:42 - Aya, one challenge and where do you see the opportunity?
27:46 - One challenge.
27:48 So we're estimating one in four people
27:52 will be African by end of this century.
27:55 So I will take it more from a policy political perspective.
27:58 We need to fix the multilateral system
28:01 because when we talk of young Africans,
28:03 it's not only the ones on the continent,
28:05 but young Africans across the world.
28:07 And Africa needs a global voice globally.
28:11 We're the largest block of the United Nations
28:14 and yet we don't even have a seat
28:16 at the UN Security Council.
28:17 I think it is a legitimate question of African youth
28:22 and youth across the world to how is the United Nation
28:25 upholding its mission, right?
28:29 Again, Emmy is more versed in the peace and security issue.
28:34 But I feel that there is a challenge
28:36 of the multilateral system that it's not functioning
28:39 and it's trickling down to the reality
28:41 of African youth every single day.
28:43 And the conflicts we see across the continent,
28:45 the conflict we see across the world.
28:47 The opportunity for me, and maybe not surprising,
28:51 is to have more female leadership in this space.
28:54 And I think female leadership
28:55 because it brings emotional intelligence,
28:59 it brings empathy, it brings collaboration over competition.
29:03 It brings also that indigenous knowledge
29:07 that a lot of panels talked about.
29:09 And I think that generational support,
29:14 when we talk of women breeding other women,
29:16 and breeding generations, not only women,
29:18 is very important for us.
29:20 I think the Africa I dream of, or the Africa I want,
29:26 is really to see every young person living with dignity.
29:31 And all of what also Fred mentioned,
29:35 technology and everything,
29:36 I think we need to do all of that with dignity.
29:38 Because everything we have right now at our access
29:43 can be also exploitative.
29:45 And I see a lot of young people also suffering
29:48 within those spaces.
29:50 So for tech entrepreneurs, for people in the businesses,
29:54 for people in investment,
29:56 let's have young people in the room,
29:58 but also let's have dignity for young people,
30:01 whatever we're creating jobs for them,
30:03 whatever we're creating opportunities for them.
30:05 - Okay, Emy, you have the last word.
30:07 - Thank you so much.
30:10 Of course I agree with everything that was said.
30:11 I think what's really important to note
30:13 is that I'm from Sudan, I'm from Darfur, right?
30:17 I became a public speaker when I was 10
30:19 about the genocide, and the genocide has not ended.
30:22 This year alone, I've lost six family members
30:25 since April in Sudan.
30:27 And it's hard to sit here and talk about that
30:31 and be able to really say that to all of you
30:34 without saying that when we speak truth to power,
30:37 there's a gap between when we speak truth to power
30:40 and power finally acts.
30:42 And in that gap, we lose people.
30:44 What you won't see behind the scenes
30:47 is that even though we're leaders here
30:50 and we work together and it's hopeful and it's inspiring,
30:55 you won't see the behind the scenes
30:57 where we're totally breaking down
30:58 because it seems like it takes all the running you can do
31:01 to stay in the same place.
31:03 What is the biggest challenge?
31:06 That is the biggest challenge.
31:07 I think that it's insane to say that in 2019,
31:10 the whole world, even Rihanna,
31:12 was talking about the Sudan revolution.
31:14 But here we are in 2023
31:16 and we're seemingly back to square one.
31:18 It's like what Aya said earlier,
31:20 that a lot of times, some of the positive things
31:23 are not taken and championed across the world.
31:26 And I think that it's really, really important
31:29 for me to say this,
31:30 but we need regional solutions as well.
31:33 And we need to lift up the voices
31:35 and support the people who are doing the work
31:38 and not just dismiss it as protracted issues
31:41 or as people talk about Sudan,
31:43 like, oh, Sudan, there's still an issue,
31:45 or like, you know, the Congo or all of these other places
31:48 where people are really trying to do the work.
31:51 I think if we take our voices together
31:53 and lift up the voices and the initiatives
31:56 that are happening,
31:57 we won't be able to just stabilize the people
32:00 in the places that need the most support right now,
32:04 but we'll be able to prevent further destabilization
32:06 and radicalization across the continent.
32:08 That's one of the most important things
32:10 that I can leave you with.
32:11 And the last thing that I'll say
32:13 is all about narrative, like you said before.
32:15 We need to tell the true stories
32:18 and the real stories of the people who are doing the work
32:21 and lift up the voices
32:22 and create more convening spaces like these
32:25 and more accountability spaces.
32:28 We need to create a collective responsibility
32:30 for the continent
32:32 and a collective responsibility for peace.
32:34 - Indeed, our voices are powerful.
32:36 - I wanna say I stand in solidarity
32:38 with Sudanese youth as well
32:39 and all of the young people going through conflict right now.
32:42 - Yeah, indeed, our voices are powerful.
32:44 We shouldn't be silent.
32:46 There's still a lot more to unpack,
32:48 but we'll have to leave this conversation here.
32:51 If we have young people in the audience,
32:53 a call to action is unlearn our silence.
32:56 That is the one thing that we need to do.
32:58 And all stakeholders should work together
33:00 to bridge the intergenerational gap.
33:02 Help me thank our amazing panelists
33:05 who couldn't have said it any better.
33:07 Thank you all.
33:08 (audience applauding)