Message to the young generation

By Leaders for Peace

Leaders for Peace brings together 40 leading international personalities with extensive experience of crises, a plurality of sensibilities and pedagogical qualities to promote new approaches to peace.


Because youth is the future of humanity, Leaders for Peace, in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), have addressed their messages and recommendations to African youth, on the challenges and issues that await them.


With the African Development Bank, strong of its network in 54 countries, our two organizations wanted to put their experiences to good use for the benefit of youth. Indeed, with more than 200 million inhabitants aged 15 to 24, Africa has the largest youth population in the world. By 2050, two thirds of Africans will be under thirty years old, which represents a major demographic challenge in terms of education and employment, but also an environmental challenge, because the pressure on resources associated with climate change must be considered and addressed accordingly.


How to act usefully for the public life of one’s country? How to build dialogue approaches to deal with conflict? What are the issues that should mobilize youth as a priority? What role for women? How to effectively implement gender equality? How to promote the culture of dialogue and non-violence?


It is to these questions that our Leaders have humbly attempted to provide answers. Based on their experiences, eleven international personalities (former Prime Ministers, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Executive Directors of international organization, Ambassadors...) attempt to provide food for thought to help young people better understand their future and the challenges that await them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ginkgo éditeur
• Release date: Aug 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9782846793698

Book preview

couverture

Leaders for Peace

MESSAGE TO

THE YOUNG GENERATION

GINKGOéditeur

Nidépices – conception et création de la couverture

© Leaders pour la Paix, 2022

© Ginkgo Éditeur pour la présente édition

ISBN: 978 2 84679 526 5

Ginkgo Éditeur

33, boulevard Arago

75013 Paris

www.ginkgo-editeur.fr

Table des matières

African leadership, the key to the 21st century, Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN

African youth: lead the paradigm change for sustainability to launch a new SAGA AFRICA, Dr Assia BENSALAH ALOUI

Peace has a face and that face is youth, Irina BOKOVA

The Africa of tomorrow - using negotiation to achieve Peace, Elisabeth DECREY

What If We Listen Better? Vuslat DOGAN SABANCI

Strengthening and revitalizing partnerships to better meet the expectations of African youth, Kabiné KOMARA

A letter from Vietnam to African Youth, Ton Nu Thi NINH

Gender Equality and Peace: A Message to Young Africans, Antonio DE AGUIAR PATRIOTA

African Youth: re-enchanting the world, Cherif RAHMANI

Media and Peace, Kanwal SIBAL

Judo for Peace: A Certain Idea of Sport, Marius L. VIZER

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP,

the key to the 21st century

I would like to thank the African Development Bank (AfDB) for allowing Leaders pour la Paix to have frank discussions with many young Africans on leadership. The exchanges have inspired the ideas presented here.

Leadership today is a major issue that arises at all levels of human organisation, from the fight for the planet to micro local dynamics.

At a global level, the race for leadership is being run between the United States and China. It can be described as the Thucydides trap: when the No.1 refuses not accept the emergence of a No.2, while the same No.2 fancies itself as No.1. This tension for leadership will structure international relations for many years to come and will pose serious problems for the intermediate forces, which will have trouble finding their place in relation to the two hyperpowers.

At a continental level, the question of leadership is also raised, particularly in Europe and Africa.

Europe has been looking for leadership for some time now, but the urgency of the move has accelerated since the announcement of Angela Merkel’s retirement and the tension between China and the US. After their national elections, will France and Germany manage to establish an alliance which, alone, will give them a balance of power against the two big players?

In Africa, multilateralism has made considerable progress, both at the continental and regional levels. Every day, the African Union continues to build a leadership without which the future of Africa would be like its past: not exactly sovereign! African leadership is necessary for the balance of the world as well as for the independence of African nations. The task is not easy for a continent which must assume both the past it shares with others as well as a future whose weight is also very heavy, since it is now a question of becoming the continent of the 21st century.

African youth, in charge of this future, has a a variety of challenges it will need to tackle.

The first is not to turn away from politics. Many young people in Africa, as elsewhere, are disappointed by politics and are therefore tempted to turn their backs on it. This would be a mistake; politics is precisely what humanity invented to escape violence. When politics disappears, violence fills the void.

And violence, the counterpart to war, never brings any good. We know how to trigger violence; what we often don’t know is how to end it. Africa not only needs continental leaders; clearly it also needs national leaders to guide it forward. To achieve this, preparation is required. We must be willing to serve a cause greater than ourselves.

To this end, I wrote a book, Choisir un Chef (Choosing a Leader), based on the leadership course that I have been teaching for the past fifteen years at the École Supérieure de Commerce in Paris (ESCP).

I believe that everyone can improve their leadership. Experience provides us with sound advice.

The key is to work on a vision for the future, on a personal or collective level, and decide to embody that future with strong determination and genuine attention to others. Helping others to grow is a great adventure, it is also the best way to grow yourself. Politics makes you happy when you give happiness to others.

Of course, politics is not the only arena for leadership.

The African entrepreneurial sector also needs leaders, to create, develop and enrich Africa. You don’t always have to be the greatest of engineers to create your company; a good idea and a good work structure are often enough. After all, in companies we learn by walking, we grow by developing our business. Of course, start-ups are necessary for innovation in all countries, but the development of all services is needed everywhere: logistics, services for seniors, early childhood, services for education, health, childcare, housing, and sport.

Young entrepreneurial leaders from Africa can get involved in international networks, which provides them with enriching experiences while allowing them to promote their country, their culture and their uniqueness. Private entrepreneurs also contribute to the common good.

Civil society also needs leaders to make its administration efficient, to run its associations and carry out new projects.

In these different sectors of society, it is important to stimulate new forces such as, for example, female leadership.

Female leadership is different from male leadership. I know the idea is often debated, but I am convinced of it. Angela MERKEL style of leadership was different from that of Nicolas SARKOZY. Women in general are