Message to the young generation E-Book

Leaders for Peace

• Herausgeber: Ginkgo éditeur
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 95

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

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.

Leseprobe

Leaders for Peace

MESSAGE TOTHE 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 closer to reality and develop a more sober form of communication. They attach great importance to results and are very attentive to human relations.

Obviously, there are exceptions, but generally speaking these statements hold true. In many societies, female energy lies dormant and must be awakened. There are leadership reserves waiting to be mobilised. In my public experience of over fifty years, I have often seen the added value of female leadership.

This is true in the entrepreneurial world as well as in associations and I have also seen it in situations of conflict. Women often perform well in mediation processes. The place of women in a society is an indicator of development, it also drives progress.

 

Finally, leadership is also a personal development path.

 

By learning to express yourself and listen to others, by training to lead meetings and make speeches, by learning human relations and individual behaviours, by communicating but in a simple manner, by gaining more authority but by sharing trust, by using humour… everyone can improve their leadership skills. From this point of view, the teaching of leadership can be a useful national strategy both to enhance the strengths of leadership and amend abuses such as the solitary exercise of power, Manichaeism and even clanism and other well-known abuses.

All these energies, which after having been formed will have to be released to take all their power, will need to be brought together in a common African destiny, a great unifying cause.

In this world where the great powers are forces of continental proportions, expectations are high for the future of Africa. The continent, a land of experience and wisdom, one day will make its message heard even more to the world. Africa, with all its resources as well as its threats, is clearly at the forefront of the fight for the Planet.

"The Planetization of consciousness" which today particularly mobilises young people as well as civil societies, to save humanity, threatened by itself, places Africa in a position of leadership for what must necessarily be a humanisation of globalisation.

This is the path of Peace.

 

Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN

Former Prime Minister of France

President of Leaders for Peace

AFRICAN YOUTH: lead the paradigm changefor sustainability to launch a new SAGA AFRICA

 

As an African woman member of the Association Leaders for Peace, I am happy to take this opportunity to share with you, our "African Youth" ten suggestions about a topic, key for Africa’s lasting prosperity and peace, and beyond, for the survival of mankind.

 

1/ Lead the paradigm change to make peace with nature in Africa

 

You are the future leaders of Africa. But you can start now by taking the leadership of the paradigm change for sustainable development, innovation and fight for climate change to launch a new era of lasting peace and prosperity, altering the narrative of our continent.

You have to rally all the youth and seek support from the stake-holders to initiate this process, which is at the heart of life itself. Simultaneously, you can start now by the priorities listed below, which pave the way to this ultimate goal. You have the potential and ability to be the peaceful soldiers of the sustainable development era, in Africa. Yes, "You can"!

 

2/ Choose the future you want: It is the moment

 

This life changing process needs of course time to materialize across sectors. It is the moment to move away from the failed present models. The lessons of the dramatic Covid-19 pandemic episode command to engage actively for the future you want.

By re-evaluating development pathways, you will be the engine of new dynamics to mobilize new linkages to establish a logic of sustainability across sectors and institutions, securing social inclusion and resilience.

Allow me to focus on a few points, and suggest some practical steps, which can favor mindsets shift, leading to building the culture of sustainability.

 

3/ Take opportunities among the magnitude of the domains at stake.

 

From basic needs and vital issues as food, health, water, education, energy, gender equality, to oceans, territories, institutions and partnerships, the UN 17 interlinked Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs - give a clear idea of the scope of the matters involved. The related challenges to overcome, to achieve the targets by 2030, include as well distinctive processes, as the vast field of Blue economy and the implied synergies. Indeed, interconnections across sectors sharing the same space require obviously holistic and integrated solutions across the planet system. Just as the different colors and shapes qualifying the economies to develop: green, blue, and circular for instance, enhance the complexities of which the few documents provided at the end of this text give a clear idea.

It is true that Peace is much harder to win than war. It takes perseverant engagement and resilience. But do not be frightened by the magnitude or the mysterious jargon often used!

The bright side of the coin indicates, that actually, the choice of the field of engagement is yours.

Hopes for jobs opportunities are good news for Africa at large, where we need 18 million annual new jobs until 2035. They can reduce endemic violence and conflicts, since 40% of the recruits by organized crime and extremist violent groups are unemployed youth!

 

4/ Be the engine of sustainability.

 

Africa is rich of its old traditions, ethnic and cultural diversity, and of its young populations. Your individual talents and collective strength represent the hope for Africa’s future and makes of you our best assets to ensure the badly needed change of paradigms, so much talked about but not yet enforced!