Nairobi, 19 December, 2019 / 2:17 am (ACI Africa).
As African countries strive to achieve the aspiration of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 on good governance and democracy, a planned forum bringing together some 100 participants under the initiative, “Together For a New Africa”, the second gathering of its kind, will see young Africans from the Eastern Africa region and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) deliberate on their African identity and the dynamics around leadership that the continent requires to achieve the AU agenda.
“We will focus on leadership and identity crisis in the region. From a workshop we had with stakeholders and experts we came to know that the main challenge for the region is identity crisis, which lead to bad leadership,” the Coordinator of the initiative, Burundian-born Dr. Melchior Nsavyimana told ACI Africa Wednesday, December 18, referencing the 9-day program that will begin on December 28 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Together for a New Africa is an initiative of former students of Italy-based Sophia University Institute run by the Focolare Movement. The initiative aims at training young African leaders to promote peace and unity on the continent, in line with the core values of the university and in line with the mission of UNESCO and the African Union Agenda 2063.
An alumnus of Sophia University Institute, Dr. Nsavyimana said that the planned forum bearing the name “Summer School” has the purpose of strengthening the regional identity of the world’s second most populous continent and that the student participants “are not just coming to learn what lecturers will be teaching, they also come to network, dialogue among them and understand each other.”
The “Summer School,” a follow up of the maiden training under “Together for a New Africa” project that brought 105 young African leaders from seven countries of East and Central Africa, is expected to bring together 100 young leaders from these countries from December 28 to January 5 in the Focolare premises of Mariapolis Piero in Juja, North of Nairobi.