African Youth are the driving force behind the continent's political and economic transformation
Over 150 African sports enthusiasts tuned in to the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) and Young African Leaders in Sports (YALS) webinar, which was titled "African Youths’ Sports Leadership – Igniting passion and equipping African Youths with the requisite skills, knowledge and awareness to excel in sports leadership roles in Africa".
Highlighting Aspiration 6 of the African Union Agenda 2063 – the Africa We Want, which stresses on an Africa whose development is people driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially women and youth, Head of the AUSC, Dr. Decius Chipande emphasised that the youth are the continent’s greatest asset, and that their creativity, energy and innovation was a driving force behind Africa’s political and economic transformation, as was well articulated by the webinar panelists.
The panelists included distinguished African Youth Sports leaders: African 100m record holder Ferdinand Omanyala; Nigeria Rangers FC CEO Ezeaku Amobi and Togolese National Olympic Committee Head of Missions and Director of General Services Sylvestre Alassi. The panelists provided the webinar with key insights on how their respective journeys in sports leadership and how they attained their individual successes.
This was preceded by a keynote address by the Minister of State Sports of the Republic of Rwanda Honourable Rwego Ngarambe, who challenged the youth to reach for their dreams and ambitions as they were NOT the future of the continent but the present, thus they should not wait for opportunities to arise but to create their own opportunities.
In his closing remarks, Dr. Chipande stated that the African Union was pushing for a mandatory youth representation quarter in national and sub-regional governments and encouraged intergenerational collaboration to ensure inclusive governance.
"The lack of youth in leadership positions in sport does not reflect the intergenerational collaboration that the African Union is pushing for, therefore, the AUSC is working towards ensuring that there is youth representation in all its organs. Youth, leadership in and through sports, is increasingly recognised as a powerful tool for social transformation across Africa, particularly that it promotes value-based leadership. This is why the AUSC greatly appreciates this collaboration with the Young African Leaders in Sports and we would like to see this collaboration become even stronger in the coming years, and bring together other young sports, leaders and entities to work together with us", he said.
Dr. Chipande further appreciated the synergy with the renowned International Platform on Sports for Development, whose Executive Director, Dr. Ben Sanders, gave a powerful presentation on the available educational opportunities that are there for aspiring African sports leaders globally and also expressed the numerous amount of information which was readily available for the youth to share knowledge, build good practice, facilitate coordination and foster partnerships in sport and development.
The complete webinar is available on The International Platform on Sport and Development (sportanddev) at www.sportanddev.org
