Past its financial strengths, the continent’s affect depends upon its tradition, data and the flexibility of its younger individuals to venture a robust identification.
The Dakhla Increased College of Know-how, in partnership with Ibn Zohr College, has simply hosted the second version of Africa Future Leaders Day, organised by EPIK Leaders underneath the theme ‘African youth, diplomacy and comfortable energy: constructing the affect of tomorrow’s Africa’. The occasion introduced collectively college students, lecturers and researchers, diplomats and institutional stakeholders.
In his opening remarks, the affiliation’s president, Mahmoud Cherkaoui, set the tone: “The coaching of future leaders can now not be restricted to technical expertise alone. While these stay elementary, they need to now be complemented by cross-disciplinary expertise – advertising and marketing, communication, teamwork, worldwide networking – to satisfy the calls for of in the present day’s market. ”
He highlighted EPIK Leaders’ instructional strategy, which relies on three pillars: studying by doing, studying by play and networking, with a view to rework educational data into experience that may be utilized within the subject.
The selection of Dakhla isn’t any coincidence, explains the affiliation. A geopolitical crossroads, a showcase for Morocco’s improvement within the Sahara and a gateway to sub-Saharan Africa, town embodies exactly the problems of soppy energy and territorial diplomacy on the coronary heart of this yr’s debates.
For the Vice-President of the Regional Council, Moulay Boutal Lembarki, Africa should transfer from the periphery to the centre of worldwide decision-making by drawing on the ‘important power’ that’s youth: ‘Affect now depends upon tradition, data and the flexibility to venture a robust identification. ”
For his or her half, lecturers at EST Dakhla, Meriem Sahli and Sahar Saoud, highlighted the significance of parallel diplomacy for Morocco’s affect by 2030, significantly by sport and tradition.
The occasion additionally featured the launch of the collective work The Awakening of the Sentinels: African Youth Views on Comfortable Energy and New Diplomacy. This essay offers a voice to younger leaders and dedicated college students from a number of nations throughout the continent, specializing in three strategic areas.
A Suppose Tank for African Management
Firstly, Neighborhood and Territorial Diplomacy: utilizing the instance of cities equivalent to Dakhla and Kigali, the guide explores how geographical areas change into levers of affect.
Secondly, Comfortable Energy and narrative reclamation. This entails analysing the ‘battle of narratives’ and affirming the necessity for Africa to supply its personal narratives by tradition and digital media.
Thirdly, the essay advocates for “Comfortable Expertise within the Service of Peace”, the place empathy and collective intelligence are seen as the muse of moral management. Within the common introduction to the manifesto, Nizar Chaari, founding father of Epik Leaders, defines the motion’s ambition: “To be a Sentinel is to simply accept the position of guardian of a millennia-old heritage while being the architect of a technological and sovereign future. It’s to grasp {that a} continent’s true energy is now not measured solely by its underground assets, however by its capability to attraction, to persuade and to encourage. ”
Lastly, this version marked the official launch of the Epik suppose tank, devoted to African management. This initiative extends the mental momentum of the occasion by fostering a steady stream of information on the challenges of diplomacy, comfortable energy and governance pushed by the continent’s youth.
It ought to be famous that Epik Leaders, based in January 2025 by Nizar Chaari and Mahmoud Cherkaoui, is a pan-African affiliation that helps younger expertise by management, coaching and social innovation programmes. Its mission: to equip younger individuals and neighborhood organisations to deal with in the present day’s challenges and construct tomorrow’s alternatives. The motion claims to have over 50,000 members, 550 energetic golf equipment and a community spanning some fifteen African nations.
