Sobel Aziz Ngom, Executive Director of the Social Change Factory in Senegal has called on African countries to reconsider the place of young people in the post-Covid-19 era.
By Edouard Touré
“Our big post-Covid-19 challenge will be to reconsider the place of young people in the social, economic and political affairs of society so that they are part of the solutions rather than just beneficiaries,” Ngom said.
He was participating in a videoconference panel on “The Global Goals for Sustainable Development and African Development at the Crossroads,” organised on Sunday as part of World Africa Day.
At the initiative of the UBA Group, the discourses were attended by several personalities, including Liberian President, George Weah, Peter Maurer, President of the ICRC and Achim Steiner, Director General of the UNDP.
“Our context imposes an inclusive model because demand is too great and current resources too low to serve everyone. We need to capitalise on the leadership, creativity and ambition of the continent’s youth,” said Ngom, who is also a member of the steering committee of Generation Unlimited, a group that promotes education, training and youth employment.
According to Peter Maurer, president of the ICRC, “we must see the response to the Covid-19 crisis as a value chain in which each of us must contribute something.”
Tony Elumelu, PCA of UBA Group remarked: “We are living in a time when there is no longer any question of blaming each other, but rather of making efforts and organising to fight this pandemic. This is not a time for finger-pointing, but rather a time for collaborative efforts by governments and organisations to fight the pandemic on a global scale”.
Speaking on the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Achim Steiner, UNDP Director General, said that “digital learning could be an opportunity to connect schools across the continent.”
TE/lb/as/APA