Dialogue calls on young Africans to lead

March 20, 2009 – The purpose of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Promise of Leadership Dialogue, which began today, was to discuss critical issues affecting our continent and determine the role of leadership in addressing these issues, said the event’s facilitator, journalist Pat Pillai.

Jump to sections:

Session 1: “Renaissance: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”

Session 2: “Social Entrepreneurship: Delivering on the Promise of Leadership”

Session 3: “Social Entrepreneurship: Delivering on the Promise of Leadership” continued

Reflections

Not even a highveld thunderstorm, which caused a 15-minute power outage and flooded the entrance hall of the Helderfontein Estate, could dampen the delegates’ enthusiasm for the discussions on the first day of the two-day event.

Following a keynote address by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the dialogue got under way at the estate, located on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

The day was split into three sessions, which included panel discussions, question-and-answer sessions and a table debate.

 

Session 1: “Renaissance: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”

 

The first session, entitled “Renaissance: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” discussed the role of the youth in developing Africa and the role leadership has to play in engaging with the youth. Sessions two and three looked at “Social Entrepreneurship: Delivering on the Promise of Leadership”.

All three sessions started with panel discussions before delegates were encouraged to engage in a table dialogue (first session) or in debate with the panel through a question-and-answer session (second and third sessions).

Journalist Lerato Mbele moderated the first panel, which was made up of businessman Ronnie Ntuli, African Leadership Initiative (ALI) Fellow Fred Swaniker, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Guinea Aicha Bah Diallo, youth activist Dumisani Nyoni and senior financial management specialist at the World Bank Patrick Kabuya.

Mbele said the title of the first session implied that “we are the ones who are prepared to take action” and that it was the role of the youth to unpack and unravel the complexities of the challenges facing Africa.

Kabuya argued that the need for mentoring was key to ensuring that young people in Africa were indeed the “ones we’ve been waiting for”. He argued that it was crucial for the younger generation to use the wisdom acquired by the older generation to ensure that Africa realised its potential.

Nyoni suggested that the “young people in Africa want the opportunity to participate”.

“The youth in Africa have a spirit of social entrepreneurship, an attitude of ‘how can I contribute?’ Rather than one of ‘how can I destroy?’” he said.

He argued that leaders needed “to provide young people with the opportunity to get involved”, as well as providing sustainable economic initiatives.

Ntuli suggested that the issues that Nyoni had raised were not specific to the youth, but instead were “Africa-wide issues”. The question for leadership, therefore, Ntuli said, is “how do we create sustainable livelihoods for our people?”

Bah Diallo highlighted the need to improve the service delivery of education in Africa, while pointing out that “gender equality is a priority for leaders in Africa”.

Along with Ntuli and Nyoni, Swaniker felt African leadership needed to involve the youth in order to meet the challenges facing the continent.

“Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world, and the challenge, therefore, is that the majority of the population don’t feel as though they have a say in the future,” Swaniker said.

The session then moved into the table dialogue, where the individual tables were encouraged to look at four questions and engage in debate around those questions.

The four questions were:

1. What is your personal view of this new wave of Africa’s development? What should we be doing to plant that tree now?
2. What are you doing in your personal capacity to plant that tree?
3. What are the three or four greatest threats to this new wave of Africa’s
renaissance? (Please note some risk-management strategies in point form.)
4. Is it possible that this new wave of Africa’s development can be seeded and sustained – so that we have not one tree, but great, interdependent African forests? If yes, how?

Reflections coming out of the table dialogues included:

• Introducing leadership skills at entry levels. There is a perception that leaders are those people whom the media focuses on, but there are many leaders and role models in communities;
• The need to cultivate a culture of mentorship;
• The youth lack inspiration, which is essential for the development of Africa as a continent;
• Economic development needs to be matched by social development;
• Constant communication between the stakeholders in Africa’s growth is key;

and

• To sustain a forest you need to have personal growth contextualised within one’s societal norms.

Download a document detailing these themes in PDF format.

 

Session 2: “Social Entrepreneurship: Delivering on the Promise of Leadership”

Introducing the second topic of the day, “Social Entrepreneurship: Delivering on the Promise of Leadership”, businessman Kojo Parris talked about the need for pragmatic solutions to come out of the table discussions.

As the moderator of the panel discussion, Parris explained that social enterprises are those institutions and organisations that are interested in balancing financial value with social value, in an arena where, historically, the private sector has been more interested in financial value, and government more interested in increasing social value.

Social enterprises look to occupy the space in which financial value and social value are balanced, creating social goods and services.

These enterprises, said Parris, “constitute an estimated 6%-10% of South Africa’s GDP”.

Parris argued that there was a greater need for social enterprises and that the existing organisations needed to work together to “shape the world our children live in”.

The panel was made up of Nyoni, Professor Kovin Naidoo, head of Goldman Sachs investment banking division Colin Coleman, Reverend John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, ALI Fellow Iqbal Survé, Synergos Institute chairperson Peggy Dulany, and the founding director of the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University, Brett Smith.

Parris called on two social entrepreneurs, Nyoni and Naidoo, to give members of the dialogue a feel for social entrepreneurship.

Nyoni spoke about the need for social entrepreneurs to use “common sense to solve common problems”, providing an example of using old, disused textbooks from the United States to stock under-resourced Zimbabwean schools.

Naidoo spoke about the International Centre for Eyecare Education’s desire to eliminate blindness by 2020. He said research had shown that uncorrected eye problems had cost the global economy $269-billion. Naidoo explained how his organisation was making progress in providing solutions to social problems, while highlighting the business aspect of the organisation.

Bryant spoke about the need to continue strive despite adversity.

“All great achievements come through a period of struggle,” he said.

The thunderstorm that occurred midway through Bryant’s impassioned address served to illustrate the point that it’s how we respond to adversity that determines whether we succeed or fail, said Bryant.

Coleman spoke about South Africa’s economic achievements in the last 15 years. Speaking about the reality of the global crisis, Coleman said the world was facing an “incredibly challenging time” and spoke about the negative impact many countries in Africa would experience as a result of the crisis in developed economies. In particular, Coleman’s concern was that the challenges facing Africa might slip off the global agenda.

Survé spoke about having a dream in which everyone was a social entrepreneur “to create a better world for everyone”. He said that the real issue at stake, the reason the topic of social entrepreneurship was on the agenda, was that the market economy, in pursuit of profit, had failed to deal with the problem of poverty.

“The term social entrepreneur,” said Dulany, “describes precisely the type of leadership we require.” Those leaders, said Dulany, should be innovative thinkers who are genuinely concerned by challenges facing society.

The session was then opened to the floor, with delegates encouraged to engage with the panellists. The debate focused on the global crisis and the effect it would have on various economies around the world, and the economic challenges facing South Africa.

 

Session 3: “Social Entrepreneurship: Delivering on the Promise of Leadership” continued

Parris continued as the moderator of session three, with the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, and International Labour Organisation Director Vic van Vuuren sitting as the panel.

Parris introduced Kenyatta, who opened the session (download speech in PDF format) and closed day one of the Promise of Leadership Dialogue.

Kenyatta thanked the Foundation for inviting him to the event and talked about the critical role social entrepreneurship would play in creating meaningful change in Africa.

A social entrepreneur, said Kenyatta, was “someone who is able to diagnose social problems ... and effect positive social change”.

Kenyatta said that despite the positive change seen in recent years to many economies in Africa, poverty still represented a major challenge that African leaders had to address. However, Kenyatta argued, real and practical solutions could be found “if we think outside the proverbial box”.

The Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister said social entrepreneurs could only exist in an enabling environment and encouraged all pillars of society to come together to provide a sustainable environment.

In laying out his vision for his own country in 2030 – to become a middle-income economy, with a high standard of living for all its citizens – Kenyatta highlighted the critical role social entrepreneurs would play in realising this vision.

In conclusion, Kenyatta said that he believed that by embracing social entrepreneurship Africa could deliver on the Promise of Leadership, which was to improve the lives of those living on the continent.
Van Vuuren was invited to respond formally to Kenyatta’s speech.

The former human resources director said that the global financial crisis was the “lull before the storm”.

Van Vuuren’s view was that things were going to get far worse and that a “new social order” was required in order to meet these challenges.

Like Kenyatta, Van Vuuren argued that social entrepreneurs would be key in creating sustainable solutions to the problems the world was facing, and would face, as a result of the current economic crisis.

Van Vuuren called on government to create an environment in which budding social entrepreneurs were given the requisite support and claimed that a miracle could happen so long as we were prepared to take the bull by the horns.

Parris then opened the session to the floor, where delegates commented on the value of social entrepreneurship and the need for government and the private sector to encourage the growth of this sector.

Mothomang Diaho, Head of the Foundation’s Dialogue Programme, thanked the delegates for their input, before Pillai informed the delegates of tomorrow’s agenda.

Reflections

Leila Akahloun, Ashola, social entrepreneur

It was very interesting. It is important to hear the voice of the business community, as sometimes social entrepreneurs work in a vacuum.

We need models from the commercial sector as a way to capitalise on talents and resources.

I see the emergence of social entrepreneurs as a critical need in rebalancing ourselves in the current economic situation. Social entrepreneurs have a lot of answers, alternative models for finance and development in the current economic crisis.

Dunstun Langa, CIDA City Campus, final year BBA Degree

Today’s session was really powerful. I now know a lot more about social entrepreneurship. I think South African youth needs to be more involved in such things. The deputy prime minister of Kenya had really interesting things to say and it would be great if South Africa would adopt some of the solutions they have implemented in that country.

Maureen Kekana, Oprah Winfrey’s Academy for Girls, Grade 10 (aged 16)

This session was very interesting for me because I shared a table with Wendy Luhabe and Bantu Holomisa. It was very eye-opening to see how adults think and how we think about what the youth is supposed to be doing.

This session pushes me to take the knowledge back to the girls at my school, because being at Oprah’s academy we have an opportunity that some girls don’t have.

Rev Thomas Rene Kitutu, Christians for Peace in Africa

The session was outstanding. I have learnt a lot about leadership and the lack of peace in Africa. Without peace, leadership can’t flourish. The lack of good leaders in Africa was addressed. I am going to spread the knowledge I have got to people who couldn’t attend the dialogue.

Trevor Gifford, Director, Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe

I found this session stimulating. It touched on issues which really need to be addressed in Africa. I think the diversity of panellists from different walks of life and business backgrounds added a lot of value to the session. The Nelson Mandela Foundation has done a great job in bringing forth this dialogue.

Gareth Nolan, President’s Gold Award winner

I like the fact that it is a dialogue. You’re allowed to participate; it puts you in a position to interact and engage with people.

I am worried about the gap between the older generation and the youth and I am pleased that someone in a position of power has realised this and that something will happen. 

Busi Mabuza, Central Energy Forum

Very good ideas came out of the panel discussion and it was good to then have a table discussion, because the ideas that you wanted to follow up came up.

The topic is relevant but what we do hereafter is more relevant. What practical action is going to be taken? There are great ideas and I hope that they will see the light of day.

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Download Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech (in PDF format).