Ethiopia

African Development Forum set to focus on key role of young people

Delegates from UNICEF Ethiopia's ‘Speak Africa’ initiative get together to design the daily newsletter for the upcoming fifth African Development Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 14 November 2006 – Young people from all over Africa will join UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, political leaders and entertainment stars here in the Ethiopian capital this week for the fifth African Development Forum.

The theme of this year’s Forum, ‘Youth and Leadership in the 21st Century’, provides a unique platform for young Africans to make themselves and their issues heard. Africa is a continent of the young, with more than 60 per cent of the total population below the age of 25.

Addressing a pre-Forum news conference, representatives of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union noted that young people are crucial to the continent's future, but their views and aspirations have become marginalized.

Extensive youth input

“It will be a very participatory Forum,” said ECA’s Acting Deputy Executive-Secretary, Josephine Ouedraogo. She noted that one-third of participants are young people who will have extensive input into the consensus statement to be issued at the end of the three-day meeting, which kicks off on Thursday, 16 November.

Ethiopian youth troupe, the Adugna Dancers, perform 'Dying to be free', a piece inspired by the 1971 Soweto uprising in South Africa, at the launch of UNICEF Ethiopia's ‘Speak Africa’ initiative.

Other prominent Africans who are due to attend the Forum include the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi; the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Professor Alpha Oumar Konare; and the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Donald Kaberuka.

Some of the continent’s best-loved celebrities will also be in attendance, including South African rapper and actor Zola and world-renowned singer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo, who is originally from Benin.

‘Speak Africa’

Forum participants will take part in debates and sessions on a wide range of issues, including:

Youth employment and migration
Youth entrepreneurship
Youth and information technology
Youth, health and HIV/AIDS.

The attendees will also get a chance to express themselves through Speak Africa – a groundbreaking initiative running parallel to this year’s Forum.

The UNICEF-backed communications venture encourages young Africans to discuss key issues through the Internet, TV and other media. It has invited children and adolescents from across the continent to cover the Forum and participate in media workshops, film screenings and exhibitions.

Español Français

Printer friendly

Tools to Share NEW

What's this?

What's this

Digg, Del.icio.us, and Newsvine are web services enabling you to share stories on the Internet.

The blog this article feature enables you to generate a short summary of this article, ready to be pasted in a blog post.

Digg and Newsvine are social news sites, where the top news stories are selected not by an editor but by its collective users. Explore Digg and Newsvine for yourself.

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website where you can tag and share your favourite web pages, rather than bookmarking them in the traditional way inside your web browser. Try out Del.icio.us

Blog this article

Post this article to your blog. The story’s headline, main picture and summary will be displayed on your page as in the preview below.
Writing the rest of the blog post will be up to you!

Click in the area below, then copy the code and paste it in your blog page:

<div class="unicef_embed headline">
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageImageOriginal = "http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/ibc_ethiopia_DSC0156.jpg";
var pageTitleOriginal = "African Development Forum set to focus on key role of young people"
var pageBlurbOriginal = "ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 14 November 2006 – Young people from all over Africa will join UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, political leaders and entertainment stars here in the Ethiopian capital this week for the fifth African Development Forum. ";
var pageURLOriginal = "http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ethiopia_36585.html";
var pageURLTracking = "http://www.unicef.org/blogthis/infobycountry/ethiopia_36585.html";
</script>
<a class="img" href="http://www.unicef.org"><IMG alt="UNICEF Image" src="http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/ibc_ethiopia_DSC0156.jpg"></a>
<h2>
<a href="http://www.unicef.org">
<img src="http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/unicefSmallBlue.png" width="83" height="20" alt="UNICEF" />
</a>
</h2>
<h3 style="font-size:default!important;line-height:default!important;">
<script language="javascript">document.write("<a href=\""+ pageURLTracking.replace(/.html/,".rhtml") +"\" >");</script>
<!--<a href="http://www.unicef.org" >-->
<script language="javascript">document.write(pageTitleOriginal);</script>
</a>
</h3>
<p class="embed_teaser">
<script language="javascript">document.write(pageBlurbOriginal);</script>
</p>
</div>
<style type="text/css">
.unicef_embed {
background: rgb(256, 256, 256) !important;
border: 4px solid #0099ff;
border-width: 4px 0 1px 0;
margin: 10px 30px !important;
padding: 5px;
overflow: hidden !important;
zoom: 1;
}
.unicef_embed img {
   border: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed a {
   display: inline;
}
.unicef_embed a.img {
   float: left !important;
   margin: 0 5px 0 0 !important;
   width: 102px;
   display: block;
   overflow: hidden !important;
}
.unicef_embed a.img img {
   border: 1px solid #999999 !important;;
   width: 100px;;
   padding: 0 !important;;
}
.unicef_embed h2 {
   line-height: 2px;;
   clear: none;;
   margin: 0 !important;
   padding: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed h3 {
   line-height: 16px;
   font: bold 16px arial, sans-serif !important;
   margin: 3px 0 0 0 !important;
   padding: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed h3 a {
   line-height: 16px !important;;
   color: #0000ff !important;
   font: bold 16px arial, sans-serif !important;
   text-decoration: none !important;
   display: inline !important;;
   float: none !important;;
   text-transform: capitalize !important;
}
.unicef_embed h3 a:hover {
   text-decoration: underline !important;
   color: #df5e32 !important;
}
.unicef_embed p {
   color: #000 !important;;
   font: normal 11px/ 11px arial, sans-serif !important;;
   margin: 2px 0 0 0 !important;;
   padding: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed a {
   display: inline !important;;
   float: none !important;
}
</style>

Preview :

Donate now

Ethiopia

African Development Forum set to focus on key role of young people

Tools to Share NEW

What's this

Blog this article

document.write("<a href=\""+ pageURLOriginal +"\" >"); document.write(pageTitleOriginal);