September 2022 Global
On September 15, in the context of JA Worldwide nomination for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, our president, Maggie Gu, was invited by JA Africa to participate in a roundtable discussion on the theme “Peace Through Prosperity: How JA Africa Contributes to Peacebuilding on the Continent”.
The event aimed at engaging JA Africa’s partners in a conversation to discuss the significance of JA’s 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nomination, the partners behind the organization’s impact and why investing in economic empowerment of young Africans holds the key to promoting peace and sustainable development on the continent. The other participants of the round table were George Asamani, Managing Director of PMI Africa, Amini Kajunju, COO of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Center, and Marc Fancy, Executive Director of Prudence Foundation.
The webinar started with an intervention from JA Africa CEO, Simi Nwogugu, who announced that JA Africa’s capacity to expand in new countries has significantly increased with new partners such as the Coca Cola Foundation and Boeing and JA Africa plans to be in 20 countries by 2025.
She was followed by an introduction from Ms. Oury Traore, Peace and Security expert. Ms. Traore highlighted the irony of the situation in Africa where despite the continent fantastic human and natural resources, many kids are still considering that reaching Europe is the real solution for survival and success, and many of them are dying trying to cross Sahara desert on foot and then the Mediterranean sea by boat.
During her presentation, Ms. Gu reminded that Tomorrow Foundation has now entered its 5th year of partnership with JA Africa and the collaboration with JA Africa allowed us to significantly enlarge our scope of work and increase our impact. The 2 entrepreneurship programs helped over 2,000 young Africans to build their entrepreneurship, financial and project management skills, for the Futurepreneurship Program, and will allow to reach hundreds of thousands more for JA Deep.
She explained that this work is a huge step towards peace and prosperity because as confirmed by the Foundation research and many other scholars, economic development can substantially reduce people’s willingness to participate to terrorist and criminal activities: bringing new perspectives for a steady and durable employment, and eventually food and water on the table, is the best way to fight against marginalization and radicalization of most vulnerable populations.
Finally, our founder also pointed out that promoting the digital transformation of Africa through initiatives, investments and highlighting visionary African entrepreneurs is a shared commitment of JA and the Tomorrow Foundation and a key element to boost economic development and retain African youth.