PRESS CONFERENCE on United Nations global youth leadership forum

Young people would be the builders of Africa’s future, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said this morning, noting that he was participating in the first United Nations Youth Leadership Summit because he was “a big champion of youth around the world”.

Introducing President Wade and other guests at a Headquarters press conference was Djibril Diallo, Director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), which organized the Summit underway from 29 to 31 October, to encourage young people to become involved in the fight against poverty and in advancing the Millennium Development Goals.  The other guests were international tennis star Serena Williams and Summit supporter Mohanlal Mittal, founder of the Gita-Mohan Mittal Foundation and Vishwa Pravasi Bharatiya Leaders Forum.

Describing as “historic” the Summit that brought together youth leaders from 192 countries, Mr. Mittal said it should have been held long ago and encouraged the participants to work on the world’s problems.  “When I am in the company of young people, I feel like I am 20 still,” he added.  While the old had the knowledge, the youth had the vision, he said, pointing out that the world today was ruled by younger leaders than ever before, and that past Presidents and prime ministers had to be in their sixties or older to govern.

Ms. Williams described sports as a universal language and an activity that helped break down barriers like poverty.  Having grown up in a poor neighbourhood, she had been able to accomplish more because of her sport.  Wishing to “give back” to the world community, she looked forward to travelling with the Summit to Ghana and Senegal.

The United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit promotes the power of sport to rally people from all walks of life to improve education, health and development as well as to build peace.  An estimated one fifth or more of the world’s 6 billion people are between the ages of 15 and 24, of which 86 per cent live in less-developed countries.  As part of the Summit, the UNOSDP invited 10 young African-American journalism students from various universities in the United States to attend the Summit and the press conference.

Asked why she had decided to participate in a United Nations activity that involved sports and not the other relevant issues in the Organization, she said she had had many opportunities to participate in many campaigns, but the Summit provided the opportunity to use her sports background to reach young people and educate them about why diseases were occurring in different parts of the world.

On giving youth the opportunity to solve the world’s problems, a correspondent asked President Wade whether he was not too old to remain President of Senegal.

“Africans don’t have the age problem, that’s a European problem,” the President quipped, adding that when Senegalese voters became unhappy with him they would stop voting for him.  He challenged the correspondent to test his vitality by taking a run with him.

Asked about the role of culture and democracy in the development of youth, President Wade said his country had always taken the promotion of culture and the arts seriously, since the presidency of Léopold Sédar Senghor, who had staged the first international festival of African arts and culture.  His own support for youth included his appointment as Senegal’s first young Minister of Youth in Africa, which had encouraged other African countries to do the same.

In response to a question about Senegal’s progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, he said the country was very advanced in education, health, food production and income generation.  Senegal had achieved 80 per cent in school participation countrywide, having introduced new organizations like the “Hut for the Little Ones”, whereby village toddlers from two to six years old were able to attend preschool free of charge.  In the health field, Senegal aimed to end the spread of malaria.  Prevention took a large share of the Government’s health budget, and programmes instituted to prevent that disease included visiting health promoters who showed villagers how to stop the growth of mosquitoes.

As for development, he said Senegal had the highest in Africa, with a 6.3 per cent growth rate, and an inflation rate between 0 and 1 per cent.  In addition, the Government had introduced policies aimed at increasing maize production and doubling the per capita earnings of all Senegalese.  The current medium income range was around $800.

However, the challenge for most of Africa was not only to fight poverty, but to create wealth, he said.  Africa was not poor, but it must learn how to get for a better share of its resources.  The Wade formula to end poverty was designed to encourage the continent’s oil producing countries and petroleum companies to obtain a better share of the income from oil resources.

He said that by promoting participation by young people in national affairs, Senegal expected to move forward and challenge such problems as female genital mutilation and the practice by older men of marrying girls as young as 13 years of age.  “We have engaged the help of young men, asking them to protect their sisters and to call police whenever they see a female circumcision being prepared or a marriage between a young girl and an older man.”  The programme was bearing results, he added.

The Youth Summit is the culmination of several regional summits focusing on the General Assembly’s pledge in September 2000 to raise the living standards of the poor worldwide by 2015.

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For information media • not an official record