Mancham joins Pan-African leaders to promote peace-building
06.11.2013
Seychelles founding President Sir James R. Mancham along with other former African presidents, faith leaders, philanthropists and United Nations (UN) officials are meeting in Abuja, Nigeria to launch a major Pan-African initiative aimed at building peace.
The Global Peace Leadership Conference and Festival 2013 will be held at the Sheraton Hotel as of tomorrow until November 9.
The conference, which will also culminate with the Abuja Declaration and a Global Peace Festival on November 9, also includes a panel on the role of media in peace-building, including UPI Next and regional journalism leaders.
It is a major convening of political, religious and civil society leaders hosted by GPF in partnership with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) to advance innovative new models for peace in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Mancham and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo are at the helm of the ‘Africa Leadership Mission on Peace-building, Young Leadership and Service’.
This mission will engage former heads of state, civil societies, youths, economic leaders and research institutions in a collaborative effort to advance new approaches to peace and development in Africa.
It will also set the stage for three pillars of pan-African action: interfaith peace-building, youth leadership and service.
The effort also includes current and former African heads of state, including Zambia’s founding President Kenneth David Kaunda, former Presidents of Ethiopia Girma Wolde-Giorgis and that of Zanzibar President Amani Karume, and mission members from the private sector, Comcraft chief executive officer and philanthropist Dr Manu Chandaria, and Dr Markendey Rai, a UN habitat officer.
In addition to the Global Peace Foundation (GPF), organisational partners in the initiative include the Nigeria Interfaith Action Association (NIFAA) and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), among others.
Together the organisations have mounted a massive interfaith peace campaign in every region of Nigeria along with character and creativity initiatives empowering young leadership.
“The era of ‘identity-based conflicts’ must come to an end with the rise of new leadership predicated upon universal principles and values of Harambee, Ubuntu and the vision of One Family Under God,” said Mr Mancham.
We salute and lend our support to the launch of the Africa Peace Service Corps taking multilateral action through environmental and health service, youth entrepreneurship and positive peace measures, including Nelson Mandela Day service, he added.
The leadership mission will also launch a major youth service network, the African Peace Service Corps (APSC), at the Global Peace Leadership Conference and Festival 2013.
The APSC will build on the work of Nigeria's National Youth Service, along with counterpart programmes from South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and other nations.
It will take action in four tracks − health and environmental service, youth entrepreneurship and positive peace − in an effort to further the United Nations’ millennium development goals (2015) and the post-MDG 2015 agenda.
The APSC's specific projects will include health education efforts focusing on hygiene, malaria and HIV/Aids, tree planting, and peace and conflict prevention and resolution efforts modeled on examples such as a Rift Valley initiative to build schools across tribal lines.
A GPF leadership meeting will be held in Manila, next week, followed by the Global Peace Convention in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, next month.