MUNYONYO – The much anticipated Uganda’s first ever Africa Now think tank summit has Tuesday, March 12 started at the Commonwealth Resort and Conference Centre in Munyonyo, Kampala.
The two-day event is co-chaired by President Museveni alongside other Heads of States and key business leaders on the continent.
The President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo, Deputy Presidents of Kenya; William Ruto, Tanzania’ Samia Hassan Suluhu and a representative of the President of Egypt are present.
MTN group president and CEO Rob Shuter is in attendance as a key speaker at a high level panel discussion on ‘The Leadership Needed to Catalyse Africa’s Transformation.
The conference aims to harness the interminable energy of the African youth in forging a secure, integrated and growing Africa.
The four thematic areas of concern at the summit are; leadership, Youth – finding an Africa that works for the African youth, finding African solutions to problems and achieving partnerships.
Speaking at event, President Museveni said the problem with Africa is that in the last 600 years, the continent has not transformed whereas African society has regressed and that the feudal class of Africa that competed for power with colonialists was decimated and only the peasantry was left. Many years of fascist revolution didn’t deliver social transformation.
After independence he said “I used to hear leaders talk of double production (you know politicians love slogans), meaning more production of the same product. This double production didn’t help.”
He added that: “When we became active, I insisted on the use of the word transformation. In the 1960s, they used to talk about sustainable development, however, I insisted on transformation.”
Mr. Museveni commended the organizers for the “thoughtful” idea of starting a Pan-African think tank. He noted that its investment in research that has enabled Western societies to generate knowledge to sustainably solve their challenges.
Dr. Robert Mwesigwa Rukaari, the ASLC Chairman Board of Directors said “this is a private led think tank.
“Our main theme for this summit is; a secure, integrated and growing Africa. We have picked topics of discussion from this theme and these will be discussed during this 2 day summit,” he noted in opening remarks.
Others include African top CEOs, professors, researchers, politicians, diplomats, journalists, activists, and key leaders to engage in an interactive debate and find solutions to the challenges affecting Africa’s political and economic relations.
