Second Future Leader summit launched

The second Future Leader summit was officially launched at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) last week. The main objectives of the summit are to equip the youth with extensive research expertise and presentation skills to enable them to present their findings at the actual summit, scheduled for 25 and 26 October.

“I found it encouraging to see such a broad set of young and aspiring leaders representing their respective communities,” NUST vice chancellor Ernold Naomeb said in his welcoming remarks.

He added that one of the most significant challenges facing governments and policy-makers in Africa today is the provision of decent livelihoods to over 200 million youth, which would enable them to contribute to the development of their countries. “It is therefore pertinent that young people are included in decision-making and given appropriate opportunities for work innovation,” he said.

Also speaking at the launch was sociology professor at Elon University and co-founder of the Future Leader summit Tom Arcaro, who said the vision of the summit in 2006 - when it first started - and now is largely the same: Solidarity and action through sharing academic research driven by a vision of a safer and healthier world for all humans.

The theme for this year’s summit will be ‘Lessons learned from pandemics and epidemics’.

“This will solely touch on the effects Covid-19 had on our future leaders and the country as a whole. They will also take a deeper look into epidemics. “Like the Covid-19 pandemic, the HIV/AIDS epidemic ­continues to pose challenges to health sectors in many countries. However, the challenges are more serious in Africa, where the disease burden continues to be high,” Esther Muinjangue, deputy minister of health and social services, said.