Leadership 2.0 We were off to a rocky start at the Sarova Whitesands in Mombasa for the Africa Leadership 2.0 Symposium on Tuesday June 14th, but now the gritty discussion and debate is well underway. Where to start? We had Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s incorrect assertion that Kenya is the cradle of humanity. He was entertainingly corrected by a Managing Partner of Ernst & Young who claimed Lucy for Ethiopia during the opening key note address. Prime Minister Odinga, who was more than fashionably late, then waxed lyrical on the more recent history of Africa – from colonialism – to independence, - to a time when, in his words, ‘hope has returned’ to the African continent. Prime Minister Odinga reminded the audience of executives, entrepreneurs, government advisers, civil society, journalists and NGOs that the idea of a vibrant civil society meeting to discuss African Leadership was unthinkable more than ten years ago. The frequent and temporary loss of electricity through Prime Minister Odinga’s speech pressed upon those emerging leaders present how desperately Africa needs, in Odinga’s words, to resolve ‘the problems of Africa’. The audience applauded his rallying call - ‘no more aid, we want fair trade’. A procession of statistics was peppered with customary African proverbs oft employed on these occasions: Mohammed and the Mountain; and You and the Future – meeting it rather than waiting for it. Brain drain got a mention, as did systemic corruption, equitable distribution of wealth, lack of jobs, lack of schools and even nutrition. In short, most of Africa’s failings were covered.What I welcomed most was Prime Minister Odinga’s nod to the importance of education in building human resource capacity in Africa and in particular the onus on Science and Mathematics education to contribute to this effort. There has been little reference to the role of education in ‘solving Africa’s problems’ at this symposium since, aside from Dr. Fareed Arthur’s address. This I find bewildering given the repeated references to the growing population of youth on the continent and their largely untapped potential. A young person can only be considered an asset if they have something to contribute to society. With no relevant skills and only a basic education, potential can turn to upheaval if youth are left languishing in poverty. If the education system cannot address this ticking time bomb, who or what can? Tomorrow’s session on capacity building will hopefully devote some space for discussion and debate on the role of education in tapping the potential of African youth. The founder of Africa Leadership 2.0 Mamadou Toure returned to the podium following Prime Minister Odinga’s closing remarks and imparted more words of wisdom, this time from Gandhi, before introducing the Strategic Adviser to the Deputy Chair of the Africa Union, Dr. Fareed Arthur. Dr. Arthur’s coherent and succinct talk highlighted the importance of satisfying the African youth’s ‘thirst for economic and political freedom’. Dr. Arthur stressed the AUC’s support for leadership initiatives which help the AU to achieve its goal – the integration and development of Africa. Dr. Fareed gave due coverage to the place of education in human capacity building, asserting that, while African governments may think further investment in education is futile with so few jobs for African youths to fill, it is better to have an educated unemployed African youth who can learn how to make his/her life better in time, than an uneducated and unskilled unemployed African youth who has little prospect of alleviating his suffering. Mr. Negatu of Ernst and Young then optimistically drove home the idea that Chinese and Indian investment in Africa was a good thing and that the commodities markets have helped to put Africa on the map. This articulate and efficient if simplistic presentation drew on data that masks a complex web of problems related to food security, lack of skills, and exploitation of natural resources. Malik Fal’s presentation was excellent. He cleverly used data and graphs to highlight the urgent need for increasing economic growth as population increases erode gains made in per capita GDP. Mr Fal did give credit to advancements in governance and macro economic development but regretted that these gains had not trickled down to ordinary Africans. Leadership he said, is critical to transformation, and added that no country has managed that transformation without taking control of its own development. Expounding on Odinga’s remark, Mr. Fal revealed more data to persuade the audience that Africa is most definitely selling itself cheap. Mr. Fal advised Africans to ‘sell for profit instead of selling to remain poor’. Invest in human and institutional capacity building was his advice because natural endowments are the lowest forms of capital. Dr. Jacqueline Chimbanzi (wife of the Zimbabwean Deputy Prime Minister) focused her talk on women, youth, the diaspora and technology – quite an undertaking in 10 or so minutes. The statistics say it all: Women are Africa’s greatest untapped resource, responsible for 90% of food production, representing 52% of the population and contributing to 75% of agricultural labor. However, they own only 1% of the continent’s assets and receive less than 10% of the credit. Rwanda was cited as an example of a society actively promoting women in politics and the economy. At this point the conference had over run by almost two hours and everyone was anxious to call it a day, and recharge the batteries for Wednesday’s workshop/break-away sessions. See pictures of Day 1, and visit the Africa Leadership 2.0 website, or follow them on twitter #Africa2.0.