August 2024
African Youth Show the Way Towards Peace and Democracy
People, communities, and businesses flourish when there is peace, openness, equity, and democracy. We live in times when these values are challenged. Observers worldwide fear that the super election year of 2024 will be the year when an already weakened democracy will lose even more ground. Citizens in 60 countries cast their votes in 2024, making up almost half of the world’s population (45%). The list of countries includes seven of the world’s ten most populous countries – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States – and the European Union, with the elections to the European Parliament.
In Africa too, the world’s demographically youngest continent, many countries will hold elections during 2024. The V-Dem Democracy Report 2024 identifies Sub-Saharan Africa as the part of the world which holds the world’s largest number of democratizing (N=5), but also, the largest number of autocratizing (N=13) countries.
International IDEA’s yearly Global State of Democracy reports 2022 and 2023 stress that African youth drive new movements that claim better policies, challenge human rights abuses, and demand better economic outcomes and freedoms in politics and culture.
With these striking essentials in mind, I am extremely proud that we are having the opportunity to run the 6th IYTT Youth Conference at STIAS-Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa on August 25-29.
The significance of the event is underlined by the Nobel Program Committee’s decision to award us the great honor of running the conference as the Nobel Symposia NS 203, kindly financed by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation, and graciously hosted at STIAS.
We are delighted to organize the conference together with the FVZS Institute for Student Leadership Development at the Leadership Centre for Student Life and Learning, Stellenbosch University, The Norwegian Nobel Institute, and STIAS.
Alongside the preparations for the South Africa conference, we have lots of activities going on during the summer and early autumn.
In July, Youth Fellows carry out Summer Camps with high-school students on summer leave, in Malmö, Sweden, and in Oldenburg, Germany, within the Interreg North See project Speak Up. The results from the Malmö Summer Camp will be presented at The Overshoot Festival for climate hope and social justice in Malmö on August 24.
When Gothia Cup, the world’s biggest soccer tournament for kids and youth, goes on one week in Gothenburg, Sweden, in mid-July, Youth Fellows will run OCDTs-Open Chair Democracy Talks with the attendees. The Gothia Cup activity is part of our project Gothenburg World Youth Openness and Democracy Summit, which is generously financed by the Sten A Olsson Foundation.
In a collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, in mid-September Youth Fellows will run OCDTs together with high-school students tapping in on the center’s exhibition Echo Chambers, and the upcoming general elections in Norway.
Finally, I am very proud that two Youth Fellows are invited as speakers to the Athens Democracy Forum on October 1-3, one discussing journalistic integrity, and the other reporting back from the South Africa conference.
It is an amazing privilege to evolve the think tank activities together with all blazingly brilliant and good-hearted Youth Fellows, and it certainly gives hope for a much brighter future. A big thank you to all of you!
Speaking of giving thanks, our progression would be unthinkable if it hadn’t been for the support from our sponsors the Sten A Olsson Foundation, the Interreg North Sea – Speak Up-project, and Region Västra Götaland, our host Lindholmen Science Park, our Advisory Board, and our supportive national and international friends, such as Athens Democracy Forum, Bonnier Family Foundation, Democracy and Culture Foundation, Fourth Way Foundation, World Federation Against Drugs, International IDEA, The Innovation in Politics Institute, Global Partnership for AI, The Montreal International Center of Expertise in Artificial Intelligence, European Capital of Democracy, Debating Europe, The Global Democracy Coalition, TAM-Transatlantic Master’s Program, Dalberg: Global Consulting Firm, and Mentor.
With the summer edition of our newsletter The Loop, comes an overview of the IYTT’s recent and upcoming events, activities, and publications. I trust you will enjoy it.