NOBEL SYMPOSIA

I have never been to Africa before and arrived in South Africa on August 9, together with my wife, two weeks ahead of the NOBEL SYMPOSIUM NS 203 & 6th IYTT Youth Conference. Because how could I come to Africa and meet up with 24 African IYTT Youth Fellows , if I had not sat my feet on the ground!

We travelled around quite a bit: we saw Johannesburg, Soweto, the Boo Cap and the township Khayelitsha in Cape Town, we went to a safari in the Pilanesberg National Reserve, and we saw Stellenbosch and its affluent surroundings with vineyards and orchards. This traveling around came with many experiences and candid meetings with lovely people.

We saw some depressing things too. Never have I seen so much bob wire, electrified fences, guarded and armed gates, poor people living alongside with very rich people, and where the extent of poverty is beyond imagination. And I was thinking for myself – electrified fences, bob wire, guarded and armed gates – people seem to be afraid of one another, and depressingly violence appears to be an everyday thing.

Then we started the conference on August 25 at STIAS, and I met up with the 24 blazing African IYTT Youth Fellows. They came with big smiles and socializing efforts, and great trust in one another. And so, the conference went on, and the Youth Fellows stressed the African values of ubuntu and singled out tangible policy proposals.

For me the read threads in the African IYTT Youth Fellows very inspiring agenda for change is a profoundly people-centric approach, and that they want to by-pass the established institutions and organizations because they do not deliver even minimal welfare services to the people. In their view, the establishment has failed their assignments, because there is so much poverty, so much violence, so much corruption, so much unemployment.

The African IYTT Youth Fellows are proposing new ways to engage people, and they are profoundly sound in thinking, acting, and living as true democrats, since they in every proposal starts out from the individual.

And their analysis is pretty good: if the established institutions and organizations cannot deliver basic services to the people, then you would better start building new institutions and organizations. The African IYTT Youth Fellows’ natural inclination for bringing on change is amazing, and it gives me personally so much hope.

Those in power in Africa may perceive the message from the NOBEL SYMPOSIUM NS 203 and 6th IYTT Youth Conference as a huge provocation, and it should be, it must be, and it will not be easy to make change come true. But rest assure that the African IYTT Youth Fellows are spot on what needs to be done, and that they have the strength for leading for change.

I strongly recommend everyone to get acquainted with the 24 African IYTT Youth Fellows and their ideas by viewing the 3-minute conference video, the concluding presentation, the welcoming words, key-note and panel, and by skimming the Conference Proceedings and the Preliminary Conference Report.

It has been an amazing experience to pull off our first IYTT youth conference outside Europe, and an incredible honor to do it as the NOBEL SYMPOSIUM NS 203 in collaboration with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the FVZS Institute for Student Leadership Development at the University of Stellenbosch, and STIAS-Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.

In way of thanks, all this had been unthinkable if it hadn’t been for the decision by the Nobel Program Committee, sponsoring from The Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation, the support to the IYTT from Sten A Olsson Foundation and Lindholmen Science Park, invaluable inspiring contributions by invited speakers and commentators, with special warm thanks to Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkol Karman, and the many helpful organizations and individuals who shared the conference call.

I extend my warmest thanks to the 24 blazingly brilliant and good-hearted African IYTT Youth Fellows! Very welcome to the IYTT, I look much forward to change the world together with you!

Urban Strandberg, Director & Co-founder, IYTT