The fifth edition of the Kampala Geopolitics Conference kicked off Tuesday at the Yusuf Lule Central Teaching Facility Auditorium at Makerere University.
Sandra Twinoburyo, a broadcaster at Nation Media Group, was the event host for day one of the two-day conference.
In her opening remarks, Paulina Chiwangu, the UN Women’s Country Representative in Uganda, said there is an expectation for Africans to constitute 42% of the global youth by 2030.
”With this high rapid growth, we require leaders that will be filled with solutions for sustainable jobs, housing and health,” she noted.
Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, said the institution was proud to be a pioneer and partner in the Kampala Geopolitics Conference.
“We value this conference as a major avenue to disseminate our research on major national and global issues. We believe it is our major responsibility as a premier African university to avail the space for intellectual discourse on issues that affect the well-being of our country, continent, and humanity generally,” said Nawangwe.
He added: “I am happy to see that the 5th Kampala Geopolitics Conference will include international debates on topics such as women’s rights, the war in Ukraine, the globalisation of sport etc.”
According to Nils Wörmer, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Director for Regional Program on Security Dialogue for East Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the last two Kampala Geopolitics Conferences to be restricted.
“We had to think about the organisation of this Conference again very a few weeks ago. The Ebola outbreak, which also somehow affects the capital city, prompted us to think of how to organise this Conference.”
He said the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 marked the unprecedented use of force by one state against another.
“This war has had ripple effects globally with unmitigated political and economic repercussions. Though the debate is of high quality on different topics, we want to reach as many interested people as possible and discuss a spectrum of solutions. We are confident that together we shall make this year’s event a complete success like the previous events,” he noted.
On his part, Patrice Gilles, the Executive Director of Alliance Francaise de Kampala, said they invite artists from all over the world and promote emerging artists from Uganda.
“We do two main things; promote languages, first and foremost the French language which is mostly spoken in African countries like Congo now. We also teach Spanish and Luganda.”
He said the Alliance Francaise also promotes cultures, a bit of the French culture, “because we believe it’s a nice thing to create a dialogue between France and the French-speaking countries and Uganda”.
“We believe changes in this world will come through these young people in the near future. Everything we do is part of life in the city.”
H.E Xavier Sticker, the Ambassador-Designate of France to Uganda, revealed that the idea of the Kampala Geopolitics Conference came five years ago from “one of my predecessors” and the idea was to partner with different stakeholders to do just that, debate.
“We are here to build a common ground to identify what kind of action we can take together,” he told the audience.
He said they are not just bringing debates to Africa but also having debates in Africa that lead to solutions.
“Africa has been on the receiving end of these debates. Africa should be a participant in debates. We are here to listen to you and pass on your conclusions onwards in order to have that global discussion for global solutions to be found.”
