Blinken seeks partnership with African youth leaders

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told young leaders from Africa Wednesday that collaboration as equal partners is necessary to meet today’s challenges of food security, preventing conflict, combating climate change, and slowing the spread of disease.

Blinken made the remarks at a closing ceremony of The Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit in Washington.

“All of you are driving progress on some of the most pressing issues of our time. Issues that face not just Africans, but Americans. People all across our planet,” Blinken said.

Blinken told The Mandela Washington Fellows: “Our countries, the United States, our partners in Africa, we can only meet today’s challenges. We can only actually deliver results for our people if we collaborate as equal partners.”

Blinken spoke Tuesday on the last day of The Summit, which brings together nearly 700 of Sub-Saharan Africa’s promising young leaders to meet and network with each other, U.S. government officials, and private sector and civil society representatives.

He told the young dignitaries from Sub-Saharan Africa that they play an important role in shaping the future of our planet and emphasized that two in every five people on our planet will be young and African by 2030.

The summit’s mission is to build relationships that will expand U.S. organizations’ impact and reach in Africa.

“Your optimism, your imagination, your energy. It’s not only going to advance the connections between the United States and Africa. It’s going to make a difference. Is going to make a difference in your country. It’s going to make a difference around the world,” Blinken said.

The Summit is the conclusion of six weeks of academic study and leadership development for the Fellows at 28 higher education institutions as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.