Kaine addresses members of Young African Leaders Initiative hosted at UVa

The Mother of Presidents is hosting some of Africa’s next generations of leaders.

The 25 men and women gathered at the University of Virginia on Monday are a part of the Young African Leaders Initiative, a larger national group of 500 Africans who are in a six-week leadership, academic and mentoring program. It is President Barack Obama’s “signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders,” according to the program’s main website, which also notes that nearly 60 percent of Africa’s total population is below age 35.

U.S. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Virginia, and Evan Ryan, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, were among the officials on hand to welcome the group to the Charlottesville area. Ryan described competition for the international program as “unprecedented.”

“As we sit here with you celebrating your arrival, I am totally confident that you are just the best of the best of your countries and future leadership,” said Ryan, who oversees federal programs that are meant to enhance peaceful international relations.

In the years ahead, Ryan said, the young leaders and residents of African nations are poised to play key roles in shaping the world’s political and economic landscape, a sentiment Kaine shared.

When it comes to the relationship between the U.S. and Africa, “We think the time is so right for even more involvement,” Kaine said. “There is no better way than to have interaction with future generations of African leadership.”

Organizers said 70 instructors drawn from the Presidential Precinct, a consortium that includes UVa, the College of William & Mary and four historic sites — Monticello, UVa’s Morven, Ash Lawn-Highland and Montpelier — will be involved in the program, which will include workshops, coursework and roundtable discussions.

Ryan said the professional training and experience fellows like Irene Ikomu of Uganda bring to the program will help facilitate meaningful, long-term advancement.

“We have such a young population and one of the highest unemployment rates, so I worked a lot toward updating the national youth policy, which is still a work in progress, and working to push for the national youth fund to regulate the money that government allocates to help young people,” Ikomu said.

Back home, Ikomu, a lawyer, said she’s involved in advocacy work to help update and advance Ugandan laws that will benefit the country’s young people. This is her first visit to the United States.

Deeper engagement with the countries across Africa is overdue, said Greg Fairchild, a professor at UVa’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

“We feel like these leaders — getting connected to these folks now and connecting them to each other — presents such a great opportunity to learn from but also to be a part of a positive influence on what happens there,” he said.

Speaking after the program, Kaine also discussed the ongoing political instability and recent violence in Iraq. “I wish I could say it’s surprising but I don’t think it’s surprising,” said Kaine.

Unfortunately, Kaine said, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has led the country in a way that favored the country’s Shiite population, alienating and oppressing other people in the process, which allowed extremist groups to gain a foothold.

The U.S., Kaine continued, should work with regional neighbors and allies, such as Iran, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to help calm and resolve the crisis.

“This is not something the U.S. should be doing on its own,” Kaine said. “It would be foolish.”

###