Paynesville – The Liberia Research and Development Networks (LRDN) in partnership with the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) with support from the Chinese Embassy have begun a four day Leadership and Development Approaches Seminar for over thirty young people in Paynesville.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh – gerald.koinyeneh@[email protected]
Speaking at the start of the seminar on Tuesday, September 19, the Executive Director of LRDN, John S. M. Yormie, Jr., outlined that his organization is an emerging think tank working with young people to address some of the major problems affecting them.
He noted that with the huge population of young people in the country, there was a need to engage them and build their capacity and self-esteem so that they can be responsible citizens, calling on participants to make maximum use of the opportunity to be agents of positive change in their community.
“We are creating a new story to rebrand the young people of our country and with the help of these people, especially Dr. Konneh, we feel we are on the right path. We encourage you to take the opportunity as important as we ourselves have taken it,” he enthused.
He averred that his organization aspires to working with young people to be a leading research and development institution dedicated to advancing, applying and facilitating high standards of social and natural science research practice for a wide variety of audiences within Liberia.
In brief remarks, the Director General of the Foreign Service Institute at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Augustine Konneh stressed that the best way for Liberia to move forward is to empower its young population.
He named sound leadership and development as two cardinal things that are most needed in post war Liberia and challenged the youth to make use of the training in order to change their country.
“The Africa union theme for 2017/2018 is ‘Harnessing the Demographic Dividend’, and that demographic dividend refers to young people. The nation or country that will develop the young people will have the dividend at the end of the day,” Dr. Konneh noted.
“So that is, if we want Liberia to become a very prosperous and powerful nation, we have to harness all of the skills that you have. If there are any two things that this nation needs today is leadership and development. We only hope that after this seminar, you will not only learn from here, but that you will use the tools that you will have been exposed to, to be able to change your own environment,” he averred.
Also speaking, the Director of Political Section at the Chinese Embassy accredited near Monrovia, David Zhang pledged his government commitment and cooperation with the Liberian Government to harness the skills of the young people. He named cooperation, overcoming poverty mindset, giving top priority to development and adherence to reform and innovation as the secret behind his country’s success story.