 My name is Cynthia Chiguenha. I am the African Youth Ambassador for Peace for Southern Africa. I'm the founder and executive director of Gambia Participates. I'm the coordinator on global anti-corruption at the U.S. Department of State. I am here at the U.S. Africa Leaders' Summit to give a perspective from civil society on how we can include marginalized voices in the political space in Africa. Peace everywhere is important because without peace you can't have prosperity. And without peace people will be unable to live up to their full potential. It is important that we sustain peace, we nurture it, and we jealously guide it and so that all the programs that we have in these countries be economic programs, development programs, anti-corruption programs, all of these can only be realized when the country is stable. The summit can make a huge difference in terms of allowing for us in the U.S. government to learn more from our African friends about what we can do to help them address the myriad challenges that they face and the way in which our programs and activities affect what they are attempting to do. I think often there is a preference to partner with more established organizations that have been working for longer term. But I think young people play a more preventative role, which is, I think, comparatively cheaper than investing in conflict mitigation that happens. The U.S. Africa Leaders Summit is a platform that is important for conversation, especially me coming in as a civil society representative. It is even more important for us because it is an opportunity for political leaders in Africa to listen to us. The idea of the summit is to find an institutional way of bringing everybody together. When societies have more inclusive policies that really center these voices, everyone wins. The summit is very, very important. Even today, I was able to meet people that are in a position of power. And when you have something like this that brings people together, you're able to share ideas. So you cannot get peace without democracy. You cannot get peace without including all voices or managing diversity properly. You cannot get peace without economic stability. So when you're striving for peace, you're really striving for everything else that matters to human flourishing.