 Okay well thank you very much indeed and thank you very much the Excellency President Joyce Banda, former president of the Republic of Malawi, first female president of that country and second elected female president of the African continent. We're very delighted to welcome you and along with you all of the other participants in this commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. This session of our anniversary celebration is organised by the Africa and West Asia Programme of the Institute kicking off with our head office in Addis Ababa and we are proud to have a very rich panel comprising our collaborators from the African Union as well as from across civil society on the African continent. They will be introduced properly in due course. For now my honor and pleasure it is to introduce to you the Secretary General of International Idea Dr. Kevin Casas Zamora who took office as Secretary General of the Institute on the 1st of August 2019. One point which I cannot avoid mentioning is the fact that we celebrate this 25th anniversary also with the appreciation of member states of the institute for electing the first Secretary General in Kevin Casas Zamora from the Global South. Dr. Kevin Casas Zamora is from Costa Rica and is the first from our region of the world to be named to the position. He came to the office with more than 25 years of experience in democratic governance issues as a researcher, as an analyst, as an educator, as a consultant and as a public official. Amongst his many experiences and positions which he has held out cites his role as a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy research center based in Washington DC and until recently he was a member of Costa Rica's Presidential Commission for State Reform and Managing Director at Analytica Consulting. Previously he was second Vice President of Costa Rica and Minister of National Planning. He's been Secretary for Political Affairs at the Organization of American States which in the context of the African Union if we were to translate that in a comparative perspective will be the equivalent of the Commissioner for Political Affairs within the African Union system. He's also been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and had at an earlier stage a UN experience when he worked for the United Nations Development Program sharing the Human Development Report for Costa Rica. As an academic he has had teaching experience at Georgetown University, George Washington University and the University of Texas at Dallas. It is my great honor and pleasure therefore to invite Kevin Casas-Zamura to welcome you to this event and invite a conversation around the theme which we have selected for the Addis Ababa component of the celebration of our 25th anniversary. Kevin you have the floor. Good morning to you all, honor guests, member state representatives, partners, colleagues and friends. I want to welcome you to International ideas 25th anniversary conference. We are here today to celebrate our achievements but most of all to launch a conversation about the future of democracy and the role of international idea. I would like to thank all the speakers that have accepted to be part of this global conversation. Our member states and especially our current chair and host country Sweden which has made democracy a priority of its foreign policy. 25 years ago 14 countries signed the founding declaration of international idea. In 1995 the fall of the Berlin wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the first post-apartheid election in South Africa and the spread of democracy all over Latin America made the expansion of democracy seem irresistible and irreversible. However, the founders of our institute understood that the progress of democracy was not inevitable. They understood that they had a collective responsibility to nurture it, protect it and advance it. They understood the need for collective action and support. They understood the need for comparative knowledge about the fundamentals of democracy, about elections, constitutions and political participation. Those insights have defined our mission ever since. Today international idea encompasses 33 member states from all regions. In the past 25 years we have played a decisive role in activating regional and global networks of practitioners and activists. We have contributed through publications, databases, events and advice to global debates, regional collaborations and national actions. We have supported dozens of electoral constitutional and political reform processes all over the world where our evidence-based advice has made a difference to our partners on the ground. It is a record that our member states, our donors and partners and our wonderfully talented staff can be proud of. And we are proud but not satisfied. The challenges to democracy are greater today than they were in 1995. Democracy was facing severe headwinds even before the COVID-19 pandemic. From our global state of democracy report we know that while the number of democracies kept increasing the quality of democracy was decreasing. In many democracies checks and balances were becoming weaker. Civic spaces were shrinking and freedom of expression was under sustained assault. These challenges have been accentuated by the pandemic. Over the past few months we have seen many cases where emergency powers have been invoked to do things that have nothing to do with the pandemic and everything to do with the intention of shutting down critical voices, limiting civic spaces and harassing minorities. And there are also the problematic political consequences that stem from the global economic crisis, which are only now beginning to be felt. If there is a moment to monitor the health of democratic systems it is now. And this is precisely what international idea has been doing through our global state of democracy report. And more recently through our global monitor on the impact of COVID-19 on democracy and human rights supported by the European Union. We need trustworthy information about democracy more than ever. Yet, these times also demand that we use our voice in defense of democracy. Last June, together with our partners from around the world, we launched a call to defend democracy, where we argued that the pandemic threatens the future of liberal democracy. This open letter enlisted the support of over 70 pro-democracy organizations and more than 500 global leaders. This is the task in our hands. We must build the global coalitions needed to protect democracy, but we must also strive to revitalize it. Now is the time to help democracies return to the drawing board and renegotiate their social contract. Now is the time to act against the spread of disinformation, an existential threat for democracy. Now is the time to protect the ability of democracies to hold free, fair, and safe elections. Now is the time to discuss how best to equip democracy to tackle intergenerational challenges such as the fourth industrial revolution, the sustainable development goals, and especially the climate crisis. Above all, now is the time to be unapologetic in defense of democratic values. The good news is that the case for democracy remains strong. To a much greater degree than any other political system, democracy protects our agency and inherent dignity, allows for the correction of policies, and makes a difference for key tenets of sustainable development, particularly for gender equality. Sustainable development requires sustainable democracy, making sure that democracy can reform and revitalize itself is the cause that international idea pledges to take forward for the next 25 years. We will do this by teasing out the lessons from democratic experience from all over the world, by leveraging that knowledge and putting it in the hands of leaders and activists, by continuously monitoring the health of political systems, by accompanying democracy-building processes and lending our impartial and evidence-based advice, by building regional and global coalitions of practitioners, activists, and academics, by speaking out in defense of democratic values, by insisting that democracy is a global public good that requires multilateral action by working closely with our member states and our supporting partners. This, my friends, is our pledge to you. It is a pledge infused with the hope that the sacrifices made by millions of people in the quest for democracy, from Soweto to Santiago, from Prague to Jakarta, from Jiangong to Hartoom, from Hong Kong to Minsk, will have not been in vain. Our collective responsibility is to ensure that the memory of those struggles to advance the democratic cause is honored and preserved for generations to come. That is the challenge of our time, and we at International Idea intend to meet it in full. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Kevin, for that rallying call and a powerful message of mobilization in defense of democracy and the pledge on the role which the Institute intends to take in defense of democracy, even as democratic systems seek to reinvent themselves in a post-COVID world. Thank you very much indeed. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you the foreign minister of the Kingdom of Sweden, Miss Amlend, who is also in her position as foreign minister, head of the chair of the Council of Member States of International Idea. As you may know, colleagues, International Idea's global headquarters is located in Sweden, in Stockholm, a well-appointed building sitting on a lake, and Sweden itself was one of the key drivers and a foundation member of the Institute and has worked with successive leaderships of the Institute to advance the mandate that was given to us, a sole mandate to promote democracy on a global scale. Amlend is a Social Democratic Party activist and politician. She has been Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden since 2019. Applied to her current position, she has served as the Minister for Foreign Trade of Sweden with particular responsibility for Nordic affairs, also served as the Minister for EU Affairs and Trade and as State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science, sociology, and economics from Stockholm University. It's my pleasure to invite Miss Amlend to give us her welcoming address. Twenty-five years ago representatives of 14 countries met here in Stockholm for the first Council meeting of the newly founded International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International Idea. Following the developments around 1990, countries needed an international forum to exchange and learn from others how to shape their form of democracy. Because democracy cannot be exported, it has to grow from within a society, but there are lessons to be learned and experiences to be drawn, and the international idea was to be the place for countries to do just that. International Idea has faced a chair of challenges, but is today steadily forging its role as a center of excellence for the advancements of democracy worldwide as a universal human aspiration and an enabler of sustainable development through supporting the building, strengthening, and safeguarding of democratic political institutions and processes, quoting from its mission statement. While the conviction that democracy was the way forward seemed to be uncontested in the 1990s, things have since changed. Democratic backsliding, challenges to human rights, and the undermining of the rule of law are trends we have witnessed for several years. Idea's Global State of Democracy report, a reference point when it comes to monitoring the development of democracy around the world, provides an invaluable evidence base in this regard. The most recent addition to Idea's toolbox, the Global Monitor of COVID-19's impact on democracy and human rights, clearly shows how this negative global trend has been further accentuated the pandemic. Dear friends, we need to act against and formulate a counter narrative to these negative trends. We know that authoritarianism is not the answer to today's challenges. We are as convinced today as we were in 1995 that democracy is the best form of governance for stability and development, but we need to make the case again. Democracy provides political accountability and therefore a mechanism to correct mistakes and do better. Democracy ensures transparency and access to information without which there can be no progress. While the fear of COVID-19 has understandably triggered dramatic measures, we need to remain vigilant. The current pandemic must not be allowed to become an excuse for governmental overreach to undermine democracy or its institutions. It takes times, sometimes generations, to build up stable and impartial democratic institutions, but they can be dismantled very quickly. Any limitations to the enjoyment of human rights must be in accordance with international law. The response to the pandemic must be based on gender equality, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, because only that can ensure the confidence and credibility in societies to make it sustainable. Democracy allows for civil society to mobilize, for inequalities to be confronted, for policy issues to be openly debated, for trustworthy information to freely flow, and governments to be accountable to citizens. All essential tools for successfully dealing with the current public health, emergency, and its consequences. Precisely for this purpose, the Swedish government last year initiated the campaign Drive for Democracy. Through diplomatic activity and a series of events and democracy talks, it aims to promote and strengthen democracy and the aspects that in our view must be part of a sustainable democracy, equality, participation, sustainable development, inclusive growth, governance, human rights, and security. We have particularly focused on supporting civil society actors, human rights defenders, and trade union leaders, as their role is central to upholding democracy and holding governments to account. This includes strengthening free and independent media and the safety of journalists and media workers. But we must also build global coalitions. In connection with this year's virtual United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting, we launch, as a follow-up to our Drive for Democracy, a cross-regional partnership, together with a core group of countries called the Friends in Defense of Democracy. With two exceptions, the countries in this partnership are also members of International IDEA and the IC IDEA and its member state as a platform and partner in this continued struggle of narratives. Dear friends, Swin is proud to be an initiator, founding member, host country, and this year's chair of the Council of Member States of International IDEA. And I want to congratulate its current Secretary-General, Mr. Casa Samora, and all its dedicated staff around the world on this special occasion. The current circumstances show the absolute necessity of multilateralism and the continued pursuit of rules-based international order. International IDEA will continue to be a central partner in this work. And we look forward to the next 25 years of democracy promotion. Thank you very much indeed, Ms. Anlind, for your message of goodwill and solidarity, and also for the constant support which the Kingdom of Sweden has extended to International IDEA since its founding 25 years ago. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Excellency President Banda, we're now going to move to the main substance of our celebration, which for the purposes of the conversation organized out of Addis Ababa, we decided to focus on the theme, on the sub-theme of the quest for inclusive political participation in Africa, trends, challenges, and prospects. We are extremely fortunate that we have, in the passing of President Banda, a keynote speaker who will be setting the tone for the conversation that will be taken forward by a panel of eminent Africans, both from intergovernmental settings and from civil society, in order to facilitate the exchange of views that will be taking place. I would like at this point to introduce to you the chair of the session, the moderator of the rest of the session, Ms. Njeri Kabeberi, who is a member of the Board of Advisors of International IDEA. Ms. Njeri Kabeberi is currently a director at Chapter 4 Programs and Projects Limited. Prior to taking up the position, she served as Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa. As a global human rights defender, she has also in the past worked for Amnesty International, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, the Center for Multiparty Democracy Care, the Care Civil Society Reference Group, among others. And in terms of board responsibilities, in addition to her current role on the Board of Advisors of International IDEA, she also serves on the Board of In Transformation Initiative, the Democracy Works Foundation, and Democracy Fund Trust. Njeri, as we call her fondly, has had a number of international accolades to her name, amongst them the inaugural Humanity Award by the Chamber of Lawyers of Frankfurt and Main, and also from the ILO, the ILO Wage Award for 2010, in reference to her work with regard to the rights of women, and the Lifetime Human Rights Defenders Award, which was extended to her in 2017, again in reference to her work in defense of human rights in care more generally across the African continent. Njeri, I'll turn it over to you now to invite our keynote speaker and subsequently to moderate the panel conversation after the keynote address. Thank you very much. Thank you so, so much, Dr. Debayu Lukushi. And thank you for the panelists who just spoke, our Secretary General, Dr. Kevin Casas-Amora, and Minister Anlind. We really appreciate the welcome speeches that they gave. It is my honor to really, and I'm really proud to be able to introduce Her Excellency Joyce Banda, an Interpreneur, Activist, Politician, and philanthropist. Her Excellency Banda served as the President of the Republic of Malawi from 2012 to 2014. She was Malawi's first female president and Africa's second. Prior to assuming office, President Banda served as a member of the Republic, as a member of Parliament, Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, Foreign Minister and Vice President of the Republic of Malawi. While serving as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, she championed the enactment of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill into 2006 and provided the legal framework to support the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. President Banda is an international speaker on leadership, democracy, good governance and women's and girls' rights and motivational speaker as well. She has delivered numerous lectures at universities, including Harvard Medical School, Kennedy School of Politics, the London School of Economics and Political Science, George Washington University, Kansas City University, among others. President Banda, I am sure this bio was really cut short. You have much, much more to tell us. However, in the interest of time, we are only providing that introduction. Welcome, Your Excellency, for the keynote address. Thank you very much. I thank you very much indeed for having me. I wish to thank you and to congratulate International Idea for the anniversary and for the honor to deliver a keynote address at this special event. The theme, quest for inclusive political participation in Africa, trains, challenges and prospects, is particularly relevant and timely in the face of the prevailing socioeconomic and political situations that Africa and the global community at large are setting through primarily emanating from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and perpetual political crises and dynamism taking place on African political landscape. This, ladies and gentlemen, first, it is imperative for us to remind ourselves that International Law recognizes the rights of all citizens to take part in the conduct of public affairs, to vote and to be elected and to have access to public services. This is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the numerous subsequent international regional and national conversions and instruments. This is premised on the fact that societies whose political institutions are more inclusive and participatory tend to be more peaceful and resilient. On the other hand, societies that practice exclusion tend to be more vulnerable to fragility and conflict. This reality is underscored by the importance of the principles of inclusivity in the 2030 agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals through SDG 10, Reducing Inequality and SDG 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and many other international instruments on the people's political rights and civil liberties. A huge body of research work in political and democratization processes has shown that inclusive political processes are both prerequisite and requisite to peace, sustenance and conflict prevention, as they contribute to remedying structural inequalities and inequities and other root causes of conflict. Having presented this background with regard to what inclusive political participation is, what it entails and its importance. The question before us now is how far Africa has gone in achieving inclusive political participation and processes. A quick delve into statistics show that Africa has witnessed considerable rise in female and youth political representation. Such a rise comes against the background where women and the youth have for a long time been marginalized from state structure, systems and processes that determine political and legislative decisions. A study by the International Journal of Contemporary Research 2013 showed a positive trend in women's political participation in Africa. According to the Inter-Political Parliamentary Union of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of women's presentation in parliament, Africa has three countries on that list. As a matter of fact, Rwanda tops the world on the list of women's participation in parliament with 61.3%. Other African countries are also scoring high on the index and these include Namibia, South Africa, Senegal, Mozambique and Burundi. There has also been a rise in youth representation in parliament and party political bureaus in many African countries. With regard to youth parliamentary representation, Rwanda stands at only 9%, Malawi 6%, South Africa 6%. I should be quick to mention here that the statistics on the representation in parliament and party political bureaus of other groups including people with disability, the visual impaired among others remain low. Going through available literature, nevertheless, African countries like many other countries appear not to have done much for these special groups in ensuring their inclusive political participation. Yes, in many African countries, my own country, Malawi included persons with disabilities continue to face various forms of discrimination and socioeconomic and political exclusion. Sadly, such things happen despite the presence of anti-discriminatory laws promulgated to protect and secure the right of persons with disabilities and facilitate their participation not only in political processes but also in other spheres of life. Having said this, however, I should again be quick to allude to the fact that women and youth representation in political bureaus has been consistent in countries that have put in place statutory provisions for representation of these groups in parliament, cabinet, government and party political bureaus. In countries where women, youth and other special groups have to be elected directly, figures of their representation remain low and where there have been some improvement, the figures have been fluctuating over the years. Thus maintaining the rise of women and youth's inclusive political participation has been and remains such a challenge before us. What comes out abundant and clear from all this narrative is the fact that achieving the much desired inclusive political participation in respect of representation of women, youth as well as other special groups is in political bureaus remains a mammoth challenge, one that requires radical changes to our electoral and elective systems and embracing statutory women and youth representation in our constitutions and political bureaus offer an effective financier. It has worked in many countries including Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Suffice to mention here that such a provision should go beyond the two groups of women and the youth so as to include other groups such as people with disabilities. However, it is important for Africa to take pride in the fact that Africa has not done badly in as far as having women lead their nations. Africa has had five presidents that are female in Liberia, Central Africa Republic, Malawi, Mauritius and now Ethiopia. This means that Africa has done better than most continents. Turning to the other avenues of inclusive political participation, such as the right to vote, it is generally pleasing that many countries in Africa except for a few have embraced democracies in accordance with the principles and ideals of democracy and as exposed in constitutions of many African countries, popular suffrage is practiced in most of these countries. Sadly, in most African countries, voting as an avenue of inclusive political participation marks the end of popular political participation. As once elected leaders tend to unearth democratic tendencies and close all forms of meaningful political participation of the citizenry. The electorate no longer has power to influence government, policies or have a say on them once they elect their leaders. Simply put, the moment a voter cast his or her vote, he or she is effectively suspending his or her participation in political process until the next election. This is a painful and sad reality in most of African countries where democracy has become more overboard and legitimate catching mechanism. Thus, as we look at inclusive political participation, this painful and unfortunate reality presents one of the many challenges to popular inclusive political participation. Another vital dimension as we look at the quest for inclusive political participation in Africa is to take a look at political space for such players as opposition parties, pressure groups, special interest groups, and civil society organizations, among others. Effective and functioning opposition parties, pressure groups, special interest groups, and civil society organizations are critical components in ensuring inclusive political participation. These are institutions that provide effective and potent platforms and avenues for attainment of political inclusivity. They provide a platform through which certain segments of the population get involved in political processes and the channel through which their voices on matters of the state can also be heard or solicited. Sadly, the challenge is that in most African countries, the space for opposition parties, pressure groups, special interest groups, and civil society remains functionally and meaningful and narrow and in some instances outright closed. The state controls the media particularly state media outlets and avenues of political funding. Harassment of opposition politicians and civil society organizations remain common in most African countries and that claim to be democratic. Such developments narrow the space for opposition parties and other groups to play a meaningful role in inclusive political participation. Related to these particular challenges is the issue of institutions of good governance. The presence of effective functioning and independent institutions and structures of good governance is one critical factor, not only inclusive political participation, but also any functioning democracy. As a former head of state myself and indeed a citizen of Malawi, I bear witness to the critical role that such institutions play in ensuring effective functioning inclusive and participatory political systems and processes. In 2019, Malawi had the Trapartheid elections and were characterized by massive irregularities, a development that saw the country's high court nullify the results and ordering a fresh presidential poll. The nullification of the elections heralded a period of uncertainty in the country. However, with functioning and effective good governance systems, structures complemented by an independent judiciary, an independent Malawi Electro Commission, and a chairman of the Malawi Electro Commission with integrity and honesty, a vibrant civil society organization, the organizations under the first force that always stands with the people against police brutality, Malawi came out and disguised from such a period of uncertainty. However, suffice to mention here that despite some considerable strides made on this front or inclusive political participation, there still remains a lot of challenges in Africa's quest for inclusive political participation. These challenges include countries having no good governance institutions and countries where regimes circumvent disrespect and ignore institutions of good governance altogether. Having looked at the trends in Africa's quest for inclusive political participation and looked at institutional and structural challenges encountered on the trajectory, let me now turn to social economic challenges of Africa's quest for inclusive political participation and what are the prospects there? In tackling social economic challenges to Africa's quest for inclusive political participation, I draw your attention to two critical factors. In the attainment of sustainable and meaningful inclusive political participation on the African continent and elsewhere, I strongly hold the view that first and foremost, we need to look at what is making us fail, achieve the inclusivity that we all desire before we start talking about what we can do to achieve it. Let me briefly share with you some statistics and social economic indicators of my country Malawi and Mozambique as an example. These two cases will help me explain how social economic factors impact on Africa's quest for meaningful and sustainable inclusive and political participation. With a population of 18 million people in my country Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in Africa. 85% of the people are rural based and live on less than $2 a day. 62% of the people cannot read and write. This has a major impact on how they participate in the elections. Turning to our neighbor Mozambique, 68% of the population live in rural areas. According to UNDP, poverty remains high in Mozambique with up to 46% of the population living below the national poverty line. So as we speak about Africa's quest for inclusive political participation, these statistics provide the reality that we need to face and work with. I strongly believe that we will not talk about inclusive political participation in Malawi or Mozambique when the population live in that situation. Similarly, African countries need to create jobs, transform lives, educate their children. This will happen when they grow their economies. In my view, this is possible if we have a look within philosophy. Africa has the capacity to exploit its natural resources, most of our countries have minerals and are either not benefiting the citizens of their countries due to corruption or being stolen as stipulated in the AU-Tabumbake report. We need an empowered and informed society that can effectively contribute to our social, economic and political development and our respective countries and in our continent. I have said this before elsewhere and I will say it again that economic empowerment of our people on the African continent is the key to social and political empowerment. I have lived a better part of my life assisting women and youth gain social and political empowerment through business and education. Why? Because I know that we cannot talk about inclusivity where a certain section of the society are marginalized. Inclusive democracy to me means that all players are empowered and hold a strong voice that could be held. We will deal away with the catch of handouts and false promises if we have an empowered and informed society. Talking about the impact of COVID-19 and its after effects in achieving inclusivity in political circles, I can say without fear of contradiction that humanity faces evidently one of the worst and most devastating pandemics over time. COVID-19 has been a tragedy to humanity in general and to women in particular. It is a huge setback to our development agenda. For many third world countries, the impact of the scope of social economic indicators has been devastating. It is indeed a setback to the progress we have made this far. It is also clear that the donors that most African countries have depended upon for aid are themselves struggling due to COVID-19. Therefore, in the post-COVID-19 recovery plan, African Union must take advantage of the next case of state summit in January to discuss a look within recovery plan, i.e. the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the exploitation of our natural resources, and the implementation of recommendations of the Tabumbake Report in fighting electricity flow of our funds out of Africa, which stand at $70 billion every year, according to that report. The economic recovery of our nations will mean better opportunities for our citizens who will participate effectively in our democratic processes. Madam moderator, in conclusion, let me share the lessons that I drew from the last change of government in Malawi. Number one, the youth of Africa have risen and are raising their voices, demanding accountability, transparency, and inclusivity from their leaders. Number two, I learned that when people are taken too far, given a choice between being held and getting justice and dying due to coronavirus, they would choose democracy anytime. Finally, I also learned that power has shifted. It is no longer in state houses. Power is with the people. And if there's any leader on our continent who ignores those voices, is it doing so at his or her own period? Because before he knows it, leadership will emerge from anywhere including the marketplace and bring them down. Thirdly, the Africa must be alert. I wish to call upon all African leaders and citizens to be alert as some leaders on the continent are using COVID-19 pandemic to perpetuate their stay in office, to cancel elections, and to be more autocratic. We must stay alert and jealously guard and protect the democracies we have built for so long so that they are not compromised. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much, Madam President. Excellent speech, and I know you will have to leave soon after this, but I just wanted to quickly say that I hope you will leave your paper with international idea for people to share because you will not be able to respond to questions. I note you have really zeroed down on political exclusion to the marginalized minorities and special groups. I also note that you have talked about the progress of women leadership in Africa, but more importantly, also for us to watch out not to use COVID-19 as an excuse to introduce autocracy and to really take away democracy that African countries have been enjoying. More importantly, you have also said we must watch out for the young people. They are not domiciled. They are rising up. They are speaking for themselves. Power is with the people, and leaders must be alert. Thank you so, so much for such a powerful speech, but also you have also said civil society is important. It is not many people who have served in government who recognize the role of civil society, so I appreciate so much and I'm sure the listeners have also appreciated. We honor you, Madam President, and we wish you a good day for the rest of the day as you move on to other activities. Thank you. Thank you very much, indeed, for having me. Thank you. We will now immediately proceed to our second panelist. We do have a team of distinguished panelists today, and we will move to Samsung Itodo. Samsung is a community organizer and development practitioner with 13 years of experience in elections, parliamentary strengthening, constitutional building, youth development, and community organizing. He led the movement for reduction of age limits for running for public office in Nigeria. He has facilitated legislation and policies on constitutional and electoral governance, civic engagement, public accountability, national development. He also provides strategic policy advice to parliamentary committees, electoral commissions, political parties, and international donors. Under his leadership, Yadda Africa, which is heading now, has marked as a leading civic organization promoting political inclusion, electoral integrity, and public accountability in Africa through citizens' engagement. Samsung has previously also been a lead consultant for International Idea. He's one of Africa's leading rising stars and has earned a lot of accolades, both locally and internationally. Samsung, the accolades are quite a number. I will not go through the list, but I do hope that our participants will be able, our listeners will be able to look through the bios and see the more information about you. Welcome, Karim. Well, thank you very much, moderator, for those generous remarks. And I'm very honored to speak just after her excellency had spoken and quite an inspiring, very inspiring speech as well. And who am I, you know, to speak right after the president or the former president? Let me thank International Idea for this opportunity and to say congratulations and happy 25, 25 years and 25 years. International Idea has not only renewed the hope of citizens in democracy, but it's contributed to strengthening democratic institutions. And I'd say that the kinds of revolutions that we see across the world and across, you know, Africa can be directly or indirectly linked to the great work that International Idea has been doing over the years. So happy 25 years and we hope in the next 25 years when we look back, we see some high level of transformation. Madam moderator, the keynote speaker has outlined a couple of issues. And what I tried to do this morning is to look at, you know, first, what we know. Second, what we don't know. And then try to provide a roadmap because we're looking to the future. But I know I have 10 minutes. So what I will try to do is to flip my presentation. First, provide what I call the roadmap and the solutions. And then I can end with the diagnostics. And I do so because I don't want, at the end of 10 minutes, I have done diagnostics and I'm not providing the roadmap. So for those who are joining us across Africa and across the world, this is what I would like to do. So in terms of a roadmap and where we move from here, I'm proposing a new political mobilization strategy to increase the participation of real and youth women or persons with disabilities. Now this new political mobilization strategy for me would have to do six things. One is how do we raise the quality of citizenship and that is at the heart of the discourse on political representation and participation, that the quality of citizenship determines the quality of leadership. And as Her Excellency said, just looking at the experience from Malawi, that yes, power has returned to the people, but you need an active citizenry to engage the political process. And so we need a new political mobilization strategy that raises the quality of citizenship. And so investment in political education of young people and women is necessary. And so if international idea and other stakeholders are concerned about the future, it is very, very important that we invest in raising the quality of citizenship. The second part of this mobilization strategy is we need to cultivate new allies. And I heard this Secretary General and I also heard Her Excellency mention this. We need a new coalition of women. And this coalition needs to involve not just youth organizations, but we need to look at the private sector. And in this new coalition of women, we've got to focus on the middle class. And this middle class is largely dominated by young people. And these young people need to be engaged because if we're going to improve the quality of political participation, then we've got to look at the middle class. We've got to look at the private sector. We've got to look at the entertainment sector and cultivate a new form of alliance and coalition. Because if you look at the MSAS protest in Nigeria, it was supported by young business entrepreneurs, by techies. And these are people who ordinarily wouldn't be involved in political politics. So the world is a business economy, but what we see is these young professionals getting involved and supporting the movement. So we need to cultivate new allies as we try to improve the quality of political representation in Africa. The third thing we need to do is we need to adopt a more diverse approach towards youth engagement and youth participation. And I hear this strongly from the Secretary Benel that, yes, we can talk about politics, we can talk about representation, or we've got to talk about climate change, we've got to talk about health, we've got to talk about business, we've got to talk about technology. And because these are critical issues that border on youth representation. So it's important to look at politics, but how does politics impact on climate change? How does it impact on technology? And so this real mobilization strategy must adopted by a particular approach and not just focused on political participation. Because the fundamental question we'll ask is political participation for what? Political representation for what? Is it just a fulfilling democratic ideal? Or it's to maximize the social goal? I think it is very, very important. And this is at the heart of our political mobilization strategy. And so if we're going to be investing in mobilizing young people to participate in the process, we've got to be very clear about the purpose. And it's not just quantitative data that I would like to agree with, but you know, quality. How does it impact on livelihoods? It's very, very important. The thought for me is political party reports. Political party reports are very critical. And the standard has been investment in political parties. But I dare say that the parties that we have on the continent of Africa will need to have a thing about first, what is their ideology? What's their mobilization strategy? And what do they stand for? So it's important. And so these mobilization strategies must first, you know, in pursuit of political parties, that they are in big platforms for leadership between them and leadership development. It is key. Secondly, they are also platforms for public accountability. And we've got parties to make great campaign policies and they don't feel the role of campaign policy. But our investment and engagement with political parties must be one that, you know, deepens internal democracy between the political parties across Africa because that impacts on the participation of young people and the participation of women and persons with disabilities. And joining that is the cost of politics. And that's an impediment of youth representation. And with the data that we just read up. The fifth is trust and empower young people with responsibilities. Any political mobilization strategy that does not trust and empower young people with responsibility, it will be effective. And so Africa needs to invest. Africa needs to trust more young people with responsibilities. And I've said this before that trust them with responsibilities. If they fail, help them learn. And this experiential approach towards leadership development is what we need on the continent of Africa. And the last for me is this must be data data. And this is a charge that I'm bringing to the table, particularly for international idea that it's made a leadership role is to invest in, you know, and messing with data. And we can't say on the continent what's the percentage of youth representation in public office. How do we plan? You know, how do we engage? Yes, the, when I'm president, we would have the people's from, you know, Wanda and some other countries. But if you look at this data, that's aggregated from outside the continent. And what that tells you is the investment in harnessing youth data in Africa is very low. And so if we're looking at the next 25 years, if you're looking at increasingly participation, then it's important that we invest in harnessing with data because this will help us, you know, foster and design programs that make meaningful impact. Because young people are not in the regional school. We've got to study them as a head to regional school. And we know the Gen Zs who are increasingly becoming more active and engaging in politics would need some measure of study. So for me, that's what I call a new political mobilization strategy and the kinds of goals that it must achieve. But more importantly, is that concept of intergenerational equity? It is important that this strategy is guided by this principle of intergenerational equity, that the leaders of today will need to invest and think about the kind of future that they want for our society. But that cannot be done alone. It has to get young people. But a moderator, as I conclude, with respect to diagnostics, I'd like to just highlight three key points. That one, politics in Africa is an old white club. There's no upward mobility in politics in Africa. And it's very, very low. And that is why we've got a very low representation of young people in public office. So long as politics remains an old white club, we're going to have a big problem on the continent. And I want to echo what Madam President said. She said it in a very nice manner. The youth of Africa are angry. They are angry with the state of governance on the continent and the protests that we see across the continent. It's just a pushback because they have their margin as a pushback generation. And why? Evidence clearly shows Moe Bryant Foundation just released its report. It is clear that governance or government is not meeting Africa's citizen's expectations. And over the last five years, for the first time in 2019, there's a decline. And there's a decline with respect to government performance. But also if you look at the variable indicator on citizens' participation, the right of citizens, which the rule of law is a net threat. Inclusion has also declined. And these are fundamental issues. So there's evidence to show that there's a reason why young people should be angry. And what is the whole purpose of politics and governance? It doesn't impact on the life of young people. And so it's very, very critical and very important. And I just want to conclude by saying that yes, on the continent, it is clear, very clear, that governments are interested and are invested in controlling the socialization of young people. That is why they're counting down on social media. That's why they're introducing legislations, I think, which cause every attempt to promote political education and raise the consciousness of young people. It's stopped or it's prevented. Our governments do not encourage that level of political life. And I think that democracy provides us that opportunity to push that on this attempt by the state to sink the civic space and prevent the socialization of young people. And I think that's a fundamental challenge that we will have, because if we're going to increase the participation of young people, then those platforms for political socialization needs to be protected and needs to be guaranteed. And that means we will bridge that gap on the continent. Again, I thank you very much for your opportunity and I hope that I stop today. Thank you very much. Thank you so, so much, Samsonitodo. Thank you so much for reminding everyone who's listening, the role of the youth, but that they have something to offer and that they have been ignored, that the intergenerational equity is not playing a role in Africa, it has been ignored. But more importantly, the African governments are not meeting the citizens' expectations. So I also hope that you are going to leave your paper with international ideas so that it can be posted for those who want to understand more and deeper. Thank you so, so much. And now I move on to invite our next panelists. We are moving well and I know we may run a little out of time for questions, but we hope we will still have some time for questions towards the end. I want to invite Dr. Kabele Matiasa, who is the director of political affairs and African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He holds a PhD in political economy with the University of Western Cape, South Africa. He was the lead author of the African Union Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, which evolved between 2004 and 2006, and ultimately adopted by the African Union Heads of State and Government in January 2007. And subsequently came into force in 2012 after ratification by about 15 member states. He is co-author of the panel of WICE report on electoral-related disputes and political violence, strengthening the role of the African Union in preventing, managing and resolving conflict. He has researched and written widely on Governance, democracy and election issues. Thank you, moderator. My sister, Jerry, let me salute our host, Dr. Kevin Kazas-Kasamura, and Professor Oleg Goshi, my good friend. And I salute in abstentia, the ex-LSE President, who was with us a short while ago and delivered a keynote that sets us speaking now. And to thank all the other speakers before me and my fellow panelist, Samsony Dotto, Madam Moderator. Madam Moderator, allow me, since the time is not a lot, allow me to, I'm timing myself so that I can assist you also, that I don't go over the 10 minutes. I have five discussion points, Moderator, so that you'll check how I'll be introducing the five discussion points. And in those, I don't want to go in, I'm just provoking thinking. I'll start first with what I call key elements of participation. Second will be impact of COVID-19 on participation. Now I'm glad that the president, the former president, touched on this as well and the Secretary-General of the International Idea. The third will be inclusion of women and youth. The fourth will be clarity on call for governance reforms that proposes how to address the challenges. And then finally I'll just conclude. Conclusion is just, I think we have one line or two. Let's start, Chair, and since there are five points, I will aim to take two minutes per each point. Let's start with the first one. Key elements of participation, Moderator. Just to share with you my thoughts around participation. I know the former president said something about it, but let me build on that. This person is one of the key pillars of democracy. It's one of the core pillars of democracy. Two, it denotes citizen engagement in societal affairs during and in-between elections. So it's a citizen engagement during and in-between elections. And I'm sure we are all aware that this week, I think, I can't remember the exact date. Mo Ibrahim Foundation, he launched the 2020 index of Ibrahim index of African governance. It's very interesting that they are now saying that Africa, we are experiencing serious democratic backsliding, as other speakers have said earlier on. There's serious democratic backsliding on the continent and out of the four pillars that Mo Ibrahim assesses, all of the one that is reduced tremendously as part of backsliding is participation in Africa, is participation of all the pillars, is participation that is in serious danger. And this probably also indicates the shrinking civic space that Kevin Casasamura referred to. Now, this is actually remember the data for Ibrahim Mo Ibrahim is for 2019. And I want to argue that when they do 2021 report, it will show that COVID-19 worsened the situation on the continent. And let's then get to that. Let's get to let me just highlight before I get to COVID-19, let me just highlight five key elements of participation. How we measure it, how we gauge it. One is freedom of association and assembly. The second is political pluralism. The third is civil society space. The fourth is democratic elections. The fifth is equal social economic opportunity. The sixth and finally is equal access to public services. These are some of the indicators that we can use to gauge the level at which participation is meaningful in any given country. And I want to agree with the assembly that we need data. Data is the best, our best weapon in engaging participation. Now let's look at COVID-19 on participation. In response to COVID-19, Madam moderator, we will recall that a number of our countries adopted different strategies. One was states of emergencies, states of disasters, curfews, lockdowns, and curfew deployment of security forces in the streets. And this measures curtailed free movement of persons, they curtailed the enjoyment of human rights, and they instilled a culture of fear. And our citizens were caught in between two types of fear. They feared the virus and they feared the security forces. And there's evidence that in a number of our countries, including Kenya, the whole country, Nigeria, South Africa, there's evidence that the security forces went beyond their call of duty and abused their powers and basically leading to injuries, even death of some of the citizens. Now a number of countries, as I said, now a number of countries moderated were also had also planned elections this year. Now we need to know that there were two trends, the two trends as a result of COVID-19. One was some countries postponed elections, including where I am, I'm talking from Ethiopia, including where I am now. That those had implications, constitutional implications, including conflict, linked to postponement of elections, and constitutional implications to that. And this is where Ethiopia is at the present. Now others went ahead with elections. And what we saw in those that went ahead with elections, such as Mali, for example, is serious low voter turnout. So they were caught in between the two, right, the they see in that place. So that's where our countries were. Now let's also be mindful that in the midst of COVID-19, moderator, that we are now currently witnessing an interesting youth movement marked by protests. We've seen this in Tunisia, we've seen this in Nigeria, and we've now seen this in Uganda. In Uganda, I think yesterday or the day before, that this week. Now we see in this movement, we need to be mindful of what this means in terms of advancement of democratization and participation. Now let me move to the next segment, inclusion of women and youth moderator. In Africa, we have 1.3 billion. I think it's 1.3, 1.2. I can't remember now the exact figure, but it's 1.3. There are about million people of this moderator. 50%, more than 50% are women, and more than 70% are young people between the ages of 18 and 35 are going to be African women. Women and youth, therefore, constitute the largest demographic groups in Africa. So that's better than mine. But so that when we send the largest democratic groups, we need to them assess how its participation, helping them contribute to democracy, governance, and development. But the reality is this, that whereas this, the women and youth constitute a demographic majority, they are often in reality reduced to a political minority. So they are a democratic majority, but become a political minority in real life. So this is the right. Now let me demonstrate this to you. The statistics have been shared. Let me just share concretely what this means. The top 10 countries on the continent with the largest share of women in parliament are as follows. Rwanda, with 80 seats, they have 61.25% in parliament. South Africa, with 395 seats, they have 46.48%. You have in the media, with 104 seats, they have 43.27%. Senegal, 165 seats, they have 43.3%. For the 3.03%. Now Mozambique, this is the top five. Mozambique, 250 seats, with 41.02%. This is how we stand on the court. This is the top five. Now look at the top, at the bottom five. The bottom five is very interesting. Bottom five has a Swatini, formerly Swazili, with 73 seats, 9.59% in parliament. The Gambia, with 58 seats, 8.62% in parliament. With 140 seats, 8.57%. And finally, Benin, 83 seats, 7.23%. This is the reality. Now let's come to the use. And do the same exercise with the use. The top five are the Gambia, 36.21%. In parliament, this is under 40, under age 40. Ethiopia, 35.37%. Texas, 34.38%. Cape Verde, okay, 33.33%. Burundi, 25.47%. This is top five of under 40. Look at the bottom five, under 40 seats. Equatorial Guinea, 8.0%, 8%. Niger, 6.63%. Guinea, 5.26%. Cameroon, 3.89%. Benin, 2.41%. This is the reality moderator. So we're not talking theory here. We're talking reality on the ground. Now let's conclude with that proposes for governance reforms. Now in terms of addressing the challenges facing women and youth participation, let me propose about five or so reform measures. First is reserved seats. We need to get into reserved seats. And I think Kenya, your country is a good example for us for that. Reserved seats in parliament as well as local parliament. Second, quota system, quota system is a very important affirmative action measure to involving, including women and youth. Registered quotas as well as voluntary quotas are important. Then thirdly, enhanced participation within parties. And I think this is what Echotto was talking about, party reforms. Enhanced participation within parties. But also we need to address the strategic role of the leaks, women's leaks and youth leaks. Because oftentimes they are used merely for SCA leaders, but not for effective leadership within the parties in effective participation. So we need to look into the leaks, women's leaks and youth leaks. Now we need to also look into electoral reforms. Electoral reforms. Proposal representation systems have proved to be facilitative of inclusive participation of women and youth. So let's look into that. How we facilitate, how we encourage our countries to include some elements of proportionality, proportional representation, to move away from the winner take all systems. Then electoral, first, first to post electoral models are less amenable to gender equality and youth empowerment, unless they are combined with quotas, affirmative action measures like quotas. And finally, moderator, is the whole idea about age limit reduction to encourage participation of age limit reduction. Reduce age limit to facilitate youth participation. I think I'm happy that we are with the something I don't talk here because he's a living example of the success of this story through Africa. Not too young to run movement in Nigeria. That is, register such tremendous success and other countries have to learn from that. The age reduction bill signed into law on 31st of May 2018 and as a result the age limit has been reduced from presidential candidate from 40 to 35, from parliamentary candidate from 30 to 25, from a senator's governance from, it just retained conclusion. And moderator, that's the word really. To say that this year has been declared by the African Union as the year of silence in the guns, creating conducive conditions for Africa's development. And we believe firmly that democratic governance would place an important role in preventing of conflict. And therefore, we hope that we will make sure that democracy is defended despite COVID-19 and we prevent conflicts. And in that exercise of complete prevention, we involve women and youth as the majority of the demographics on our continent. Thank you, moderator. Let me put a full stop there. Sorry, I overrun. Sorry about that. Apologies. No, no, no. Thank you so, so much, Dr. Kabele. That was really a very, very good presentation. I liked the conclusion on how we can increase the seats for both women and youth. But I want to highlight only one thing that you talked about. You talked about the five least women participation in Africa. Gambia was part of that. And then the highest number of youth participation, Gambia was there. So what it tells me is that we don't use the same methodologies then to include women or to include youth. Because Gambia seems a very clear example that women are among the lowest in Gambia in Africa and youth are among the highest in Gambia in Parliament. So sometimes not all systems work for every country and for, I think, every culture. So we need to examine why there is such an increase in youth in Gambia and such a low rate of women in participation. Thank you very, very much. You did try to keep time. I know we have pushed you guys to work to present under a lot of pressure, but I also hope you're going to leave us with your paper so that those who are participating can dig deeper into whatever it is that you have presented today. So now I want to welcome the next speaker. And I want to also start by saying that the next speaker was my boss. He was a distinguished board member and chair of the Greenpeace Africa. He recruited me. So Brian, I am honored. Brian Tamuka Kagoro is a Pan-Africanist and Lifetime Student of Democracy. And he wants to speak to us today on this topic, Karibu Brian. Thank you very good to see you. Happy silver jubilee to international idea who have the distinguished owner of producing from their members of prime ministers and presidents, as well as having a strategic engagement with with governments. There is a problem with your video. It is just dark. We can't see you. Something has happened. We could see you earlier, but now we can't see you. It's just dark. Allow me. I think a light issue if we can just move the two. Okay, we'll fix it. I could see the light. Okay, so are you going to fix it, Mohammed, as all should Brian continue to speak then? No, he just need to move slightly so the light comes from a better angle. Brian, please proceed and we hope. Yes, now we can see you. So Anjega, I was going to say that I would have started with the anecdote and thank you to the director of Africa and West Asia, Professor Koshy, and other distinguished members of the idea family. I was going to say, Jerry, that I'm reticent to refer to statistics unlike my friend Kabila Matlosa. And because statistics can mean many things. So for example, and I'm saying this as before I start speaking, America had its first female executive in 243 years in Kamala Harris, and even that is still disputed. So amongst our countries where you've had high ranking vice presidents and presidents, America has not yet joined that honorable bit. And then America had in its presidential election, the youngest candidate was 74. You know, the winning candidate is 78. In Africa, we would have been in huge protest at that age. And so it's interesting when we have these conversations because in fact, Jerry, if you go to the American Congress and Senate and try and do this under 40, then you will go to representation of women and so on. So you will have a disastrous set of statistics, which takes me to what I have heard my co-panelists say. They say that what COVID-19 has done is exposed the shortcomings in our modern social, economic and political structures. And these shortcomings have been harvested by autocrats who have seized the opportunity of COVID-19 in order to entrench themselves deeper. So in essence, from Madam President, the Secretary General to the other panelists, democracy is in peril, right? Not simply because of the emergency measures or the postponement of elections or elections being held in difficult conditions. What we're seeing is also, according to the co-panelists, is that fundamental human rights, access to justice and human rights have been severely eroded. And this is what the Moin Brain Report says. And that our societies are deeply divided and equal and vulnerable to all sorts of internal and external pressure. And what COVID-19 has done or stuckly exposed are the class, gender, generation and generational divides in our population. Also the urban rural divide and the ethnic and other forms of divide. But in this context, I hear my co-panelists saying that there is an information, knowledge and technology asymmetries that are linked to asymmetries of power and that therefore this limits the ability to have effect-based debate on policy options. And that also limits public trust in politics, which is requisite to inclusive democracy. But all the descriptions point to the fact that what seems problematic is diversity and inclusion remains a challenge so that the current COVID crisis and the responses to that crisis will shape how we handle diversity and inclusion. And if you look at why diversity and inclusion is important, is it determines who decides what knowledge and insights or data that are used to decide. And it also determines who creates policies about the present and the future. And in that, who creates opportunities in that future. So we're seeing a recurring pattern of exclusion from not just in Africa but beyond Africa, based on race, on gender, on ethnicity and class. So the questions are whether these are failures of democracy or failures of society, right? They are the arbitrary factors of otherization that we will discuss perhaps. But that what I'm hearing my co-panelists say is that there is a momentum for transformation from the youth protest to the demands by civil society for alternative voices to be heard, for citizen participation in movements and so on and so forth. What seems a bit of a challenge is imagining vehicles for transformation, right? In the sense, I suppose my small introduction Jerry is that if there are structural constraints to the progress of democracy and their ideological constraints and their sociocultural constraints, it doesn't matter that we question whether the vehicles that I have hitherto been the purveyors of the democratic struggle are still the ideal ones. Samson Itodo begins to look at political parties and suggests to us that these political parties are non-developmental. They are weak in terms of policy capacities. They are weak in terms of inclusiveness. They are weak in terms of identity and in terms of what they stand for. And it is implied in the earlier presentations that civil society is important that current manifestation of NGOs may be ideologically more event like the political parties hyper professionalize, depoliticize in the sense that it concerns itself with government behavioral change as opposed to structural factors. And in the sense it may have over focusing on processes as opposed to the substantive questions. There has been a reference to artists in popular culture and this question you have to link popular culture tragically to populism and also tragedy to questions of different models that we are looking at. So which means the following for me and Jerry and colleagues that when we're framing this dialogue is the establishment of more participatory democracy is possible. But that the world we live in is faced with radical uncertainty which makes certain things intractable. Certain things in the environment, certain things that are technological, certain things in terms of the traditional and new approaches to policymaking are disrupted by new science, by social media, by new forms of deliberation, by new forms of doing governance. This radical uncertainty demands that we rethink the following, the aims of public participation and deliberation. The questions of opinion and position because when you look at social media which is driving a lot of what's happening, what is public opinion, is public opinion still a shared principled view? Is take all the participatory arrangements that we had before with the rural participatory appraisals that we could involve people in the villages still the most relevant? What is the facts and values dichotomy in this new reality? Is there an overlap? Are we sometimes dealing with controversies generated by a small minority which is a disproportionate access to social media and staff? And how do we find consensus in controversy? How do we deal with the polarization that requires that there's openness to alternatives? This radical uncertainty also, Madam Chair, determines interest determination. That's interest determination in pursuit. What interests are pursued? How they are determined? So when you look at the opportunity, there's an opportunity of course for joint inclusive issue definition, co-creation of solutions. There's an opportunity for more dialogic and inclusive forms of governance, what others have called network governance or whatever. The challenge we face though is that there is fragmentation that affects effectiveness and legitimacy of what we before hold participatory policies and approaches. I am saying beyond the governance reforms that I think Professor Matlosa has called for, we actually need to rethink the participatory space, not necessarily the value because that fragmentation cannot be handled using top-down militarized or even the old laborious processes. And what therefore needs to be done in order to foster new deliberative settings that accommodate otherness? Because the one thing that I notice when we look at social media is that otherness, which is other ways of seeing, other ways of experiencing, other context, other problem solutions, other concerns, is that it's easy to marginalize. So across the world and in Africa, there have been attempts at participatory political participation and not all of them have been deemed democratic. The Bolivian, the Ecuadorian, the Venezuelan, the Tanzanian and the Ujama, the Rwandan, the Muganda, the South African, the Kenyans devolution system, and so on and so forth. What we've all lent, and this is work you campaigned for, Madam Chair, is you can have the structures of inclusion and participation. You can have the processes and the policies, but if the soul of society and if the culture of our politics and if the structure of the economy is that it must produce what you call a class, a hierarchy of humanity, where those who have, whether they have technology or money are heard better than those who don't have the Mamambogas and so on and so forth, you are still going to have those challenges of democracy. So that when we talk unproblematically about inclusion on the basis of a demographic category, we must add to it the class dimension. We must add to it the ethnic dimension. There are countries where the number of women or youth are somewhat high, but if we go to other categories that define those women, you realize that it may be women from the same class or it may be women from the same ethnic group or religion. Which therefore means, Madam Chair, there are positive and negative effects that we need to counter. Participate with democracy in context of state fragility or dysfunctional liberal democracy where you have stolen elections. Participate with democracy where you have exclusionary societies or unequal societies as a result of patriarchy, race, ethnicity or class. Participate with democracy where the broader social economic environment is not enabling, right, will give us a more efficient form but a deficient substance of democracy. So we must be thinking about participation going forward in the context of decoloniality and decolonization. So that when we speak in the context of idea about participatory political participation, inclusive political participation, we must add decolonized inclusive political participation and link it to the struggles of decolonizing education, decolonizing public service, decolonizing economy, decolonizing data, decolonizing technology and all the other things we've done. Having said that, do I have one minute to conclude? Yeah, having said that futurists suggest to us, Madam Chair, that there will be five great migrations going forward. There will be the climate migrations. When the weather shifts, people will shift with it. Right? Number two, urban relocations. That we're going to have rapid and chaotic urbanizations. When the masses move, they move masses. So the question of public service, education, health care, poverty, inequality that my colleagues talked about. But the question of the city, as the locus of reimagining African democracy becomes important, but we still have the majority in rural areas and reimagining is very important. So the other is the virtual world. The bulk of our youth don't come to political parties, no matter how palatable we make that, right? Because most, right, are in the virtual world. So if we have over millions of young people who are now residents of this virtual world, right? If technology threatens to dwarf the size of historical exodus based on climate, based on the slave trade. Madam Chair, when we're reimagining, I'm simply suggesting that meta intelligence, technology, and climate become some of the most important things. Because we're seeing cloud based collective consciousness, which is about processing power and memory, access to other minds that are online. What does this mean for inclusive political participation? Because our question is not to make the historical function better and more equitable. It is how to make the future, which is this virtual spaces function without the sort of limitations that we have, without reproducing the class, the gender, and other limitations. Thank you. Thank you so, so much, Brian. And always very, very powerful in your ideas, in your beliefs, in your commitment. We can fill it with the passion. So thank you so much for the contribution that you have given to this forum and also added to enriching it. I just want to say before I give a few comments on Brian's presentation that I'm going to give each speaker one minute to conclude. So and I will start with Samsung because we don't have Madam President and then and again with Brian. Brian, I like the way you have said that participation democracy is not in it's not one it shouldn't be seen in just as a word just as you have you have dissected it into three or four areas, which I think we need to think about much more. I like the issue of migration because we are really talking about migration a lot these days a lot is being talked about climate migration. And maybe we are not talking enough talking enough about urban migration and virtual migration are political parties going to be relevant in the future. But also, you know, your whole focus on ethnicity and class and indeed you did look at a bit of what we've done in Kenya, thought we have powerful constitution powerful institutions are people benefiting. And this is the question we are asking ourselves now, does it matter that we have such a powerful constitution? Does it matter that a number of countries in Africa have such powerful constitutions? So how do citizens participate and how do citizens benefit? So these are all thought provoking ideas. I understand we don't have any questions from the listeners yet. So I'm going to go straight into the closing remarks and Samson, please give your closing remarks one minute only and we move on to conclude. Well, thank you very much. It's been an inspiring session listening to Dr. Cabele. Samson. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Okay, well, yes. Samson, we can't hear you. Okay. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can hear you. Samson? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Mohammed, are we having a problem with Samson? Should I move to Cabele? I can hear Samson. I see the problems coming from your side. Okay. All right. I would say thank you very much for quite an inspiring session. It could be my internet. I'm not sure. So Samson, just continue if you are hearing me. Yes, I am. Okay. Please proceed. Now we can hear you. All right. Thank you very much. And thanks, Madam Moderator. It's been a very inspiring session and just hearing those reflections both for me. Her Excellency, the Secretary-General, as well as my two teachers, Dr. Cabele and I would say thanks so much for this opportunity. Just one point I'd like to make and add to all the points is to leave with this question whether political parties have a monopoly of political representation. I'm looking to the future and I use NSAS as a case study that young people who went to the streets defied global unions. They defied the trade unions. They even defied civil society because civil society was playing a cat role. But also the political parties and what this youth on the streets got within a few days, the opposition political parties could not get. And so if young people are beginning to take their destinies in their hands, it shows an opportunity. And I want to actually push the argument that yes, political parties don't have monopoly of political representation and they need to rethink their existence and maybe we're going to get to a point where political parties may not necessarily be that platform for aspiring to run for office anymore. And I'm hoping that we will get there because this new generation of young people who are emerging are going to transform the way our society is working. And I'm very proud to be part of that generation. And I want to again, invite international idea to do more of what it's doing, but with a renewed thinking in line with the political mobilization strategy that I shared. Once again, thank you very, very much. And it's been such a delight being part of this discussion. And once again, happy 25 years anniversary. Dr. Matplasa. A rich discussion we've had with my fellow panelists. It's always a pleasure to share the panel with something and Brian. And I'm really pleased with the depth, the level and depth of the discussion. I just want to conclude on two issues, Madam Moderator. First is that I think we want to encourage idea working with us as the African Union, we have a very strong partnership, Moderator. We want to encourage idea that despite COVID-19, we should not drop the ball on democracy. This is probably the moment when we need to up our game even more, redouble our efforts to advance democracy. That's my first message, Moderator, that we are at hand as African Union to work with international idea in that regard, to advance democracy even under these very last conditions of COVID-19 on the continent. That's message number one. Message number two, Moderator. Just to share with the platform here, that next year remember this year, I said the theme was silence in the guns, creating conducive conditions for Africa's development. Next year, the African leaders have adopted the theme as follows, arts, culture and heritage. Leave us for building the Africa we want. Arts, culture and heritage leave us for building the Africa we want. Very, very interesting thing. So I want to challenge idea, as we commemorate the 25th anniversary, that I want to challenge idea that let's start thinking together already now around how we're going to situate our work on democratic governance around the theme of next year. And I'm thinking along the same lines. Of course, I'll discuss with Professor Orogoshi in more detail in you, Moderator. But I'm thinking of something like this. Working on something like this, the culture of democracy in peace in Africa. The culture of democracy in peace towards the Africa we want. So I leave this as a challenge to idea that let's think together critically around this and let's make sure that we then work together next year, 2021, along this to contribute the theme for 2021. I thank you, Moderator. Thank you so much. Closer, Brian, over to you one minute, to your one minute. Yeah, it's been great sharing the stage with two of Africa's foremost democracy activists. In fact, you being the premier one, who was chairing the other two. Jerry, this meeting has noted the lupinization of African young people linked to the pursuit of neoliberal agenda. But that these young people are agents of hope. But not the only agent of hope that a lot of people are turning to faith and to we must ask who are the holders of power. Young people are protesting, but who holds power when they've done the protest in Tunisia in Sudan, who ultimately takes over power. Then the third is that the controllers and owners of knowledge and power are somewhat different from the women of Africa and the youth of Africa were the majority. But equally so, the owners of wealth who collude with the controllers of power are also different in demographic makeup from the youth and the women. That therefore what remains for the youth and the women is a heritage of social struggle that cannot be side bled to any other democracy. That the owners of technology, which are currently global, northern or eastern based entities, Jerry, Africa will not win this simply using foreign technology. I think that one of the biggest revolutions in participation is Africa owning platforms on which we participate, like these virtual platforms owning technology. And that will drive us forward. Thank you so much. Thank you, idea. Happy 25th. Thank you, Brian, and what distinguished speakers and what powerful presentations. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Kevin, for being there throughout and listening in. And I know you have a trail of participation today to do. And thank you, Dr. Adebayo, for being there and for even making this possible together with your team, Graham and Yafika. We really appreciate you all.