FORMER ZANZIBAR PRESIDENT KARUME, EAST AFRICA LEADERS TO CONVENE AT GREAT LAKES REGION PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT IN UGANDA

H.E Dr Amani Abeid Karume

On the invitation of President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Museveni, Former Zanzibar President H.E Dr Amani Abeid Karume will join a delegation of East African leaders to explore regional peace and security issues and discuss innovative approaches that will improve economic opportunity, advance excellence and equality in education, increase youth productivity, support women’s empowerment, and address critical community development needs at a convening of regional leaders in Kampala of August 1-2, 2018.

The Global Peace Leadership Conference: East Africa-Great Lakes Region is a two-day strategic summit hosted by Honorary Chair, H.E. Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, and co-convened by the Republic of Uganda, the Global Peace Foundation, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Inter-religious Council of Uganda and the Private Sector Foundation Uganda. Over two days of sessions, government and private sector leaders will work to build consensus on effective responses to urgent challenges and opportunities across the region. Guided by shared vision, regional leaders will explore issues of security, economic development, education, family integrity, and leadership at all levels of society, in the context of East Africa’s diverse political and social conditions.

President Karume said that increasing hostilities in East Africa and the broader region have exacerbated “widespread poverty and growing despair.” He expressed special concern about the threat of violent extremism and need for proactive measures to engage youth. “This summit in Uganda is an important step forward in building the infrastructure for peace in East Africa,” he said. “We need to set aside our limited agendas—whether tribal, religious, national, or personal—and acknowledge that our youth face grave threats that deserve our most sincere, sustained and focused attention.”

In ongoing programs to prevent youth involvement in violent extremism throughout Tanzania and East Africa, Global Peace Foundation conducts values-based leadership training for students from primary through secondary school and beyond. Trainings throughout 2018 have strived to advance business and entrepreneurial skills to combat youth unemployment, and instill values of service to their community, fostering a sense of belonging.

GPF’s Tanzania’s peacebuilding campaign Vijana Na Amani, or “Youth and Peace,” launched in 2016, explicitly addresses identity-based conflict among youth to prevent radicalization and encourage good will across tribal and ethnic boundaries. Following the Global Peace Leadership Conference in 2015, an ongoing partnership with the Interreligious Council for Peace in Tanzania has supported GPF efforts to involve respected faith leaders in building bridges across tribal and religious divisions. GPF Tanzania has also partnered with the Tanzania Research and Career Development Institute and Tandale Youth Development Centre to engage youth in volunteerism and environmental management.

The Global Peace Foundation opened offices in Zanzibar and Dar Salaam, Tanzania in 2015, acknowledging thatTanzania has enjoyed a long history of good relationships between Muslims and Christians in a region where religious and tribal conflict has destabilized neighboring countries. Along with many other peace and development models, a close study of the inter-religious council models from Tanzania and Uganda, among others, promises to yield significant lessons for national and regional efforts towards peace- and nation-building among diverse populations.

President Karume presided over the 2015 Global Peace Leadership Conference in Zanzibar, “Promoting Peace, Security and Sustainable Development in East Africa: A Call to Moral and Innovative Leadership.” He is co-chairman

of the African Leadership Mission on Peacebuilding, Young Leadership and Service, launched in Nigeria in 2013 to engage Africa’s leading statesmen and corporate leaders in efforts to moderate conflict, provide opportunity through

youth service and address the continent’s most pressing development challenges.

GPF Tanzania Country director Martha Nghambi said that the Uganda summit will provide a significant forum to share Tanzania’s successes, as well as ongoing challenges. “We have to learn from each other,” she said. “This is an opportunity to build a future together as Africans. We know the problems. Working together, with the tools of technology, the energy of youth, and a shared vision that respects the rights and dignity of all people, we can envision a new Africa and work to make that vision a reality.”