Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00007233
PROGRESS AND PERFORMANCE
AFRICA ... CAMAROON
Kah Walla at TEDxWarwick in 2014 ... candidate for the Presidency of Camaroon ... excellent talk about African opportunity
AFRICA ... CAMAROON
Kah Walla at TEDxWarwick in 2014 ... candidate for the Presidency of Camaroon ... excellent talk about African opportunity
Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GFrlnmkfXk
Burgess COMMENTARY
If youth represent the future, then Africa has the best hope for the future in all the world. It has the youngest population on the planet.
As Kah Wella states so clearly, Africa does not lack for resources, but it does lack for the right sort of development and investment.
I did a lot of development work and humanitarian assistance work around Africa during the 1980s and the 1990s, and what Kah Wella says is absolutely correct. The trouble is that almost all the policy making is dominated by the thinking of Washington, London, Paris, etc. rather than by thinking that truly reflects the needs and opportunities of the local communities.
During my career, I tried to make change towards a more local focus for development investment. This was not popular in the centers of development power. My popularity at the World Bank was in nagative territory, and not much better within the bureaucracy of the United Nations. Without popularity in these places, a consulting career in development is not going to get much traction.
As time has passed it has become more and more clear that much of my thinking and attempts to make a difference were well founded. This is the reason I was so happy to listen to this TEDx talk by Kah Wella
Peter Burgess
Kah Walla is the first woman to ever run for the Presidency of Cameroon. At 47, this entrepreneur, activist and political leader is internationally recognized for her expertise in management and her strong stance on Africa, its women and its youth.
In 2008, Kah was featured by the World Bank among 7 women entrepreneurs working to improve the business environment in Africa. In 2011, Newsweek & The Daily Beast as well as New African, respectively cited her as one of 150 women and one of the 100 Africans who shake the world.
Over 17 years, Kah Walla has developed STRATEGIES!, an African consulting firm which offers services in leadership and strategy respecting the highest international norms. For 22 years, Kah has developed solutions and policies with business, governments and civil society throughout Africa to foster sustainable economic growth and democratic governance.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)