Youth's Call for Investment in The Future

The Chair of the Alliance of Civilizations, which was established in cooperation with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations that I have the honor to preside, organized a study day at the headquarters of the Moroccan Parliament a few days ago.

It brought together students from more than thirty countries in The 1st African and Euro-Mediterranean Youth Summit on the topic of "Euro-Mediterranean and Transatlantic Partnership: Meeting Tomorrow’s Challenges Together".

This meeting was held in parallel with the 8th Summit of Speakers of Parliaments and the 17th Session of the Union for the Mediterranean Parliamentarians.

It was an opportunity for these young people to read the "Call for Investment in the Future”  that they drafted and ask the statesmen and parliamentarians present to adopt it.

The idea for this meeting came from my conviction that Africa and the Euro-Mediterranean region need these young people. They are the leaders of the future, and they have ideas and visions that no one else has. We must listen to their voices and give them the opportunity to speak with decision-makers in a world that is characterized by uncertainty, apprehension, the unknown, and doubt.

These young people surprised the audience when they addressed topics that the experts thought they alone had the keys to. They diagnosed the problems and gave solutions that are superior to what is currently being proposed.Thereby challenging established norms. If they are crystallized into public policies, they will bring about change in the economic and development fields.

It suffices to say that these young people gave lessons to the audience in the field of international relations and political science when they emphasized that Africa has changed and that it does not need those who dictate rules and orders to it, but rather those who cooperate with it in a framework of parity and win-win. 

In this meeting, I gave examples from the Chinese and Moroccan experiences. China was able to understand globalization and integrate into its structures with intelligence and success. The state is not a "preaching" state that seeks to export its historical model, as Western countries such as the United States and France do.

These countries seek to export the Western model, claiming that no success can be achieved without adopting their intellectual, social, cultural, economic, and political model. For example, China, as long as its territory and sovereign interests are not harmed, has always based its foreign policy on non-interference and working quietly without stirring up problems. At the same time, it has been highly successful in achieving economic revolution and gaining dominance in the economic field based on rules that many Western countries have yet to understand.

One of these rules is the certainty that any economic success achieved by a country does not necessarily mean the failure of another country or force it to fail within the framework of a "friend-enemy" dichotomy, but rather within a "win-win" framework.

This explains the secret of China's success, and the success of other countries such as Morocco, which was able to understand the foundations on which alliances, the new world order, and the rules of globalization should be based.

The future of international relations no longer lies exclusively in the relative partnership of "North-South", but also in the promising and rich prospects of "South-South" cooperation. All the industrial and commercial agreements, which exceed a thousand, between Morocco and the countries of the African continent are based on a new concept of cooperation based on a partnership that is profitable for all. 

This perspective is also what characterizes Morocco's relationship with the European Union and the Arab countries.

In this regard, the students referred to the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project as a pioneering one that will pass through a number of sub-Saharan countries. It is part of the Kingdom's ongoing efforts for a prosperous Africa, within the framework of pioneering initiatives that provide unprecedented opportunities to promote regional integration and cooperation, and the structural transformation of the economies of the region.

The students also praised the Atlantic-African projects, as they will provide a safe path for joint economic takeoff and encourage the dynamics of development and regional integration based on universal values such as solidarity, mutual support, and openness in order to achieve everything that the African continent awaits. They also considered facilitating access for the Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean to be a wise strategy that has the necessary capabilities to liberate the enormous potential of the Sahel partners, and to accelerate growth and sustainable and inclusive development of the economies of the region.

These young people called for the need to create a Marshall Plan in Africa to invest in human capital, encourage scientific research and innovation, engage in the knowledge and communication economy and society, and revitalize the scientific and technical research system in Africa in cooperation with the Euro-Mediterranean space. 

This will inevitably allow for a break with poverty, terrorism, and illegal immigration, which cannot be stopped by any security policies, but only through pioneering development policies in the Euro-Mediterranean region and in Africa that achieve a safe life for all, shared prosperity, and guarantee the future of young people.

In order to mobilize and raise the awareness of various actors and specialists, these young people addressed other topics such as the negative effects of climate change, which have direct consequences particularly on agriculture, river navigation, and food security, and the high poverty rate, especially in African countries. 

They also talked about sustainable development models, systemic thinking and climate change, the local circular economy and regional economic integration, transport and sustainability, African green innovation, energy ethics, food sovereignty and other topics.

In my guidance for the outcomes of this summit and these meetings, I said that in addition to the necessity of making the voices of these young people heard, they must also be involved in the practice of responsibilities.

This approach is both a means and an end. It is a means because it allows members of society, especially young people, to learn about the mechanisms of public policy practice and how to participate effectively in communities, which contributes to building their personalities and culture more and more, and develops their behavior patterns.

It is also an end, because it works to instill in young people a number of positive attitudes, corrects negative attitudes, strengthens their loyalty and belonging to their communities, and increases their ability to think objectively, analyze and criticize constructively, and thus helps them to acquire many new skills and experiences that ultimately serve the development of their countries.