World Economic Forum Event Gathers Participants to Address Challenges Facing the African Nation
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Young Global Leader and Operation HOPE (HOPE) Founder John Hope Bryant travels to Tanzania this week to participate in the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa and the 7th Annual Young Global Leaders Summit. This year’s gathering centered on “empowering change” and focuses on reinforcing the three pillars of the YGL community: community building, generating insight and undertaking collective action.
“Education is key if we want to help third world nations move out of poverty,” Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant believes. “Allowing African public schools to lag behind exclusive private institutions means that the majority of Africans will not have access to the knowledge that is needed to fuel their future. If there is a way to move towards quality universal education, we need to find it.”
Noted for his recent bestseller LOVE LEADERSHIP, Bryant was tapped to lead discussions that focused on “The Role of the Private Sector in advancing high quality education in Africa.” YGLs specifically looked at the lack of funding public schools receive in Africa and searched for ways that the private sector can help support them. Bryant was joined in discussions by several international representatives including:
- Peter Bamkole, director, EDS, PAN-African University, Nigeria
- Luis Benveniste, Lead Education Specialist, The World Bank, USA
- Jennifer Corriero, the co-founder and executive director of TakingITGlobal
- Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili, Vice-President, Africa Region, The World Bank, USA
- Yvon Le Roux, Vice-President, Emerging Markets, Africa Levant, Cisco Systems
- H.E. Jumanne Abdallah Maghembe, Tanzanian Minister of Education and Vocational Training
- Ana Karina Sepulveda, Associate Director, Global Education Initiative
YGLs participated in activities that connect directly with the Tanzanian community and participants discussed global issues and how these issues affect the development of the African continent. The gathering involves 265 Young Global Leaders (YGL) from more than 70 countries dedicated to shaping the global future. At the opening ceremonies, Salim Ahmed Salim, former Prime Minister of Tanzania stated that, “Africa is confronting a lot of challenges: poverty, diseases, conflicts — we have to overcome these crises.”
The Annual meeting of the Young Global Leaders precedes the 20th Annual World Economic Forum on Africa where 1,000 leaders from 85 countries gather. The World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is an impartial and not-for-profit organization not tied to any political, partisan or national interests, committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique, multistakeholder community of exceptional young leaders who share a commitment to shaping the global future. Each year the World Economic Forum identifies 100-200 extraordinary individuals, drawn from every region of the world. Together, they form a powerful international community that can dramatically impact the global future.
About John Hope Bryant
Born February 6, 1966 John Bryant is an American financial literacy and poverty eradication activist, and "silver rights" entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization, a leading self-help provider of economic empowerment tools and services for the underserved. His work to empower low-wealth communities has earned him a role as the Vice Chair of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and the Chairman of the Council’s Under-Served Committee. Bryant is author of the new bestselling book LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World. To learn more about him visit www.operationhope.org or follow John Hope Bryant on Twitter at http://twitter.com/johnhopebryant.
About Operation HOPE, Inc.
Operation HOPE is America's leading nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization. With more than 400 private sector partners, 3500 nonprofit organizations and schools, and 100 government partners in 69 major U.S. cities and six provinces in South Africa, HOPE has raised more than $500 million in its pursuit of educating, assisting and inspiring the next generation of global stakeholders in financial literacy, economic empowerment and silver rights. Through international initiatives and its principal programs, Banking on Our Future (teaching school children about money), HOPE Coalition America (Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline, 1-888-388-HOPE, financial emergency preparedness and disaster relief), Walk-In HOPE Centers (loans, bill pay, computer literacy, understanding banking principles), and our 10,000 strong volunteer HOPE Corps, Operation HOPE has delivered services to more than one million low-wealth individuals and assumed the responsibility of piloting the Silver Rights Movement towards making free enterprise and capitalism relevant to all underserved communities. To learn more about HOPE, visit www.operationhope.org and www.5MK.org, or read our blog at www.operationhope.org/blog.