Workshop to inspire African NSOs towards action on peace and SDGs kicks off in Nairobi
Nairobi, Kenya: A total of 20 selected participants from 19 National Scout Organizations across the Africa Scout Region have gathered in Nairobi, Kenya for the 2018 Regional Messengers of Peace Workshop. They include selected MoP coordinators/Ambassadors, Youth Leaders or Advisors, National Executives and other new young leaders from Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, DR Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also present is a Youth advisor to the World Scout Committee, members of the Regional MoP Decision Committee, Africa Scout Committee and the World Scout Bureau staff.
During this five-day workshop participants will have an opportunity to enhance their capacity to inspire their NSOs to operationalize the Better World Framework for greater social impact and to better tell the stories of how Scouts are transforming their communities. They will increase their knowledge of the 3 elements of the MoP Initiative; Support Fund, Educational Programme and Global network. The programme will also include a memorable visit to Nyeri where the Founder of Scouting lived the last days of his life and is buried.
Speaking at the opening session, Jeremy Naivasha the Regional Treasurer reminded the participants of the privilege they have to play the role of National MoP Coordinators in their NSOs. He implored them to give great focus to the impact of every project they conceive to ensure they maximize resources for maximum social impact. “When you look at impact, look at it from the long-term perspective. Consider what change you would like to see in two or three years to come,” he said. He also urged them to pay keen attention on the effective management of funds allocated to their projects to ensure our investors get the best return on their investment through projects that achieve great transformational outcomes.
Edgar Marumbu, a Youth Advisor to the World Scout Committee highlighted the 1 billion hours of service achieved by Scouts worldwide since 2012 and encouraged the participants to register their contributions on scout.org platform. “We have probably achieved much more than a billion hours. Messengers of Peace has been a great contributor to this achievement. As National Coordinators we need to scale up our efforts and bring on board all the great service projects being implemented at national and local levels – and inspire others to start acting like us,” he said. He also invited participants to encourage and motivate Rover Scouts to join in the celebration of 100 years of Rover Scouting. “Our impact to the world, community involvement and our contribution to a better world will be more visible with the growth of Rover Scouting,” he added.
In his opening remarks, the Regional Director Frederic Tutu Kama-Kama reiterated the importance of this workshop considering the role Messengers of Peace programme continues to play in developing Scouting regionally and globally. “It is the single multi-faceted support programme we have had in a long while. It is therefore important that we implement it in the best way possible that reflects the significant investment that has been put in by our donors,” he said. He reminded the participants to bear in mind the purpose of Scouting in everything they do – which is an educational movement of young people. “How do we capture, measure, record and show the world the impact Scouting is having on young people. What are the missed opportunities and how can we utilize the MoP Support Fund to improve the delivery of Scouting?” he posed. He declared the workshop officially open by calling on the participants to nominate outstanding young people for the award of the Messengers of Peace Hero to be presented at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the International Day of Peace on 21 September.
“Every time we bring National MoP Coordinators together is always an opportunity to engage for the development of young people who go on to impact their communities,” said Victor Atipagah, member of the Africa Scout Committee. “We are expecting that when you go back to your NSOs, to gather a few friends, share your experiences, inspire other people through little actions and begin to grow the network,” he added.
As a result of the workshop, participants will be expected to play the role of multipliers within their groups or NSOs as well as have the capacity and be available to participate in the decision-making processes related to Youth Engagement and Educational Programmes at NSO level. They will also be capacitated to organize, support and lead local networking for the promotion of social action for SDGs and support regional, zonal and national training activities when called up on.
