Panels on Today's Transnational Threats & Podcast on Linking Data-Policy-Dialogue in Addressing Africa's Development Needs

Below are links to several podcast & panels which either feature or include Ambassador Sanders as a panelist:

-- Sanders participates in Georgetown University's International School of Diplomacy's (ISD) panel on today's Transnational Threats. Sanders was asked to discuss these issues in Africa. Panel discussion can be found here.

-- Sanders on Gallup's Podcast highlighting the importance of the data-policy-dialogue linkages needed in order to concretely understand & improve life quality & development for Africa, particularly for Africa's women and region's young people https://news.gallup.com/podcast/353909/women-backbone-africa.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

 

A FEEEDS Series Blogspot

Amb. Sanders on "The Gallup Podcast" on Africa Development Issues, Noting Key Role of African Women & Youth

GALLUP PODCAST

AUG 19, 2021

"Women Are the Backbone" of Africa

Ambassador Sanders discusses a 

variety of Africa development 

issues with Gallup's 

Mohamed Younis on 
"The Gallup Podcast." 

In the podcast, Sanders

highlights the 
importance and linkages of 
data-policy-dialogue to 

concretely understand and 

improve life-quality and 
development for Africa, especially for 
Africa's women, who are the backbone 

of the Continent in many ways.

She also stressed the key role of the
Continent's large youth bulge of current

and future leaders, in a range of areas from

entrepreneurship to social enterprise to fintech,  

civil society, education, and in the agriculture and health 
sectors: https://bit.ly/Sanders-AfricaGallupPodcast 

For more research data on key Africa development issues, including data on how women and Africa's young people feel about important sectors from education to health, and housing to whether their country is a good place to start a small business or if they feel secure or are concerned about their well-being, including whether they believe they are "thriving," or not, see this year's 2021-2020 @theFEEEDS Research and Data Indices: 

https://bit.ly/FEEEDSIndex2021-2020

https://bit.ly/FEEEDSIndex-Egypt2021-2020

And 

https://bit.ly/Gallup2021Data-SMEs-RegionalEconomies

A FEEEDS Series Blogspot

Gallup Announces "A 100-Year Commitment to Listen to Black American Voices!"

FEEEDS wishes to both recognize and congratulate Gallup for its "100-Year Commitment to Listen to Black American Voices," which it announced on July 16, 2020. This commitment is part and parcel of Gallup's new Center on Black Voices. 

As reported on Gallup's site, "This research initiative will be devoted to studying and highlighting the experiences of more than 40 million Black Americans: tracking and reporting on progress on life outcomes and a life well-lived." 

See the links on the new Center on Black Voices and read about its Mission

A FEEEDS Series Blogspot

FEEEDS-GALLUP-Allafrica.com 2018 Event:African Education Leaders Stress "Entrepreneurial Thinking" as New Approach to Africa's NextGen Education

l-r GALLUP's  Jon Clifton, FEEEDS' Sanders,
Ambassador Newman of Botswana &

Ambassador Nimaga of Mail

Originally published in Allafrica.com https://allafrica.com/stories/201812100320.html 

https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00065370.html

As Africa searches for alternative paths to educating its NextGen youth for the 21st Century, Jon Clifton, Managing Partner GALLUP World Poll, opened the 2018 Annual FEEEDS-GALLUP-Allafrica.com  annual Africa Forum highlighting education. The half day event November 29, entitled “New Approaches to Africa’s Education," is the fifth in a series of programs focused solely on key Africa themes hosted by FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative CEO Ambassador Robin Sanders, Clifton of the prestigious GALLUP World Poll, and the well-respected online media platform Allafrica.com. This year's forum, attended by African ambassadors, education leaders, advocates and institutions, highlighted the “best practices,” of key secondary and tertiary Africa-created education institutions; featured a leading Africa incubation and technology hub, using these tools to educate, support STEM, small business, women and girls; and provided the audience with the range of U.S. Government programs under the State Department Africa Bureau and other U.S. agencies, which synergistically support efforts to address the skills gap in the region. 

l-r FEEEDS-GALLUP 2018 African
Education Advocates & Focal Speakers
l-r Rheault, Mahdi, Sanders, Genton, Yembra,
Mali Ambassador Nimaga & Abiodun

Five focal experts—Magali Rheault, regional research director, Africa GALLUP; Faith Abiodun, director of program recruitment, and partnership, African Leadership Academy, South Africa (ALA); Dr. Abdul Mahdi, dean of students and community affairs, Ashesi University, Ghana; Nichole Yembra, CFO of Lagos-based Venture Garden Group (VGG); and, Thomas Genton, director of public affairs, Bureau of African Affairs, State Department underscored key progress areas in the sector, shared results of the new approaches supported by data and student success stories, and framed what they viewed as the next phase needed for Africa education to permanently change direction. Mostly notably the experts said that providing “safe spaces “for growth and talent to thrive (especially for young women), along with “entrepreneurial thinking,” “problem-solving,” and “creativity” were the primary things needed to help African communities and African nations -- each focal speaker using their institutions' data or case studies as examples. 

GALLUP Africa Research & data expert
Rheault & Ashesi's Mahdi
respond to questions

In her presentation, Magali Rheault said 2017-2018 GALLUP polling showed that Africa nations were not allocating sufficient budget funding to their respective education sectors to make a significant dent in changing the education systems. Her comments supported the event’s theme and desire to highlight why and what African institutions are being created and privately funded to step into this void. Thus, African government funding and the progress being made on education in Africa were mutually exclusive. Rheault went on to share with the esteemed audience three-related themes polled over 29 African countries regarding what people felt was more important to advancement or success in their country; the GALLUP research data showed they overwhelmingly believed that education was the most important thing, followed then by family or personal connections.

ALA's Abiodun impassioned
opening on the success of school's
approach on entrepreneurial thinking

 Faith Abiodun, the director of program recruitment and partnerships for ALA said during his impassioned opening remarks that student successes to date of ALA’s graduates, demonstrates that their new approach is on the right track. He noted that nearly all of ALA graduates go on to US Ivy Leagues universities or comparable schools elsewhere in the UK or other parts of Europe. In addition, many have taken their entrepreneurial mindset and responded to development, refugee, or food security issues in their home countries. Furthermore, “I saw the need to add on to what we do as ALA, by creating a Model African Union (AU) Conference,” Abiodun noted. “ This conference allows for our students to problem-solve real-world issues facing the African Continent today as if they were AU member states.”  Dr. Abdul Mahdi of Ashesi, emphasizing his institution’s experiential and practitioner approach to learning, touched on whether it was important to have Africa education associations like those that exist in the West. Mahdi explained that there are some nascent efforts in this area, but nothing that has caught on Continent-wide. He expected, however that in a decades’ time the region would see more viable education associations development as the current NextGen graduates move on 
into leadership positions with the desire to ensure Africa too

Yembra receives her 2018 FEEEDS-GALLUP
African Education Advocate Award.
 Below she meets with
invitees

Genton and Yembra during Q&A. Below
Genton discusses education with DRC activist



builds strong education associations.  

 The role of the private sector was not left out in the quest for a new approach to Africa's education.  Nichole Yembra VGG’s Chief Financial Officer provided a different vision on what education needs to include – technology training, more specifically-designed creative facilities for learning, programs for both women in STEM and those in small business, but also even more importantly a safe space in order to be able to collaborated, and teach. She highlighted the success of VGG’s "Vibranium Valley," and its recent event for solely for women in tech, by tech women called “Demo-Chella,” as name-take on the famous annual California music festival called “Coachchella.”  Yembra said that tech-focus women turned out in record numbers at the event because they felt both safe and encouraged. State Department’s Public Diplomacy and Affairs Director, Thomas Genton shared the role that it and other U.S. agencies, such as USAID, has played in both developing new Africa Education programs. He said that the “Young Africa Leaders Initiative,” better known as YALI,  truly meets the definition of a “new approach,” having a network of over 3,700 members, who share their learning experiences, and are a community of future leaders. Denton added that YALI is only a part of the story as the U.S. also provides teacher training and cultural exchanges. He stressed, however, that there is a need to ensure that African youths are listened to, invested in, and are encouraged to be more confident about their future. 

Jena Roscoe, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs Operation Hope, which for more than 25 years has assisted at-risk communities around the world with financial literacy and financial inclusion programs, hailed the Forum as one of a kind in its effort to tell the good news story about what is happening in the Africa education arena. Roscoe especially noted the enlightening remarks by VGG’s Yembra of on how important it was to have “safe spaces,” for young women and girls to thrive intellectually, creatively, especially in the tech and business sectors.

l-r Africa scholar Elmira Woods,
 Jena Roscoe of Operation Hope, &
Forum Invitee

Her sentiments were echoed by Eurika Huggins of the Institute for International Education, who noted that the event raised the awareness of what great schools like ALA and Ashesi were doing on NextGen education issues. Global Peace Services, VP Dr. Mindy Reiser, said the new research data from GALLUP, and the opportunities that Ashesi and ALA offer, should be of great interest to not only African countries but to policy makers in the U.S. "It would have been great if this conference could have been stretched into three days to allow agencies, higher institutions, and more companies in Africa and in the U.S. to hear the these new approaches to Africa's education," Jones said.

 

The focal experts were given a FEEEDS-GALLUP 2018 Africa Education Advocate award at the end of the event.The FEEEDS-GALLUP-AllAfrica.com Africa Forum is a partnership pioneered by former senior U.S. government diplomat and ambassador to Nigeria, Congo, and ECOWAS, Dr. Robin Renee Sanders, GALLUP Managing Partner Jon Clifton, and Allafrica.com Founder and CEO Reed Kramer.

VOA's Esther Githui-Ewart interviews former U.S. Ambassador Robin R. Sanders on FEEEDS-GALLUP-Allafrica.com 2018 program

https://youtu.be/4p3sIIOH2wM

A FEEEDS Blogspot Series

 

 

GALLUP World Poll Hosts Amb. Robin Sanders Book "Rise of Africa’s Small & Medium Size Enterprises”

Small Businesses Rise to the Challenges of Development in Sub Saharan Africa





Jon Clifton, Managing Partner Gallup World Poll remarks at the

book presentation on “The Rise of Africa’s Small & Medium Size Enterprises” written by Ambassador Robin Sanders, (right), Thursday, May 11, 2017- Photo by Idika Onyukwu

While development is ultimately the responsibility of each sovereign country, small and medium size enterprises (more commonly referred to as SMEs) within Sub-Saharan Africa are providing what Sanders calls creative business-aiding-development enterprises that are defining the region’s future and responding to its many age-old challenges with both new and appropriate (repurposing by-products of paper or plastic) technology solutions, according to Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders. Ambassador Sanders, a former top U.S. government diplomat who served as U.S. Permanent Representative to the West African Regional Organization ECOWAS, and Ambassadors to Nigeria and Republic of Congo, spoke at the Washington, D.C. area launch of her new book on May 11, 2017.  The book titled “The Rise of Africa’s Small & Medium Size Enterprise; Spurring Development & Growing the Middle Class,” highlights the role small businesses are playing in not only aiding development but adding to the economic growth of the Sub Saharan Africa Region. The Washington, D.C. book launch was hosted by Gallup World Poll, with Allafrica.com as the event’s media partner. Sanders, who is CEO of FEEEDS, along with Gallup World Poll and Allafrica.com have partnered annually to cover key events on Africa over the last several years from policies to elections, to improvement in governance.

In his opening remarks, Gallup World Poll Managing Partner Jon Clifton said, “The Africa small business story is one of the good news stories, and Gallup World Poll data helps to tell this good news story.”  Clifton commented that in Ambassador Sanders’s book there are a number Gallup World Poll Datagraphs that helped add to sharing this all-important story of the roll today that Africa’s SMEs are playing, even in, or in spite of difficult or post-conflict environments in some cases.

“The Rise of Africa’s Small & Medium Size Enterprises” discusses the determination of Africa’s SMEs to step into the void left by 40 years of post-independence development efforts that left very little impact on overall poverty reduction and job creation in the region. Some of the key chapters include a focus on recommendations on what donors, the African Union, African governments, and the new U.S. Administration can do to further assist Africa SMEs.  The book also sheds light on the “China Factor” in the region and its efforts in the SME sector; serves as a resource-rich data source of not only what Africa’s SMEs are doing, but shares investment, foundation, and competition opportunities that Africa’s SMEs can take advantage of, and extensively covers what SSAfrica’s female entrepreneurs are achieving as well as they special challenges they face.  Other areas covered by the book include: special programs by the various African stock exchanges (e.g. Johannesburg, Kenya, Nigerian) for Africa’s SMEs, which helps them better understand as well as access the capital markets, the new role that other technology creative-use boosters such as 3-D printing and drones are adding to the mix of small business opportunities; and, Sanders highlights the top eight list or her TEL list of sectors where Africa SMEs are playing and could play more of role in economic development.

Participants at the event included former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Ambassadors of Mozambique and Rwanda, Carlos Dos Santos, and Prof. Mathilde Mukantabana, and Economic Minister, Embassy of South Africa, Malose Letsoalo. Other key figures attending were Prof Kingsley Moghalu ex-Deputy Governor Central Bank of Nigeria, Eric Guichard, CEO-Homestrings, a leading Diaspora investment platform, representatives of UPAC, a prominent Africa Diaspora Business and Policy Organization, and other prominent members of the diplomatic community, think tanks, NGOs and academia from the greater Washington, D.C. area, New York, and Virginia.

TwitterLive GALLUP-FEEEDS Africa SME Event: https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23AfricaSMEs&lang=en  

Book press release: www.bit.ly/SandersAfricaSMEsBook 

Book Video Trailer:  https://youtu.be/fk-BONoNz9U;     

Allafrica.com: Rise of Africa’s Small & Medium Size Enterprises - Robin Sanders;

                        Sanders' New Book Notes the Insta-impact of Africa's Small Businesses;

Nigeria placement: Business Section Nigeria's Guardian Newspaper;

List of 30 Other media placements: https://app.box.com/v/SMEBook-Media-Placements;

Book Signings & Speaking Event Schedule: https://app.box.com/v/SME-Book-Events  

Tweeter handles: #AfricaSMEs, @Gallup, @rrsafrica, #AfricaSMEsGallup

 A FEEEDS Blogspot