LEAD Francophone Africa hosts "Democracy and Development" conference

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Created on Monday, 23 May 2011 17:52

LEAD Francophone Africa in Association with the LEAD Senegal National Association continues their periodic conferences on emerging development and leadership challenges in Africa.

The last conference was held on Saturday May 21, 2011 at the NOVOTEL Hotel in Dakar under the theme: Democracy and development: What lessons from the revolts in Arab countries for Africa.

The keynote speaker at the conference is Sophie BESSIS, a journalist/historian from Tunisia. Expert in North – South relations, geopolitics of the developing world, and issues relating to Africa, she is also Director of Research at the Institute for Strategic and International Relations in Paris (known by its French acronym IRIS) as well as Deputy Secretary General of the International Human Rights Federation. She is an international consultant who also militates for gender equity with many publications to her credit.

The debate will revolve around: the social dimension of the uprisings in such a region with varying levels of poverty; why insurgents make a link between social and political grievances; what  the economic models being protested against are; etc. Discussions will also center on the link between political regimes and socio-economic choices and revisit development in the light of aspirations of the new generations in Sub-Saharan Africa in general and the Arab world in this case.