A conference on African development held at Concordia University Saturday and Sunday reminded its audience of their “global responsibility” towards the world’s impoverished peoples.

Organized by the Global Forum on International Cooperation, a student organization at Concordia, the conference, entitled “Connecting Global Youth Confronting Global Challenges: A Conference on African Development,” explored dilemmas and realities of development in Africa.

“Only changing mindsets can end the injustices,” said Concordia student Nick Bleser in the opening speech to an audience comprised almost entirely of students. “We have to demand and achieve- change our point of views in ways that embrace global and social fairness. The next generation of world leaders should put the global village over the individual’s city’s and country’s well-being. This is the purpose of a global youth network and it’s what global responsibility means.”

The conference presented a comprehensive survey of development within an African context. Panel sessions discussed the different variables that determine the success and failure of African nations in implementing a plan of development.

“I think it’s a really good initiative,” said Sara Mostafa-Kamel, U2 Political Science. “People in the audience can ask so many questions. It’s really focused on interaction between people so that they get a chance to get their ideas out and not just sit there and listen to what’s being said.”

One session explored the role of non-state actors in Africa. The panelist examined the potential of NGOs and African institutions as alternatives to state-controlled development.

“In many ways, NGOs [have] replaced the functions of the state,” said Dr. Henry Habib, Professor Emeritus at Concordia University and currently a visiting professor at the Institute of Islamic Studies of McGill. “The state is either unable or unwilling to help out unless it serves their political interest.”

He went on to show Hezbollah as an example of a successful alternative to a dysfunctional state for the people of Lebanon.

The conference also reminded its delegates of the promise world leaders made in 2000 to cut extreme poverty by half, achieve universal education, and combat HIV/AIDS by 2015, under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, signed by all 191 members of the UN.

“There’s been a lot of energy that’s been thrown out.” said Dr. Charles Stewart, Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “World leaders themselves have agreed there is this obligation to take on, and that generates momentum and energy. There is an assumption of moral responsibility of the wealthy nations to take up this cause.”

The development goals include a total of eight goals used by the United Nations Development Program as a framework to orient development strategies and networking until the deadline of the project in 2015.

Director-General of the GFIC, Awel Uwihanganye, stressed the importance of achieving this goal in the remaining nine years of the project.

“We do have an obligation to reach out and make lives better for others and the reason being is that we shouldn’t expect to have peace and stability for just one people,” said Uwihanganye. “If we do this we run the risk of threatening our own security that we take for granted. This security can be threatened by all the problems that are manifested through poverty such as terrorism and anti-western sentiment around the world.”

Uwihanganye went to explore the nuances behind the superficial images of African society.

“We don’t want to paint of picture of a desperate and disarrayed African society. Despite all of the challenges Africa has gone through, it still remains a resilient and strong community. Africa is not the dark continent,” Uwihanganye said.

“Africa is not in a point of no return from its dismal state,” said Omar Abdullahi, U2 Civil Engineering. “I intend to come back to my country, to Somalia, and do some positive changes. One way of doing that is to get educated from learning wherever I can and then trying to implement everything that I learned. If we are trying to find a solution, it would require a collective effort by everyone and not just individuals or a few organizations.”