Youth, Sports Take Center Stage at Landmark CEN-SAD Summit in Tripoli
The Community of Sahel–Saharan States (CEN-SAD) will convene a high-level summit of Youth and Sports Ministers from April 21-23, 2024, underscoring the regional bloc’s commitment to empowering young people and leveraging sports as a catalyst for sustainable development. Hosted by the Libyan government in the capital city of Tripoli, the three-day gathering aims to strengthen intra-CEN-SAD cooperation on a range of youth-focused priorities, according to event details published on EventVibe.
In his welcome remarks, Libyan Minister of Youth and Sports Fatahallah Abdel Latif Alzunni expressed his country’s pride in facilitating this “crucial milestone” for the 29-member economic community. “Investing in the energies of youth and providing them with the appropriate environment to achieve their aspirations is of the utmost priority,” Minister Al-Zunni told delegates. He positioned the summit as a “vital platform” to share best practices and jointly develop impactful programs targeting the region’s youthful demographics.
The summit’s agenda, as outlined by the EventVibe listing, is centered on six key objectives. These include promoting meaningful youth empowerment, strengthening regional sports cooperation, leveraging sports for social cohesion and peace-building, improving sports infrastructure, encouraging healthy lifestyles, and mobilizing public and private resources to fund youth empowerment initiatives across the CEN-SAD region.
The high-level nature of participation – bringing together ministers, policymakers, sports governing bodies, and youth representatives from the 29 member states – underscores the strategic importance CEN-SAD places on harnessing the demographic dividend of its youthful population. As a major economic and political bloc in Africa, CEN-SAD’s ability to translate the summit’s outcomes into tangible regional cooperation agreements and action plans could have far-reaching implications for stability, social progress, and sustainable development across the Sahel.