Obama to train more Ghanaians this year

This follows several applications that have been put in by young Ghanaians to participate in this year’s programme scheduled to take off by June or July and targeted at 500 professionals in sub-Saharan Africa.

The disclosure was made during a telephone conference on YALI organised by the United States government and participated in by some African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, DR Congo, Angola, Rwanda and Senegal last Thursday.

It was also in response to a question posed by the Daily Graphic on the number of young Ghanaians who had applied to take part in the programme since applications opened in the latter part of 2013.

Proffering an answer to that enquiry, Shannon Green, the acting Senior Director for Global Engagement at the National Security Council of the United States, and one of two officials who addressed the conference, said a significant number of Ghanaians had applied, although she could not readily provide the exact number.

She stated that already, over 40,000 applications had been received from Africa, while the online application would be due on January 27 and determination of the successful applicants done in early April.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Shamima Muslim, both Ghanaian journalists, and Kofi Asante of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) are among some young Ghanaians that have participated in the YALI programme since it began in 2010.

The YALI programme

According to Shannon Green, the YALI programme is meant for a high echelon of young leaders already making an impact in their different fields and who are committed to Africa.

“We are looking for young leaders who have demonstrated an impact, have positive attitudes and with commitment to return to Africa with their skills,” she said.

Successful applicants for the YALI fellowship would participate in a six-week academic programme at a United States university in one of three study areas, Business and Entrepreneurship, Civil Leadership and Public Management.

After that, they would have the opportunity to do an eight-week internship in the public, private and non-profit sectors and also attend a presidential summit in Washington DC to meet President Obama and leaders from the private, public and non-profit sectors.  

YALI and US Policy

Mr Grant T. Harris, Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for African Affairs on the National Security Staff of the White House, who also addressed the conference, said already, processing of 7,000 applications for the YALI Fellowship, which was at the heart of US policy, had been completed.

“We see engaging young African leaders as critical to everything that we want to achieve with African governments. Engaging young leaders is absolutely essential to strengthening democratic institutions and supporting economic growth and prosperity and to advancing peace and security,” he stated.

Mr Harris said “Engaging young leaders is at the heart of US policy towards Africa. Engaging young leaders is a personal commitment of President Obama. So we see the Young African Leaders Initiative as an important way to be connected to and to support young leaders of every background and every country, and through that, we want to grow this programme; we want to make sure that it is as strong as possible, that it is informed by what young leaders are working to achieve.”

He said what informed the YALI programme was a yearning from young leaders across Africa for support in developing specific skills and the desire to network and to meet other young African leaders to know what others were doing.

Writer’s email: [email protected]