Published Monday, February 14, 2005
Voices for Africa Brings Food for Thought to HGSE 
Second Annual Conference Draws Participants from Across University
By Saima Gowani
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“Converting ideas to action” was the theme of this year’s Voices for Africa (VFA) Conference, held at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Saturday, February 5, 2005.

The VFA-sponsored event, which treated issues of development issues and education in Africa, catered to over 55 participants, featured 9 panelists, a gumboot dance troop, and diverse African cuisine.

Kacem Bensalah, the Chief of Section of Emergency Education at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, started the conference with the Keynote address.  His speech stressed to the audience of the obligation of rich countries to provide aid to help end global poverty.  Bensalah emphasized that that education provides “security, stability, democracy, peace, human rights, and governance.” 

Bensalah urged the participants, which included students and professionals from across Harvard, to make links with their theoretical learning to its practical application.  He commented, “It is useful for students to see how to link theoretical development schemes to practice, learn the opinions of practitioners, and understand the multiplicity and complexity of this field.” 

Ms. Tiffany Ivins, Program Officer at World Ed and panelist, reinforced the notion that we must work more closely with practitioners to determine the needs of the people on the ground.  Ms. Ivins added that we should “innovate, tailor, and contextualize the varied experiences from the field, creating mechanisms for sharing best practices across regions and countries.” 

The panelists, who ranged from academics to active field practitioners, brought to light the important issues of post-conflict education, the role of rural women in development, and the future of higher education in Africa. While working with tremendous resources and staff, participants and panelists agreed when it comes to real progress, the devil is often in the details and complexities of the large tasks.

Robert Jenkins, of the USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, for example, discussed issues of youth disenfranchisement after post-conflict Sierra Leone.  The goal of this program, he explained, was to help youth break the cycle of violence by providing them immediate activities to engage youth in civil society peace building and peace building initiatives.  Though his program was responsible for training more than 40,000 participants, evaluations showed the lack of sustainability or replicability.  This only highlighted the complexity of creating sustainable development programs that cause systemic change. 

A conference of this nature sows the seeds for future discussion, stimulating conversation for future change.  Atema Eclai, panelist and Director of Programs for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in Cambridge, MA, commented, “there are many ways of learning that are not just books.” People transfer knowledge,” she said, and person-to-person interaction facilitates dialogue and opens up issues not just to Harvard students, but to the community as a whole.

Rose Samuel, co-chair of the VFA Conference Committee, said that the committee had been so busy planning that they had not had a chance to talk about the real issues. “The conference sparked discussion – if people walked away thinking about the issues of the conference, we have achieved success,” she said.  “We got people thinking." 

Samuel added that she and other VFA members had the chance to debrief late in the afternoon on the many issues raised during the course of the day.

Adrian DeDomenico, last year’s conference manager and an HGSE alumnus, who attended on Saturday, and was pleased to see the conference in its now second year. He also said that he hopes next year’s conference team looks at the history of the past two conferences, and that the new team will look deeper into the issues of African development in order to give the attendees more than just food for thought.

Notwithstanding, most participants agreed that the conference was a productive and stimulating dialogue.  Tumelo Moloko, a South African graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government and conference participant, said she was “happy to see Africans on the panel that has (first-hand) knowledge of the continent.”  She also said she felt that she was being well represented by people that know the true story on the ground. 

Calestous Juma, professor at the Kennedy School of Government and conference panelist, gave the conference organizers some constructive advice: “whatever you do, keep doing it!”

Saima Gowani is an Ed.M. candidate in International Education Policy at HGSE and a contributing writer for The Appian.