West Africa Zonal Scout Conference and Youth Forum
The Africa Scout Day celebrates the dedication of Scouting as a springboard for effective and inclusive youth education, with a strong positive and lasting impact in our communities. Indeed, the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, at its 72nd session in 1995 adopted a resolution on the dedication of the Scout Movement in Africa to celebrate 13 March of each year as Africa Scout Day , recognizing Scouting as the largest Youth and Education Movement with strong results; a fame to which Niger Scouting is faithful to the results achieved since its creation that have earned it international trust and solidarity to host events of international significance.
Indeed, during the 17th African Scout Conference, the Association des Scouts du Niger was selected to organize the celebration of the 2019 edition of the Africa Scout Day (ASD) in March 2019. This meeting is placed under the supervision of the Africa Region Office of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM).
Niger was also selected to host the West Africa Zone Scout Conference and Forum in 2019, during the Zonal Conference held in February 2018 in Togo. In addition, several activities will be organized on the sidelines of this Day. This set of events will allow an exchange between Scout associations in Africa and also some countries outside the continent under the theme: African Scouting, Vector of Peace and Justice.
It is expected that these events will be held in Niamey, the capital of Niger, not only a significant participation at the internal level of the NSO, but also an international participation of NSOs and august international Scout figures who will take an active part in the activities. In all, at least 300 active participants are expected, around the common will of the NSOs to converge more towards promoting the values of peace and justice of Scouting, in the spirit of contributing to the creation of a better world, through the achievement of Vision 2023 and the inclusive approach of the Sustainable Development Goals.
THEME
The ASD theme reflects the spirit of all activities and will instil the values and principles of justice and peace-related issues, in keeping with the Scout mission, law and principles, in order to contribute to equip participants with disparate means of combating violent extremism, means of consolidating peace and social fraternity through the promotion of diversity-inclusion for a better social impact in our respective communities.
OBJECTIVES
The overall objective is to contribute to the consolidation of the international Scout Brotherhood around the values of peace and justice in line with the 2023 vision of Scouting.
It will specifically involve:
- Celebrate the ASD;
- Promote mutual learning and pooling of learning between participating countries;
- to foster the encounter between different religions;
- Increase the skills of adult ASN / NSO resources;
- Organize the West African Zone Conference and Forum in Niger;
- Inspire Niger leaders and Niger youth to become model citizens;
- Impact on life work dialogue and inspire positive behavioral change through the activities to be carried out;
- Providing participants and third parties with knowledge and skills of relationship building and peacebuilding and social cohesion.
ACTIVITIES
A number of activities are planned as a prelude to the celebration of the august African Scout Day. Indeed, from the Formation of the Assistant Trainers, to the celebration of the JAS, it will be necessary to hold the zonal events (Forum and Conference of the Zone West Africa
ABOUT THE AFRICAN SCOUTING DAY
Following the resolution (CM Res. 1607 (LXII)) of the then Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) - now the African Union (AU), meeting at its sixty-second session Regular in Addis Ababa, June 21-23 In June 1995, Scouts and Animators from across the region celebrated this day on March 13 to take stock of Scouting's accomplishments and build partnerships for increased social impact. Africa. In September 2010, the African Scout Committee decided to give the celebration of Scouting Day a regional perspective, by commissioning a National Scout Organization to host the main celebration; Scouts and Scouts meeting with their partners to present their achievements and promote "the spirit of kinship, cooperation and mutual assistance between Scout organizations in the region" (WOSM Constitution, Article XXI.1. AT).
HISTORY OF THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE AFRICAN SCOUTING DAY
Since the decision of the African Scout Committee to make the celebration of the African Scout Day a regional event, we have successfully organized previous celebrations in the following countries:
- March 10-14, 2011: Bungere / Gitega, Burundi - organized by the Burundi Scout Association under the theme "Scouting: Building Bridges, Not Walls".
- 9-11 March 2012: Luanda, Angola - organized by the Association of Squadrons of Angola on the theme "Volunteers in Scouting: A Pillar of Africa's Development"
- 10-16 March 2013: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - organized by the Scouts Association of Ethiopia under the theme "Scouts promoting peace and good citizenship".
- 14-16 March 2014: Manzini, Swaziland - organized by the Scouts Association Emavulandalela Swaziland under the theme "Scouting: Developing Youth and Positively Transforming society"
- March 11-13, 2015: Kampala, Uganda - organized by the Uganda Scouts Association on "SCOUTING: A Leading African Social Empowerment for Youth Empowerment".
- 9-13 March 2016: Accra, Ghana - organized by the Ghana Scouts Association under the theme "You can count on us to create a better world"
- 8 to 11 March 2017: Arusha Tanzania, on the theme "Engaging young people for active and responsible citizenship".
- 07 to 11 March 2018: Harare, Zimbabwe, under the theme "Uniting Youth Through scouting".