This past Friday, March 11, 2022, our Executive Director Dr Lawalley Cole was extremely honoured and humbled to receive a significant award (An Outstanding Diplomat Award for Youth Development) from the Youth Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 9 – 11 March 2022, organised and attended by several hundreds of Africa’s youths from all over the African continent. Many young people and others active in international and diplomatic missions around the African continent also received awards from various categories. He is earnestly grateful to the youth of Africa for this recognition he received for the work he does.

He takes this opportunity to congratulate all the youths of Africa for their resilience as they confront so many obstacles while also realising how fragile our societies, communities, and lives are in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. As we learn more and more from various lessons, including the issues derived from this pandemic, we will now know how best we will manage significant but lasting changes in the way we do things and do them better and more independently. CAFOR will continue to work with organisations and institutions in Africa that promote youth development and will continue to boost some remarkable awareness about the situation with young people on the African continent.

Dr Cole has said that achieving this award would not have been possible without the inspiration he has received from the colleagues who work with him and those in his organisation – CAFOR- who consult with him regularly to discuss varying issues related to Africa’s development. He admits that he has the most profound respect for these individuals and groups. He has derived some of the total strength to challenge himself and perform better at each stage through his various forums.

He has been associated with the Youths Advocates of Ghana and the African Youths SDGs Summit since 2017, and in November 2018, he becames a Patron of the summit at the 2nd SDGs summit held in Accra, Ghana. It has been a pleasure and a duty to be a strong partner with African Youths SDGs Summit over the past four years and mentor these young people. Each time he is called upon to counsel and advise our young Africans in this forum, he feels more enriched in his personal experiences. This award has humbled him and caused him to reflect further, and he wishes to continue impacting the lives of young people around the African continent. He also wants to promise the youths of Africa that he will get much better at his work.
Let us share some photos taken during the past week at the 4th African Youths SDGs summit in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Conference Centre and the visit to the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa.

Thank you, African Youths SDGs Summit and Thank you very much to all the Youths of Africa for this recognition.