President David Granger has consented to deliver the opening address at the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD) Summit 2018 which will take place at the Marriott, Georgetown from March 8-11, 2018. The Summit is facilitated through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The clarion call of Guyana’s native son Ivan Van Sertima has been: “We shall follow the trail of the African in Europe, in Asia, and in every corner of the New World, seeking to set the record straight. This is no romantic exploration of antiquities. It is a search for roots.”
IDPAD 2015-2024 was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in a Resolution (68/237) adopted on December 23, 2013. The theme of the International Decade is “People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development”.
At a Cuffy 250 Annual Forum in 2016, President Granger gave a mandate to African Guyanese organisations to address issues identified in the IDPAD declaration.
IDPAD Summit 2018 is a direct response to the call for a sustained programme to address issues that globally are plaguing the African trail to equality and prosperity.
Resulting from decades of response by African scholarship to this call, the record currently shows that Africans created and lit the trail-head of civilization in Europe, Asia and in every corner of the New World.
However, the African trail currently lacks clear self-defined goals and elements to ensure African sustainability. It is for the revitalisation and further development of this trail that IDPAD Summit 2018 asks of Africans globally, “Where are we? Where are we going? How are we going to get there?
IDPAD Summit 2018 assembles those of like minds of African ancestry from more than 25 countries who are ready, willing and able to respond with sustained action to these questions. It calls out to all countries in Africa; in the Caribbean, Latin America and North America; and it calls out to Africans wherever the trail of the African has lead in Europe and Asia. It is the first of four biennial summits in a series that ends is 2024. Guyana is the host for 2018 Summit.
IDPAD Summit 2018 will create a global matrix of like minds and initiate, connect and energise them in hubs, institutes or nodes of activities to work to ensure the sustainability of the African. Activities will cover a varied spectrum of specialty topics relevant to the needs of each hub and in consonance with the needs of the African global matrix.
Topics include but are not limited to human rights, education and culture, health and wellness, information and communications technology, and business and finance.
Following the declarations of the IDPAD Summit 2018 Georgetown the work of each hub/institute is expected to continue until Summit 2020 when each hub will review, share and re-energise to continue its work until Summit 2022.
The final summit in this series is planned for 2024 by which time interconnected nodes or hubs of energized activities relevant to the sustainability of the African are expected to be fully functional and contributing to the sustainability of the African globally.
This clarion call therefore, in response to the UN proclamation and to President Granger, is neither for the “romantically” inclined nor the “talk-shop” specialists but for those who are mentally prepared to embark on a global six-year African odyssey and to address with sustained action; “Where we are? Where are we going? How are we going to get there?”