Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

Francesca Akello and Luckson Katsi are respectively 31 and 28. They both have a promising yet risky destiny. Their CVs are amazing.

Francesca is the head of Malaria Consortium’s Gulu office, in North Uganda. Luckson is a Hydraulic engineer and comes from Zimbabwe, where he is currently working for the NGO CARE International, for which he can use his activities as consultant for local rural authorities and as researcher for the Faculty of Environmental Technology at the Chinhoyi University.

Dangers still remain though. Indeed, Francesca and Luckson both have common roots in the African rural world. A reality denigrated for years by African governments and international institutions. This up until the 2007-2008 food crisis, which pushed it onto the International community’s worries once again. Now the world and its media want to listen to their voice.

They say that “too many farmers are abandoned by their governors, too many farmers have been excluded from international aid policies. Too many farmers would like to scream to the world that their rights exist and should be respected. They are sensing a world which doesn’t care about them”.

While trying to limit damages, Francesca and Luckson have decided to be ambassadors of the African young rural world.

At the European Development Days, which took place in Stockholm from 22 to 24 October, they were active participants as Young Ambassadors for Rural Development, a network of young ambassadors coming from Europe and partner countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They represent rural social networks, rural youth movements, young farmers associations, youth departments of farmers associations and young agricultural researchers networks. Sustained by GTZ AgenZ, the ambassadors are called to influence and improve the situation in rural areas through their involvement in national organisations and internationally through the YARDs network.

It is not easy for Francesca Akello and Luckson Katsi. “Lobbying for the rural world is still difficult in our countries,” they both say.

In North Uganda, Francesca had to live through two decades of civil war. “The war between the rebels of the Lord Resistance Army and the Ugandan army has devastated lands, forcing hundreds of thousands people to escape from the rural world to settle in the refugee camps. Today, our region lacks everything: electricity, roads, schools. Infrastructures do not exist. And the government is still lacking initiatives”.

Luckson’s story is a bit different. The Zimbabwean rural world has not been affected by a war, but by the madness of a man, Robert Mugabe, who has promoted the most foolish agricultural reforms.

“Because of the political crisis that opened in 2008, life in the country has become harder. Thanks to the Tsvangirai-Mugabe tandem the situation is getting better, but the rhythm is still slow”. Too slow for people that want to improve Zimbabwean farmers’ fate.

During the round table on “Giving Rural Development a Voice”, they both listened to the President of Liberia’s words.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who spoke of the serious challenge to attract young people to rural parts of the country, cited mass migration to the city by young rural dwellers during the country’s civil conflict, and said that they are reluctant to return home because the areas lack basic infrastructure, including schools, roads and medical services.

The return to the countryside is a problem that Francesca and Tuckson know all too well.

Whether there is war or not, “young people that have left lands to settle in the cities do not come back usually. Pushing them to come back to the countryside is our mission, but it is such a hard challenge. One of the most difficult ones, for sure.”

By Joshua Massarenti – Afronline

Click here for more information on YARD’s website

Francesca Akello

Luckson Katsi