Staley School of Leadership

Leading Change Institute 2018 in West Africa | DECLIC: Youth Leadership & Development

2018 we will launch our first Leading Change Institute abroad. January 5-7, 2018 the Staley School of Leadership Studies in partnership with DELCIC, an integrated civic leadership and youth development organization will gather together practitioners, scholars, social entrepreneurs and civic leaders in Ziguinchor, Senegal to address challenges of youth leadership, development, and empowerment in West Africa. Together participants will engage questions like - how to empower, engage, and educate youth for civic engagement, social entrepreneurship, and public management through service and leadership.

In the spirit of the Leading Change Institute model, this group recognizes our most challenging problems are multi-layered, cross-sector, and interdisciplinary. Spaces to engage challenges in a way that honors that complexity are rare. One such challenge is the work this group is and will continue to undertake in West Africa. The 2018 Leading Change Institute, DECLIC: Youth Leadership and Development in West Africa is a gathering place for global thought leaders from the region and from across sectors who are interested in this work and who have already invested time, energy, and effort into the work of DECLIC or youth development in their community.

Participants at the Institute will make space to harness creative, collaborative thinking from globally recognized leaders addressing this real issue with tangible strategies for moving forward. This will include:

  • working toward a Theory of Change for DECLIC and youth development regionally,
  • building a community of practice across country and regional boarders
  • identifying next steps to continue regional work.

Participants will bring perspective on leading change, engaging youth, leadership development, and building toward a shared community of practice to sustain and catalyze regional efforts.

2018 Participants in DECLIC: Youth Leadership & Development, the 2018 Leading Change Institute: West Africa

About DECLIC

Standing for Integrated Civic Leadership & Community Development, DECLIC is an international Youth organization shared by over 50 passionate, skilled and positive young leaders from diverse cultural background, living in different parts of the world, joining their forces with local communities to take Africa’s Leadership Challenge, through youth empowerment. Mission: Take the Leadership Challenge for the Common Good!

Founded by 5 Mandela Washington fellows in late August 2016, DECLIC brings together 50 motivated young leaders with atypical careers, among which are 7 Mandela Washington Fellows and 3 Regional Leadership Centers alumni. DECLIC members are multidisciplinary young professionals and volunteers with solid backgrounds in Community Development, Civic Engagement, Social Entrepreneurship, Arts, Public Management, Child Protection, Health, Education, Environment and more.

Salif Kanoute, 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow, Kansas State University

Salif Kanoute was born in a region in Senegal affected by a 33-year-old armed conflict. After earning his master’s in English and bachelor’s in Marketing Management, he decided to go back to support the most vulnerable communities of Ziguinchor, Senegal. As the head of 20 professionals and a federation of seven community-based associations, he devoted eight years to helping 4,000 deprived children and youth aged from birth to 24. He facilitated their access to health, nutrition, early childhood care, education, leadership, life skills, economic empowerment, and initiatives to reinforce their participation, protection, confidence, and leadership. Salif joined the International Committee of the Red Cross Talent Acquisition team but still voluntarily offers child protection, participatory research, community development, strategic planning, project and program design, and management skills to his former organization.

Haby Diallo, 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow, Duquesne University

Haby has 10 years of experience in child protection. She is a program manager leading a team of ten community development agents to support seven community-based associations covering more than 100 villages in the Casamance region, with an annual budget of approximately $400,000. She also works for Dimbaya, an organization which partners with ChildFund, to implement child-centered projects and programs. In 2017, together with four other 2016 Mandela Washington Fellows, Haby co-founded the Community Development & Integrated Civic Leadership organization, (DECLIC).

Tomy Lorenzo Badiane, 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow, Wagner College

Tomy Lorenzo Badiane has been working as an independent translator for several NGOs for seven years. His professional interests are in document translation and interpreting, inclusive education, children’s rights and protection, communication, advocacy and peace-building, humanitarian de-mining, community development, and environmental management as well as urban culture activism. His current projects include coordinating and facilitating the Caz’Art Urban Festival. Tomy holds an MA in African Literature and Civilization from the English Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

Ze Antonio Ndami 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow, Rutgers University

Born and raised in culturally diverse Casamance, in the South of Sénégal, Zé masters six local languages and four official ones (French, English, Portuguese and Swedish).He earned a B.A in Applied Foreign Languages from University of Ziguinchor, where he emerged in 2010 as an outstanding Student Representative who successfully advocated for better study conditions and increase of scholarship grants. As a translator for Child Fund in 2013, he unreservedly lobbied for the respect of children rights in local communities and coordinated reading glasses donation for visually impaired kids.

Ndeye Khady Lo, 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow, Virginia Tech

Ndèye Khady Lô is a journalist and a communication specialist working for BBC in Dakar. She has almost ten years’ experience in journalism and communication in Senegal (Le Soleil, TFM, Enquête, and CORAF/WECARD) and abroad (Slate.fr, SlateAfrique.com and BBC Afrique). She holds a Bachelor in English Literature from Mohamed I University in Oujda/Morocco, a Bachelor in journalism and a Master in Communication from CESTI/ Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. Ndeye Khady is also co-founder of Sen Strategies Consulting. This organization created two web-based platforms on education www.abc.sn and on health www.faju.sn. The main purpose of these initiatives is to enable easy access to education and health facilities in remote rural areas of Senegal.

The Leading Change Endowment

The Leading Change Institutes at Kansas State University are supported by the David and Ellie Everitt Endowment for the Leading Change Institutes. Learn more about the Everitts and their gift to support global connections and leading change at K-State.