Africa Development Impact Forum (Event 8, ADIF 2026)

Commission for Africa. This session will run for 45 minutes. Director Karima, you have the floor. But if you want to use less time, we are also open to that. Thank you.

Thank you, MC, and with your permission, I will speak So welcome to this session, all of you, devoted to the presentation by His Excellency Mr. Al Fadi. It's an honor and pleasure to receive Mr. Al Fadi for this discussion within the framework of the Development Impact Framework within the framework of creative industries. I thank him warmly for accepting without hesitation to come and participate in this forum and discuss with us and contribute effectively to job creation in the African continent. So how should I introduce him, Mr. Al-Fadhli? Mr. Al-Fadhli, Given his long work, Afadi is known beyond our frontiers. However, today we are not only receiving the designer, the fashion designer, it's not just a doctor in tourism and in hotel management, And we don't receive him just as an artist for peace, an ambassador, a goodwill ambassador for African innovation of UNESCO. And he's not just a defender of the international and African design, but a son and a defender of human rights in Africa. Thank you. In his agriculture and multiplicity of work, he's someone who believes in sharing, in training. With all the generosity and humility that characterize him, we receive someone who believes in transmission for our youth so that they don't forget where we are coming from and continue to portray the courage of Africa here and beyond our borders. We are serving someone who creates jobs himself and supports and defends the actors of value chains which are in the textile industry, in jewelry, within the prospective inclusion, equity, and sustainability. We will start this session with a video on the contribution of Alpha— Alpha Bank. AlphaBee in the creation of jobs in his country of origin. Then he will take the floor and tell us in a few words who he is and how the design industry draws increasingly more attention in the world and how he— this is a lever for creating employment in Africa and creating industries for the future. Then we will open the floor afterwards and we will take this opportunity, which is exceptional in nature. If the technical department is ready, the department— the video is going to start.

Thank you.

Al Fadi, plus qu'un styliste, une vision, un héritage. Entre création élégante et bâtisseurs de demain, il façonne le Niger à coup d'aiguille et de pétanque.

Bienvenue dans le showroom d'Al Fadi. Honoré, trop fier de vous avoir avec nous aujourd'hui. Dans quelques jours, on va commencer, on commence déjà la première étape de la caravane Al Fadi pour la paix où nous parlons que de paix, que de créativité, d'éducation, d'image et montrer que notre pays aussi est un pays extraordinaire et magique. Nous travaillons main dans la main avec le FNUHIAF, le Fonds des Nations Unies pour la Population et pour la population et par la population.

Merci de m'avoir donné l'occasion opportunité de parler de partenariat qu'on a avec la Fondation Alpha Di. J'aimerais d'abord rappeler que ce partenariat rentre en fait donc dans la continuité de l'initiative Elimine, qui est une initiative portée par le gouvernement du Niger avec l'appui du Fonds des Nations Unies pour la Population, INFP. L'objectif à travers donc ce partenariat, c'est de former 240 jeunes Nigériens dans le métier du stylisme, modélisme. Donc nous sommes actuellement à 150 qui sont inscrits au niveau de l'École supérieure de la mode et des arts, donc qui est sous la tutelle de la Fondation Alpha Dee. Ce que nous aimerions, c'est que à travers cette école qu'il y ait un pool de stylistes nigériens qui vont contribuer à l'industrie artistique et stylistique. À travers donc la Fondation Alpha Di, nous pensons qu'il y aura une industrie artistique et stylistique qui sera créée et qui va pourvoir aussi du travail.

Depuis 1998, Alpha Di unit les peuples par la mode, la musique, la culture, à travers le FIMA, et élève l'Afrique inspire des générations. Et Alpha dit: reviens au Niger bâtir une école pour sauver la jeune fille, pour renforcer l'éducation de la jeune fille à travers son école.

Je suis fier de dire aujourd'hui que la jeunesse, avec leur éducation, avec leur esprit, avec la caravane qui a commencé aujourd'hui au Niger, va aller très loin. Nous sommes en train de faire la première école supérieure de la mode et des arts. Cette école, depuis 10 ans on se bat, depuis 10 ans on a le— l'État nous a donné un terrain de 3000 m² déjà pour commencer.

Mais on a—

on avait un immeuble magnifique à El Fadi dans lequel nous avons accueilli, grâce au FNIAP aujourd'hui, 150 jeunes. Les jeunes, ça veut dire vraiment les jeunes filles défavorisées que nous voulons aider. Les jeunes filles qui n'ont pas les moyens d'aller à l'école, les jeunes filles qui n'ont pas les moyens d'avoir une opportunité de grandir. Mais nous avec Alpha Dee, nous avec l'image de mon équipe, on va leur donner cette chance d'être des grandes demain, d'être l'entrepreneur culturel. Chacune doit absolument dans 3 ans créer son entreprise, avoir 3 machines, 4 machines, créer ce qu'il appelle réellement sa dignité personnelle et c'est ce qu'Alpha Dee veut leur donner. Et c'est pour ça que l'école est une chance, l'éducation est une chance et nous voulons être accompagnés par tout le monde. Le FUNDIAP nous accompagne, les Nations Unies nous accompagnent, l'UNESCO m'accompagne, l'État nigérien m'a donné il y a 10 ans un terrain. Nous voulons que chaque jour qu'il pense à ce que nous sommes en train de préparer par rapport à l'école, par rapport à l'éducation, par rapport à ce qui va rester demain, notre jeunesse notre âme. Et c'est ça que je cherche absolument à faire comprendre au reste du monde, de nous accompagner, de nous aider pour que notre grande école de 3 000 m² soit enfin finie. Parce que depuis 10 ans, on cherche à le construire, on a commencé déjà, la construction a commencé, mais on n'a pas pu finir parce que les moyens nous manquent. D'où l'intérêt d'être là aujourd'hui, montrer le—

That's why we are here today, to showcase young talent and the work of Walfade. Who has not held a show in the work. Tonight we will present a show here to celebrate Nigeria and African textiles, leatherwork, and jewelry. That's what Africa does best in craftsmanship. This is what defines Africa, its youth. It's what defines Niger, its kindness and its beauty.

UNFPI, Fondé Nationale—

UNFPI plays a crucial role in empowering women and girls through several strategic interventions. It has supported the ILMY. This program is a government initiative supported by UNFPA. It targets adolescent 10 to 19 out of school, never enrolled, or married yet, aiming to improve knowledge in reproductive health, human rights, gender equality, literacy, and vocational training. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] More than 1,000 girls have already been trained in trades such as carpentry, electrical work, motorcycle mechanics, as well as catering, baking, tailoring, beadwork, and handcrafts. Key partners include the Directorate of Girls' Empowerment, Ministry of Social Affairs, training centers in design, and NGOs such as Gotan Matassa, Fricke, and Marathon Women's Center.

Ilufaye Feminine Marathon.

Merci, merci.

Thank you very much. So, that's an outline of what Al Fadi has been doing in the area of fashion designing and job creation. Today, he is going to talk to us through a dialogue especially interacting with the youth and development actors to ensure that there's job creation. Without further ado, I give you the floor, Mr. Al Fadi. Thank you.

First of all, I'd like to thank you. Thank you to the Secretariat, the Executive Secretary. Thank you, Mama Keita. Thank you for organizing and for inviting me from Niger to come here. Your work is of quality and enables me to understand what the ECA is doing and what the AU is and what UNESCO is and try to understand and speak and bring a message of peace because I was an ambassador for peace for UNESCO before starting what I'm doing. And for over 30 years, about 40 years in the area of fashion designing and leading and guiding the youth. I can speak English, but—

I tell them my English. Thank you and excuse me, les personnes qui ne parlent pas bien français.

So for those who don't speak French, I'm sorry. I'm happier to speak in French, but I mix the two languages. I want to show the— youth that this is possible. Fadia has done a doctorate. We have worked in administration for 10 years before going into fashion designing. Our understanding of our policies is that, you know, the politicians don't understand that the culture can be the other side of politics. All politics wants to keep the image for themselves, for the politicians. When they go into missions like here, they come here as ministers, administrators who have nothing to do with culture and art. So it's high time that this changes. It's high time that we understand that culture exists and that— and we're working. I have a doctorate and I create employment. I have studied for over a long time. For over 10 years, I've been director for tourism in Niger before going into fashion. This shows that the dimension between culture and art have to go hand in hand with the administration because we create employment. The youth must understand what I'm doing, they can do it. Here, that the youth understand that we can even You can have a PhD and do fashion designing as well and ensure that creativity can be at the service of the people. So I've always wanted to create employment in creation, in fashion designing, and in jewelry. I've had a chance of going to Luxembourg, but first of all to have— to work with UNFPA to support me to help the children. We started with 70, now we are at 250,000 people who are educated in the area of fashion and jewelry. Designing in the area of learning art, the African art. So I wanted to inform the people that Africa knows what to do. Africa has skills. Africa has unity. Africa has the background of art. We cannot bring everything from Europe. Europe exists, but we need to understand that Africa— where the great financials of Africa are not thinking African. If the big designers, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and so on, exist because the big funders and financiers put money in what they are doing, but the African doesn't put anything in Africa. So it's high time that the big funders of Africa understand that they can earn by putting money in Africa and give Africa the opportunity to grow with the politicians, the ECA and the AU. All of us have to understand that we can work together to create millions of employment opportunities. The example of this great country that I adore, which is Ethiopia, with Addis Ababa. We have leather. We have textiles. So compared to Mali, of course, we also have a lot of resources. We have textiles from our country, which are in the textile industry where we are working, where we are contributing a lot to our continent.

This is a massive combat. We cannot just sit. We have to fight and artists have to be loved, supported. We have to listen to them. We have to ensure that we give them their due respect. All our youth are running away. They are leaving the African shores because there's no respect. Even the work they do, it's work. It's work they're doing. But half of the work is adulterated in the political morass. I come from a country that it's Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso. There are many, many magnificent things that are perhaps a bit hard to do, but we have to love our culture. We have to support the cultural dimension. Our children should not be running away, taking away their energy, their know-how, because our knowledge is leaving our shores. So this is my fight today. I am saying, the struggle is whether we're talking about mantina, because, you know, in fashion, when we talk about job creation, we're not talking about the people who sew. We talk also about the models, the thousands of people in the industry, the musicians, the photographers, the artists, the paints, the visual artists who are doing extraordinary work. And ever since 1984, we— in 1994, we have set up the African Federation. Chris Seidou was one of the co-founders. I was the president of the federation and the AU, at the time the OAU, was giving us support to make sure that we were recognized. An African Federation is very difficult. Imagine, for one country it's difficult enough, but when it's the entire continent, this is something we have to do.

We have to—

Think just like the people who do play football. There's a federation of football. There's sports. But there has to be the same thing for the industry, the designer industry. We have to be respected. We have to have access to finance as well. The African Development Bank is there working with us. Many banks work with us, but they have to put more money in. They have to understand that what we're fighting for is actually peace. Peace. When there's money, there's peace. And we have to look at the artistic dimension, the cultural dimension, also amongst ourselves support each other, love each other, hand each other the hand of peace. I think I've spoken. If you have any questions that you would like to ask me, then no problem. But I'm trying to portray to you we have to give each other support, hold each other's hands. Africa is a productive continent, extraordinary continent, must be loved, loved by Europeans, loved by Chinese, loved by everybody. We're a huge continent and we're in a place where we should serve as an example. I'm an African. I'm proud to be an African and I believe the fight for culture, for art, for job creation, I'm ready to create 10,000 jobs. I can do this in leather, in jewelry, in textiles, but all this has to be given support and understood by the people in politics and big organizations such as yourselves.

Thank you.

Merci beaucoup, Alpha Di. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. President, for this vibrant message conveyed with a lot of warmth and hope which puts culture right back in the center of productive capacity for our continent. It's a dialogue you wanted to have with the youth, but I believe you've actually thrown out an appeal to all who work together to make this a sector of opportunity— the decision-makers, the funders, financiers, the partners who are within the United Nations system or within other systems, regional, national, international systems. You've really launched a very moving appeal that through our initiatives we safeguard our talent on the continent and we make sure that we provide the necessary education and we enable workers to become even more fulfilled in the work that they do. I know there are lots of youth here in this hall. I wonder, any reactions to his message? He has perhaps said something which may spark a response from you about how we can translate this into action, how we can actually make the creative industry sector something that we can discuss. Which we shall do more in detail this afternoon. We said this morning when we were talking about regional integration, we were talking about what are seen in inverted commas as more serious subjects— development policy, development plans. We now are looking at a field that is just as serious, but we need to perhaps demonstrate more of an effort to make sure that it is fostering our development potential. Yes. Yes, I see one hand up.

Une deuxième. Just give me your name. Votre nom, comme ça je puisse noter.

Let me write down the names, please.

Hello, Aminata Damili.

Well, we saw the video. This is an effort to support women's development and job creation amongst women. I see two requests for the floor, a third over there from women. So I see the women are listening and are very receptive to what Al Fadi had to say to us all. But we'd like the gentlemen to speak as well with just as much warmth. But we shall start with you. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation you've just made. I'm speaking in French, if I may. You launched a message which I love. I think we have to be optimistic. I'm an economist. I've been following development pathways in many countries for many years now. And when I look at the journey, Despair was prevalent, but thanks to the progress we have seen, history shows that there's hope and you need goodwill, good intentions to translate opportunities into reality. I have a question about the link between the creative industries and the textile, the garment industry. I've worked a lot in clothing. This is a very industrialized industry. As you said, it's driven by the brands, the brand names have the power. It's the person who has direct access to the consumer that has the power in their hands. But I've always wondered myself, what is missing for us in Africa? How come we're unable to develop a brand which may not necessarily be a luxury brand because there's many luxury creations in Africa, but we don't find a brand that targets the middle classes?

Mm-hmm.

Like H&M or Zara in the West? What prevents us from having H&M or Zara in Africa so that we are promoting luxury at the level of the value chains that we see in the Western world? Thank you.

Okay.

D'accord. Merci beaucoup de m'avoir donné la parole.

Thank you very much for giving me the floor. My name is Aminata Dembélé. I'm from Mali. It is a huge pleasure for me to see Al Fadi himself in person. I have grown up seeing your pictures, seeing your work, and I always wondered— people would say, "He's Malian, he's Malian," but I'm proud. I'm proud of Mali, Niger, Burkina, you said, was a family. Foundation, so I'm absolutely honored to see you in person here today. I have a doctorate in artificial intelligence applied to cybersecurity. I have a question. Is the industry you refer to not a little bit under threat from AI? I've worked a lot with Bogolan in Mali. We're very proud of it. It's our national identity personified in this material.

But—

We are fighting now because of copyright. Bogolan is being copied. Fake versions of Bogolan are being made all over the world. Now, please, I ask you, artificial intelligence, is it not a threat or do you see it as something that can help us today if we know how to adopt certain measures that help to promote our work and ensure its continuity? Thank you so much. I'm delighted to see you in person.

Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the floor. As she said, it's a true honor to meet you here today, Mr. Al Fadi. We would hear your name ever since we were little children. It's a huge delight to see you. My question is about your foundation, your school. I wonder, when youth, young people, particularly young women, and you stress this, when they leave your school, is there any follow-up? How do you ensure that they are actually— they find jobs, that they're integrated into society, that they can find some kind of fulfillment? Do you follow up or does everybody— do they end up leaving your schools having been trained and then it's up to them to find their way? I wonder. That's the question I had for you.

Thank you.

Merci, merci, merci.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Really, I asked Karima to let me speak— to let me answer you right away because my head is getting old. I forget things quickly, so allow me to quickly answer the questions as they come. I'm delighted to hear your questions. Let me say, for the very first one, It's a huge journey and the story is one of resources. When you talk about the ability to sell, to have designer African fashion, these brands you talked about, H&M, you talked about other middle-income brands at the global level, they have billions, billions, they're funded all over the world who put more money into their brands. And that's why they can produce goods that can be sold instead of at $50, they sell at $25, $30 because of the amount of money pouring in. So everything is a matter of resources. Africa is not lucky enough to get the kind of support from funders who give that kind of dignity to them so that they can create production goods, quality goods. In Africa, there are people who have millions, the potential to produce millions and millions of clothes, shoes. There's no reason why we can't— to produce all that. But for that, you need a brand. You need the image. You need to have communications. You need promotion. Everything depends on resources, depends on the banks or the funders who want to— or even your sponsors who want to assist you as Africans and help you get into the large-scale supply. Have I answered your question? Is that okay? Is that an answer for you?

Yes.

Yes.

The thing is without resources, we can't. Africa has always been in the background and you can't talk about H&M and all the others. In Africa, we're talking about a continent of 54 countries, but no, no, no funders are putting money into creation or into mass distribution. And we have to think about it. The creators are there. The images are there. The image is there. The makers, the producers are there. The stylists are there, but we need resources. Thank you. Thank you. Now, Mali, Burkina, and Niger, that's my life. It's a whole story. I just completed the wonderful experience that we call the Alpha Dee Peace Caravan in Timbuktu. Imagine Timbuktu, the history of religion. Alpha Dee came with models, top models, creators, designers, and walked the fashion walk showing our work. The caravan went to countries, places that are difficult to get to, Bamako to Timbuktu. And this happened last October. Geniuses came with Bogolan. People wanted to show that Bogolan is Africa's number one cloth. The minister the other day, Mr. Daffey, showed me that Bogolan has been trademark deposited in UNESCO. It's wonderful. And African know-how is something we have to protect, be it kente, be it Bogolan, be it ndop, be it Terra Terra from Niger. The textiles are there.

They exist.

They live. But if you don't protect these brands, then that's what's going to happen. The big creators, the major designers are going to copy them and we don't get any royalties. In which country do we get this— do we receive royalties on our continent? But this is something we're pursuing with African Union. I mean, we must— with the Economic Commission of Africa, we must show that we have deposit— that we have value in our copyright. We are unique in the world. There's a whole continent. Yes, small countries. Yes, small countries are there in Europe, but it is these small countries that want to lead an entire continent, Africa? No, it's not possible. Africa has the values, superb values that we need to promote, and we should with intellectual property, copyright, and also with funding. With financing, I think we can go very far if we get the type of support we need from the African Development Bank, from other funding sources who will support us. And they're billionaires. They're billionaires, many of them in Africa. And they come to us just as they do in Europe. Thank you.

Very important. Thank you. Thank you very much. The third question is the Alpha-D Foundation.

This has been something that has existed for the past 8 years. 8 years now. We established it to support youth. I live for youth. I want to give creation support to youth, support them in their education and health perhaps also, but especially education and the creation of know-how. The Alpha Di Foundation is something that we set up since— over 7 years ago and now we have the big— this major school that we call the École Supérieure de Mode, the Higher Institute of Fashion and Design. And it's something we're doing in Niger with the UNFPA. We are expanding hopefully to 23 countries because the Senang, the boss, UNFPA boss came to Niger and said, "We want to work in many countries, in West Africa, East Africa." So the Alpha Di Foundation absolutely must follow up with this. Continue to give this kind of promotion to youth in Africa so that they're educated and for them The graduates from these schools, yes, yes. This year there were 70 finish the third year. 30 designers, young people of talent. We want to help them set up their businesses, set up their shops so that they are people of worth in Africa who get support from the Alpha Di Foundation. We're not going to just let them go without any support whatsoever. No, with UNFPA we're going to do it. Is that the answer?

Do you hear that answer? Good. Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Any other thing to add? Yes, over to you, at my right first, and then we go towards the left. Over to you, madam.

Madam Karima, thank you. Thank you, Sir Al Fadi. You have shared with us your wonderful journey. I am a huge fan of— your work and then I see— as I discover other aspects of your personality here today, I consider this to be a true honor. I have a question that is speaking more about the foundation. What kind of challenges have you faced beyond the financial challenges that you talked about in the video or that you mentioned with respect to the day-to-day activities of your foundation with respect to the actual training programs and the young youth on the day-to-day basis, what do you face?

Challenge number 1, competition. You know, there are many foundations. Our first ladies have come and wanted to kill us. They didn't know what we were doing. But we are a foundation of artists. Our first ladies, they have foundations there. A lot of money goes in their direction. But we don't get that kind of support. Neither do we get the kind of money that we can put into our foundation that they do. No, the money goes to these first ladies. But we're lucky to have had UNFPA behind us, UNESCO, others who are supporting our institutions, our institutes, our design institutes who are giving us the type of support we need. And we're going to continue because this is a foundation that must be supported at the global level. But when you're talking about politics, we're always given the lower positions. But that's why we need support. We want— We want support. Others to accompany us because everybody can bring in what they can bring to build us up in education and art.

Thank you.

Merci pour la parole. Je suis— Thank you for giving me the floor. My name is Estelle Desirée Monisson. I'm from Cameroon. It's a true honor for me to see you in front of me. And I really— it's— you inspire us. I have a question. Energy is a huge problem in Africa. It's expensive. There's energy outages in Africa all the time. What do you do? How do you do as a company to remain competitive at the international level and, first of all, at the African level?

Thank you.

In my country— in our countries, There are outages all the time. No electricity, no water. But we're lucky in the sense that we're industries that are small or very medium. We're not in countries where they're— like here, where there are 50,000 employees in textiles or in shoes or even in cosmetics. But all this can be addressed. And we're working on it because we have our dignity first and foremost. We have placed that on the ground, then we have to create jobs on top of that, and then we have to have funders who support us. And, yes, we're not always getting what we want, but we do what we can within the means that we have. We have salons. We have orders that are placed, and we try to respect these orders. We— this is what is happening right now in Benin. Benin, a superb country with cotton. The president of the country, The country is now making cotton an industry where they make shirts. They can produce t-shirts. They can produce jeans. This can create thousands, tens of thousands of employees. And this is something we can do in our countries to make styles and designs that can go to them and they can then produce them, mass produce them in the quantities required. We don't always get the help that we need, but we continue to do this within our means.

Thank you.

Bonjour. Merci. Good afternoon. Thank you for the beautiful presentation about your foundation. You talked about capacity building, rural development. You said it's in the rural areas that there are vulnerable sectors of our population. There are many African countries where efforts have been made to fund capacity building in rural areas. A lot of money, a lot of resources go into ensuring training in handicrafts and processing, agro-food processing and so on. But the problem we always have is sustainability. Once a project duration comes to an end, what happens? According to you, how can we build an African model that build capacity, ensure self-empowerment within the rural areas, sustainability such that they last, the outcomes last beyond the project life? That's the question. I'm talking about sustainability for cooperation projects.

Thank you very much for that question because really women are very close to my heart. I support women a lot when it comes to education. In Niger right now, we have in our workshops a lot of women, women who work and not just in fashion. They work in agriculture. They work in livestock rearing. They work in tanneries. They work in jewelries. And these are women who are in associations that exist locally. Unfortunately, we haven't always been able identify all these associations, but those who come to us, we can train them, we can educate them, we can give them resources when it comes to management, communications, so that these young women, they have work that is given the appropriate value. And we have— we build up project funding documents for them that— Yes. Worthy of their work. Every 2, 3 months we have silences, we have what we work with these women during the various festivals, Ramadan, all of it, we have them come and exhibit their work and it's beautiful work. So we're training. We're training in fashion and through the foundation we're moving to a higher level in the sense that we don't want to stop what we're doing but we want to go postsecondary now. We want to have people who with the talent can get to master's, can get 4, 5 years higher education post— post their secondary qualifications. We have several floors now in our building, but we want to have 3,000 square meters of space where we can have youth come in who can work in fields that like artificial intelligence, like the other talents that we need, like you've mentioned, to support youth, to support the marginalized, support the vulnerable. So this school is going to be a launching pad from Niger reaching out to other continents and to other parts of the continent, the subregion and beyond. Because what we're doing is working hand in hand with Africans who are from Niger, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire so that their know-how is pooled and we get the kind expertise is the kind of quality that can take us very far.

Thank you.

Finally, we see a gentleman who wishes to speak. You have the floor, sir.

Mr. Alpha Di, thank you so much and thank you for the inspiration that you give us. Your story is one that reveals to us that the main challenge we have ahead of us is Funding. Now, in your training program, beyond capacity building, are you thinking about working with funding institutions like microfinance or other types of local-level banking institutions that can support youth in setting up their small businesses? In other words, is there follow-up at that level? Post-training for access to funding? Thank you.

Thank you. The challenge isn't just funding. The challenge is the politicians need to understand. Our political people need to see that the creative people who make creative work are working for the country as well. It's not who has a friend in politics that is the one who's going to go forward. No. We don't have subsidies. We don't have the kind of support that— we have all kinds of worries when it comes to that. But it's the kind of funding we have to find is the kind of funding which within the foundation will help build the foundation but also comes from the states so that we have the kind of dimension that is such that we are proud. Everybody is proud of what we're doing and we can demonstrate that we are creating jobs, we're fighting poverty, we're giving hope to the youth, helping them stay on the continent, preventing them from running— going away from the continent and this is why we feel we need to work with our youth so that everybody understands it's a wonderful continent and the states need to give the generation of youth the hope that they can work with them.

Thank you.

Okay. I have been told we have to stop but let me give the floor to one last, very last contribution and we'll conclude this session. Thank you. Over to you.

Thank you.

In 15 seconds.

We tend to hear always that culture is at the beginning and the end of development. We are told at the beginning and at the end of the developmental process is culture. I'm an economist, so what is your analysis of that statement?

Mr. Al-Fadhli says, "I know you, I know you, yes." I think you've said it all. With culture, we're talking about our continent, an entire continent. Yesterday I saw you as a Senegalese advisor to the president. I adore the work that's being done in Senegal. Tell him we love what he's doing. Culture loves him and we want to continue to work with culture. He should continue to work with culture. Give the dimension that the Senegalese men and women need so that they can sing, paint, create, and when they get support from the politicians, they know that they exist. They vibrate. They don't feel that they're going to have to go and drown in the seas. Culture is the beginning, yes. Culture is also the end. And I'm happy you're saying it because culture means job creation, poverty reduction, fighting against poverty, Promoting our image, eating, eating our cheboujen or fukuri, our yassa. These have— even if these are things that we can do, even if there's safeguards now, Malian textile has copyright now. But let's wear African things. It's all very well to have a nice suit and a wonderful tie, but it has to change. Change up. Tomorrow, wear something that Aissa John, her textiles have made, or any other Senegalese has made. Because this will add to value in Senegal and this is what I want. We have to have culture in this dimension show, demonstrate that Africa is a positive continent. You, you're an economist. Give the chance to others to study this and see how much they can get from it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I know a lot of hands are up but unfortunately I'm being told to wind up. I have to now end the session and I regret— regrettably I have to do so. But I would like to say, and I'm going to use a word that Marily said we should stop using when she spoke yesterday, but this is a sector that has potential. But what we want is move from the stage of potentiality to the stage of action. Real reality, not we could have done this or we can do that, But look at what we've done in our creative industries, in the sectors that demonstrate that they have a full-fledged contribution to make to our societies, contributions that actually give opportunities to youth who are so despondent now, who have lost their bearings, no references. They don't— they have to reintegrate themselves into the African realities and the African culture. I think the return on investment This area is not just economic, it is primarily social, enabling our youth to flourish and to find that they are within a context that is one with which they are familiar. You also talked about having all the players, all the participants recognize what the sector can contribute. We absolutely have to show that we can rise. We've talked about people from all kinds of studies, areas, and the creative industries, but there's a challenge of scale that we will— we're going to have to face so that the industry is recognized as such and that the environment is conducive to making sure that, for example, regulatory authorities, the funding authorities more open to what this sector is doing. Ban Ki-moon has been looking at me, which means I have to stop. It means I have to stop. So on behalf of all of you, I'd like to say a huge thank you to Al-Fadi for his presence here amongst us. It was the first opening for dialogue and we shall continue in many and diverse forums because there's a lot to share. When this session has come to an end, off camera, there can be opportunities to discuss and talk about seeing development differently and youth employment differently. Thank you so much. All right.

Thank you very much, Director Karima and Alfadi, for this insightful session. Please join me in giving them another round of applause. Merci beaucoup. All right, a gentle reminder to kindly complete the evaluation form. The QR code will be— this is already displayed on the screen. We would also like to encourage you to make use of the hand sanitizers that are around the room. At this juncture, for the moment a lot of us have been waiting for, including me. We will break for lunch and have the simulation session right after. We will reconvene here at 2:55 PM Japanese and Korean time. Now we are using two times to, you know, encourage. Thank you very much. We wish you a very good lunch.

Yeah. The guitar?

Yeah, yeah, okay. This one first. But I want to change the strings, though. Yeah, pickup is nice.

Check your guitar.

Chris, have you checked your mic? Chris, Chris, is that my angel calling me. The voice of God. You have to change to channel 2. You have to change to the second channel. Yeah, check this. Change to the second channel. This is the— often we have to sit here, but I think it's fine. Everyone can see us. Yeah, yeah, no, it's okay.

Don't worry, it's cool.

Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Yeah, we always make things work as artists. That's what we do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's okay.

Kata goni.

Oh. Yeah, of course, yeah. Yeah.

Could you reduce, reduce the lows just a little?

Oh, that's cool.

That's nice. That's cool. So can you give me the same for me as well? Yes, we can hear each other.

It was me, yeah.

I think he has already, yeah. And also, you can cut a bit of my lows, 'cause mine is not— mine is acoustic, so the feedback, yeah. Yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Yeah, nice. Yeah, yeah, over there, like, what's that, maybe 600 there? Perfect. Two of them? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you. C'est bien.

C'est bon. I'm going to check the mic.

Yeah. Oh.

You can just— the effects, just use the effect of the guitar a little bit and—

You are my only lady.

Okay.

You are my only lady.

Some reverb here. Hehe.

Oh, du coup, je vais te laisser.

Yeah.

Oh, me fa, oh, me fa, me fa. Oh, me fa, me fa.

Yeah. Oh, okay, let's try. We try?

This is that one actually.

You know that song?

Yeah. Abi.

Okay. Oh, no, there's another.

Yeah. Some meat on the guitar here. You know, like meat cut, 300, around 300, 200 on the guitar.

It's a lot.

I'm 26 now.

Yeah. Oh, Susanna, I hope you're happy now. I see you flexing on the gram with your sponsor. Susanna, I hope you're happy now. I see you change your skin color and your hair is longer now. Hello, hello, hello. If you get to hear this song, somebody loves you.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Yeah, let's try this one then. It's a nice river.

Yeah.

I will just sit.

That's right.

Can you put—

yeah, right there.

Sit and then push it.

Okay.

Please.

That's more right. That's more right.

Yeah.

Oh, that's what you're saying? Oh, my bad, my bad.

You can still play the solos? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, this is your song? This is our song, yeah.

Yeah.

Let's play.

Hello. I love you.

Tojira Masuko.

Yeah, I'll do it.

You're talking at jump soft, you.

Woo-hoo!

Mm-hmm.

You sing along if you feel like one.

Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

Can you run the one you applied earlier?

I can do that with— Yeah, this is the one we can jam on.

That is nice at the end.

It's nice at the end. Do you think? Yeah.

Yeah.

You think we'll get them all after that?

Yeah, yeah.

If—

Just a jam session. He wants us to do one in the beginning. I just want you to do one at the beginning. Yeah, outside the ones we played.

Go for one which is— you know what the reason why I don't like this much? It's not very African, it's bluesy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not very African.

I'd much rather you had something very authentic and African. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're going to.

So, uh, Anna, uh, has this podcast done, uh, called the, uh, Sustainable Food Science Series, and it's nice to interview you.

Yeah.

Um, well, do you want to tell them a little bit about your work?

Okay, okay.

It's a big difference.

One, two. Oh, it's recording stopped.

You don't have to.

One, two, three.

One, two.

One, two.

Okay, fine.

Thank you. One, two.

One, two.

Hello?

Aftoti onalaza.

Aisara maisara.

Test, test, test, test, test, test, test. Yeah, yeah, test, test, 1, 2. Hey, hey, test, test, yes, yes, test, test, test.

Ladies and gentlemen, can you please take your seat? We'll be starting shortly. Kindly note that apart from a few reserved seats, you can sit anywhere you'd like. Up front will be perfect. Thank you. Distinguished guests, welcome back. We hope you had a good lunch and engaging conversations. We will now move to the simulation roundtable, after which we will have our creative session. I think a lot of us have been waiting for that particular session. But without further ado, we will have this particular session, which will be moderated by Miss Karima Bonemra Ben Sultan, Director of the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Joining her for this simulation are Mr. Eric Amel Doumba, Advisor to the Minister of Post, Telecommunication, and the Digital Economy of the Congo, and coordinator of the African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence. Mr. Tshema Triki, co-founder of Growth Teams—

Thank you. Sorry to interrupt you. I think that the interpretation in French is not available yet.

Okay.

Are we good to go now?

Hello, hello.

Oui, c'est bon.

C'est bon. OK, merci beaucoup. Shall I start from the beginning? This is the simulation session. It will be moderated by Ms. Karima Bunemra Ben Sultan, Director of the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Joining her for this simulation are Mr. Eric Amel Doumba, Advisor to the Minister of Post Telecommunications Communications and the Digital Economy of the Congo, and coordinator of the African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence. Mr. Chema Triki, co-founder of Growth Teams. Ms. Aida Azmi, joint managing director and partner, Pemandu Associates. Professor Banji Oyelaran Oyeyinka, former senior special advisor on industrialization to the President of the African Development Bank, and the very— our very own winner of the 2026 Adif Hackathon, Luke Nebuma. The session will run for 40 minutes. Director Karima, you have the floor.

Thank you, MC, and thank you all of you for being with us this afternoon. We have had a long day and we try to end the day with some guidance to our hackathon members. A few words before, just to say that we all agree that Africa development ecosystem is still facing a persistent implementation gap with distance between applied research, policy design, and actual delivery, and it is the nexus among all those aspects, actually, that we are looking at. While evidence, diagnosis, and best practice models exist and are known, they do not systematically translate into scalable context text tested implementation pathways. And this leads to fragmented initiatives that maybe do not create the synergy that we are looking for and a number of missed opportunities when it comes to job creation, productivity increase, and inclusive transformation. Through Adif, through this forum, and through this process, ECA wants to respond directly to this challenge and create the nexus, fill the gap. Actually, ADIF is positioned as an ECA flagship— a flagship action platform that is integrated in our delivery system and complements other events that the ECA organizes. ADEE focuses on implementation pathways, offering a structured, multistage process that converts evidence into action that is measurable. And we will explain what we mean by measurable when we will talk about the implementation clock. As you have heard our Executive Secretary say yesterday, ADIF is not just a forum. Actually, it started something like 6 months ago with a series of preparatory seminars, and we have heard through the various sessions during this forum the result of the thinking that has taken place during the preparatory seminars. We have also launched what we called the Call to Action to seek ideas and solutions for job creation. And this was a very intense partnership effort, and I would like really here to recognize ASSET, our main partner in this work. Actually, ASSET—

Thank you.

The UNHCR has provided us with valuable guidance and facilitated several activities relating to the call to action, the hackathon, and today's roundtable. So the call to action has received 114 proposals, after which 9 were selected and were presented yesterday to knowledgeable judges. And I would like really to reiterate our congratulations to the 9 applicants whose proposals have attracted the interest of the selection committee and have made it actually to this point. All the 9 projects were exciting, very much interesting. Thank you. So maybe we should congratulate them again. Among the 9, only 5, unfortunately, were selected. And you have seen earlier today the 5 that have been selected for a follow-up during the 12 months of— the coming 12 months of the implementation clock. Thank you.

Work.

And they were assessed against 6 criteria: problem definition, solution clarity and innovation, expected impact, feasibility, scalability, and sustainability, and of course, at the end, the quality of the presentation that was made yesterday. So I don't need to go into the various names. We have uploaded them and Good morning. The selection was a real challenge because all projects, even if they were very different in nature and scope, were worthy of interest and bearer of creative and innovative ideas. So today what we will do, and it is what we will be doing during the 12 coming months with the 5 selected, but this doesn't prevent us from keeping a keen eye on the progress of the— all the 9 of them. Today, we are going to go into a step deeper in terms of discussion around the top one. The roundtable will explore ways for implementing the solution or expanding it so that it brings more impact in terms of job creation. So we will give the floor to our applicant, Luc.

We will allow 5 minutes to Luc to read you his presentation, and I think the presentation has been enriched based on the first comments that were made yesterday and we are— we expect panelists to provide their vision. I will make my comment following Luc's presentation. Luc, if you're ready, shall we?

Well, thank you very much. Once again, I'm going to pitch my project which has been reached