By Dieudonne Ndabarus Himana, 2019 doctoral class, former Burundian Ambassador to

Ethiopia, AU, UNECA, at the Beijing International Youth Forum

 

Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, dear youth leaders from around the world;

All protocol observed

Allow me first of all to thank the Hosts, the organizers and the different supporters of this important Forum. I am really honored to be part of it under this relevant theme “Understanding the World to build the future”.

 

They used to say that the Youth is the “Iron part of the Spear” and the same time the pillar of the future of any Nation. There could be no other suitable idea than to celebrate the youth dynamism in recognition of their leadership and the role they are playing now and which they are called to play in the future in the global governance.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

The wisdom shows us that “When you don’t know where you come from, it will be difficult to know where you go”. The British people used to say also that “To know the disease is half the Cure”.

 

At the view of the theme, the question which comes up is to know “how is the world today”?

 

I my intervention, I am going to focus on the crisis of multilateralism aspect.

 

To begin with, it is clear that the World is facing many challenges because after many decades of the globalization, the world seems to be fragmented because of the attitude of protectionism, unilateralism, treaty withdrawal and also military and economic coercion adopted by some superpowers.

 

The multilateralism is in crisis both at normative and operational level. Remember after the WWII, multilateralism was considered as a tool of global cooperation among states with reference to shared principles and values in other to avoid dangerous political  confrontation, Trade and geopolitical rivalry between superpowers through negative propaganda against each other.

 

There is a need today of a rule based international order. This appears clearly also in the recommendation addressed to the UNSG during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the UN. They invited him to develop ideas in order to reinvigorate multilateral cooperation in many areas ranging from public health to peace and security.

 

The need of tackling the multilateral crisis is also discussed in various informal meetings in order to build a better world. People are very sensitive to the geopolitical tensions and divisions over globalization through the rapid technological change and innovations.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

This forum is an ever occasion given to the Youth to discuss and exchange views, and better understand the challenges the world is facing. Taking a look on the themes and topics developed and discussed during this forum, we have no doubt that this forum has been a source of inspiration for the Youth. They learnt from each other’s. We commend the organizers for this wonderful platform given to them in order to encourage them to have the ambition in the global leadership.

 

The youth got relevant information for a better understanding of the world and by the way they can choose the best way to proceed and join their hand in this battle to address the ongoing crisis of multilateralism. They can adapt it to the realities in a proper way.

 

In this regards, the youth inspires optimism because they know to admire the success and how to celebrate excellence in an “Olympic spirit” without harming each other. They are confident and they can suggest new paradigm of multilateralism and could develop strategies for the revitalization of the multilateral system.

 

As Mrs Susanna Malcorra, Dean of the IE School of global and public Affairs said, “The lessons that citizens have taken from this pandemic is that we are much more interconnected than we thought and therefore that the management of this interconnection is much necessary today”.

 

We don’t need the pandemic or other catastrophic situation to be conscious that what we share as humanity is much better than what divide us in our unilateral ambitions and desires.

 

This is an occasion given to the world, to be conscious and build a new vigorous multilateralism to promote shared principles and values.

 

 They youth is convinced, more than others, that the world is interconnected. They enjoy it as the best as they can. They have capacities and tooled enough to play a great role in the management of this interconnection in order to build a better world living in peace and harmony and to create a better future.

 

Thank you