Africa Agenda, a U.S. 501C (3) non-profit, is an international organization, working at both the local and international levels. It builds the capacity to understand, work and engage with Africa intensively in the Colorado community and, through its website, in other communities across the world. As such, Africa Agenda is working to build engaged and informed networks that will lead on the issues of Africans on the continent and in the diaspora.
The organization has had many successes since its founding in 2004, such as working across the Denver area with hundreds of volunteers, many of the local universities, Africa-oriented networks, African leaders, and organizations.
Africa Agenda has organized dozens of forums highlighting the beneficial activities and issues of interest to the global African community. We have spearheaded initiatives to expand democracy and development through our programs.
Africa Agenda activities include journalism and news training for students and bloggers, an Annual Africa Summit in Denver, the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, a Best in Africa Reporting Awards, as well as critical news analysis through the Africa News Matters website. Please support our work by making a donation. We appreciate your support. Thank you!
CONTACT US
Africa Agenda | Africa News Matters
Changing African News
Address: 1031 33rd Street – Denver, CO 80205, Suite 174
Phone: 303-341-1301
Email: Office@AfricaAgenda.org
Africa Agenda Website: https://AfricaAgenda.org
Africa News Matters Website: https://AfricaNewsMatters.com
Julianna Nelson (USA)-Chair
Peter Van Arsdale, PHD (USA)
Francoise Mbabazi (Rwanda/USA)
Sandrine Moma (Cameroon)
Lilian Dhahabu (Kenya)
Andrew Scott DuPree, PHD (USA)
Pechulano Ali, PHD (Cameroon/USA)
George Bamu(Cameroon/USA)
2021
Lauren Conley (USA) -Chair
Julianna Nelson (USA)
Ryan Chase (USA)
Peter Van Arsdale, PHD (USA)
Andrew Scott DuPree, PHD (USA)
George Bamu(Cameroon/USA)
Engaging Together to Strengthen Democratic Roots in Africa
2023 Africa Agenda Democracy Summit
The 2023 Africa Summit in Colorado will explore the challenges and successes in nurturing a democratic culture both in Africa and at home. We will learn alongside those who have been building democracy and facing the challenges of the continent’s most neglected conflicts.
While we grapple with growing threats around the world, it is easy to miss the daunting challenges to democracy that have been mounting on the African continent.
Would-be dictators are exploiting military intervention, social divisions, disinformation, and political apathy to end the promise of democracy. For an eyeopener on some of these conflicts in Africa — the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, and Burundi – that might have missed your newsfeed, see this report from DW News.
Africa Agenda believes that we must act to reinforce democratic culture both in Africa and at home. It is, perhaps, common today to witness an explosion of online activism directed at authoritarian or autocratic regimes. But it is hard to know what is true or what the real challenges are.
This year’s Summit will be an opportunity to engage with a global community of peaceful organizers aiming for change on the continent that needs our solidarity and encouragement. We will reinforce our own strategies and consider how best to support our fellow citizens in Africa in their quest for enduring democracies that can whether the frontal assaults they are now experiencing.
We are also excited to shift gears from discussion focused on key topical questions to nuanced country discussions on about 15 African countries. Through an intimate dinner and dialogue, guests will be able to hear directly from leaders and organizations working in these countries and go deeper into the history, issues and opportunities to make a difference.
Now in our 7th year, Africa Agenda’s African Summit convenes these yearly gatherings in our community to support our global citizenship and to share in the contributions, triumphs, joys and challenges of African peoples both from 54 nations and in our community in Denver. The Summit continues to be a unique opportunity to participate in an African dialogue in the Rockies and celebrate the food, music and culture of the continent.
Dr Simon Munzu joined the United Nations in 1995 as a UN Volunteer. Career positions that he held in this international organisation from that point until retirement in 2016 included: Assistant-Secretary-General and Principal Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Cote d’Ivoire (2014 to 2016), Director of Political Affairs in the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (2011 to 2012), Representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Chief of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (2004 to 2011), and Senior Policy Adviser on human rights and development at the headquarters of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York (2001 to 2004).
Furthermore he took on special assignments with the United Nations as: a member of the interdisciplinary team of UN experts that developed the peace consolidation, rule of law, human rights, and truth and reconciliation programme for post-conflict Sierra Leone; the representative of OHCHR in a UNDP-led inter-agency mission to develop the peace consolidation and recovery programme for the Democratic Republic of Congo following the signing of the Final Act (Sun City Agreement) of 2 April 2003; the leader in June 2014 of a multidisciplinary team to develop a strategy for the implementation of ‘urgent temporary measures’ (UTM) mandated by the UN Security Council prior to the establishment of the United Nations peace mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
In January 2018, the UN Secretary-General appointed Dr Munzu as a member of the International Commission of Inquiry for Mali. The Commission submitted its report in June 2020. He served twice as a member of the Commonwealth Observer Group for short-term observation of general elections in Malawi (2019) and Kenya (2022).
Simon Munzu is fluent in English and French. He holds a doctoral degree in law from the University of Cambridge, as well as a master’s degree in law and a bachelor’s degree in law, both from the University of London. A member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, he was called to the Bar in England several decades ago.
Since the onset of the ongoing conflict in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon in 2016, Dr Munzu has campaigned for the holding of a national conference on the Anglophone problem, to be preceded by a preparatory meeting of Anglophones alone. He has consistently maintained this stand on the ‘Anglophone problem’ in Cameroon for the past 30 years.