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ABLI forum aims to tackle corruption in Africa

Author: Andrew Boyd, 20 September 2017

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How to tackle the widespread problem of corruption is a key theme for this year's African Biblical Leadership Initiative (ABLI) forum, in Cameroon.

Leaders, young and old, are gathering this week in Youandé, the Cameroon capital. They will be considering the theme: leadership lessons in Africa – honouring the past, treasuring the present, shaping the future.

ABLI is an initiative of Bible Society. One of the keynote speakers will be Paul Williams, Bible Society's CEO, who will be exploring the question, why Christian presence matters.

But the opening day was given to the African Youth Leaders' Forum, which considered youth not as the leaders of the future but as the leaders of today. 

More than 40 per cent of the population of Africa is below the age of 15, according to research. So ABLI is focusing on this rising generation.

‘Depending on the stories they are told, Africa's youth can be fuel for development or become weapons of conflict and destruction,’ says one of the conference organisers, Girma Mohammed. 

‘ABLI is committed to the idea that youth are not just future leaders – but they should be given a leadership role here and now.’

In Kenya, young people were mobilised for violence in past elections. But after ABLI in that country, Christian youth worked to promote voting based on conscience and Christian values, rather than ethnic allegiances.

This had a positive effect in minimising youth being involved in political violence.

ABLI brings churches together to work on their common mission, despite their denominational differences. And for ordinary citizens, ABLI creates a platform to sit together with their leaders and discuss the role of faith in working for the public good.


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