Experience @ YALI, RLC West Africa, Cohort 13 by Daniel K. Owusu

Life is full of opportunities but it requires determination and commitment to identify and realize them. On February 2018, Daniel had the chance to participate in the online session of YALI RLC, West Africa program. During the online session, I was exposed to lessons on leadership development, contemporary issues in Africa and Gender equality.

The leadership lesson enlightened me on serving as a leader and been of more results oriented person. I learnt the relevance of self building and identification. It is always important to know your strength and weakness. Knowing your weakness helps you to recruit the best members for your team and develop yourself as well. This is important in the life of every leader as it helps you to make effective career decisions and leadership roles.

Africa is faced with several basic and imminent issues which include terrorism, food insecurity, gender inequality and corruption. The contemporary issues lesson helped me to understand these issues from the global perspective and how it can be resolved at the local level. Moreover, the youth plays important role in nation building, therefore, building the leadership skills of youth in different communities will help develop not only the leader but also the community at large. Which will directly affect the way and life of the people in responding to issues of terrorism, food insecurity and gender inequality.

Furthermore, Daniel had the chance to participate in the onsite leadership training at YALI, RLC, West Africa – Ghana, Accra-GIMPA. During the training, Daniel joined approximately 100 participants from other African countries including Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Liberian, Cameroon etc. The program was insightful coupled with cultural exchange, team building exercise, and presentations.

I learnt a great deal of lessons from the other participants and networked with as many participants as possible to establish long term relationship with them.

I was in the Civic Leadership Track where I learnt about social entrepreneurship and community engagement activities.