Until the 4th of April, IFLRY Vice President Aicha Camara and me are present in the proximity of Johannesburg, South Africa, at the IFLRY/FNF seminar on African liberal youth cooperation. About 25 young African liberals from 12 different liberal youth organizations have convened here to discuss their bilateral, subregional and pan-African cooperation. Active IFLRY member organizations like UJTL (Senegal), RJR (Cote d'Ivoire) and NPP-Y (Ghana) are naturally present, but also liberal youth organizations that have only been affiliated to the Organization of African Liberal Youth (OALY) or are completely new at all.

It is the first time in several years that IFLRY is organizing a seminar in Africa again and so far it seems to become a very good start for further international liberal involvement in Africa. One of the hopeful outcomes of this event is the revitalization of OALY. African liberal youth face many common challenges and a pan-African organization can help all these organizations to learn from each other, exchange best-practices and ultimately improve their domestic work and voice their concerns and ideas on an international level. Also with the help of former IFLRY VP and Senegalese Member of Parliament Tafsir Thioye, steps are being taken to get OALY back on track.

However, it will not be easy. Resources are scarce, and there is still officially a Bureau in place (but which hasn't convened in many years and of which only one - Aicha - is present). On Friday there will be the final session on the future plans for OALY. We'll keep you updated on the outcome!

ps. obviously, the results of the Zimbabwean elections are being very closely followed here...