A Letter of Motivation with which i applied for the ESD for Youths Forum held during the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development at WCCB, Germany in 2009
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I write to notify you of my interest in being considered as one of the participants in the upcoming workshop titled ‘Young ESD Voices from around the World’.
I am Kayode Raphael Adegboye, a Nigerian presently on a Masters study in Agricultural Science and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Bonn.
I have over the years studied extensively about sustainable development and i have built qualitative knowledge about its overarching objectives and focus. In my six years of working with private institutions, non-governmental organizations and regulatory agencies both in Nigeria and in Ghana, I have gathered noteworthy experience in different aspects of rural development, agriculture and environmental management. I have also gained valuable insights into the important role agriculture plays in developing economies while working with and providing for smallholder farmers in different aspects of sustainable agricultural practices, environmental sustainability and improvement of livelihood.
Capacity building and information management is one of my special focus. I have worked as a youth trainer for over ten years and have taught agriculture, biology and integrated science in secondary and special schools in Nigeria. I have volunteered for several youth empowerment and development-oriented organizations and my passion is to contribute my quota towards raising a generation of environmentally-conscious, development-oriented youths that will set new agenda for a safe, healthier and cleaner world.
To me, the issues around sustainable development are multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary. They are cultural, social, economic and religious in a way. Narrow-minded and strait-jacketed approaches will not address ensuing challenges. This is why, based on my well-rounded, cosmopolitan and articulate personality, I am applying for this opportunity to gain more insights into how the issues of sustainable development can be better understood in the context of agriculture, rural development and resource management.
With the experience and skills I will acquire from this workshop, I shall continue my primary responsibility as an agricultural resource manager with special focus on capacity building and training of smallholder in sustainable agricultural practices in my country. I shall collaborate with institutions and existing non-governmental organizations to take the message of sustainable development to the grassroots.
I shall particularly focus on transferring the skills to youths within my circle of my influence and organizational network. I presently volunteer for the African Youth Foundation, a non-governmental organization based in Bonn whose focus is educating the youths to enhance their participation and engagement in socio-economic issues. Part of my plan is to utilize the skills i acquire from this workshop towards educating the youths of this organization across the world.
Finally, it will be my pleasure to sit with twenty-four other participants to brainstorm and deploy solutions to the challenges of our world.
I hope to receive a favourable reply from you.
Kayode Raphael Adegboye
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Statement of Motivation
Part of my statement of motivation for a Conflict Resolution Course I applied for sometimes ago.
I am from a country of over 250 ethnic groups speaking close to 600 languages. I am from Nigeria, a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-lingual country with the largest population of humans in Sub-Saharan Africa.
With close to 150million highly-opinionated, energetic and concerned people, ideology constantly differs and, disagreements regularly happen. Indeed, we are a nation of men and women who are tolerant, loving and committed to one another. However, in the wake of leadership failures and resource mismanagement that have gripped the country for decades, selfish tendencies and aggressive demeanours have found their way into our national character and national life.
Our post-independence history is laced with numerous conflicts most of which led to loss of lives, properties and trust. Some of these conflicts had started as simple disagreements and in the absence of effective disagreement and conflict management tools and skills, had grown into unmanageable fracas, clashes and fallouts. The national character and identity of this promising country have constantly being threatened. We are in a situation where we are trying to cement broken trust and build comatose institutions all because we could not identify potential fail-out situations in time and/or we did not respond promptly to some of the ongoing conflicting concerns.
As a nation, we have lost time and potential years of development owing to civil wars, religious misunderstandings and political unrests. More than ever before, we now need regular and effective disagreement management interventions to keep our nascent democracy going. We need improved conflict resolution competence to channel us in the path of growth and development.
One of our key disagreement hotspots has being in the area of natural resource management and governance. Nigeria is a country rich in natural resources – land, water, agricultural and mineral resources. Apart from being one of the oil-rich countries in the world, our agriculture has also over the years performed well. We derive considerable proportion of our GDP from exporting agricultural products alongside oil and natural gas.
Unfortunately, instead of these resources being a blessing for us, they have served more as a curse. Nigeria today is a classic example of resource management failure essentially owing to conflicts that have fuelled mismanagement and crisis; the Niger Delta region being a noteworthy case.
I do not hope proffer solutions to all the resource management challenges and conflicts Nigeria have. I rather want to focus on the agricultural sector of the country and contribute my quota to improving this sector. My passion for change and my conviction to be involved was what influenced my taking up a Masters Degree study in Agricultural Science and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ARTS) at the University of Bonn, Germany. As a contributor to change, it was imperative I understood the state-of-the art dynamics and nexus between resource management and development.
While on this conflict management course, i hope to learn strategies for conflict recognition and also acquire skills in intervention and mediation of conflicts. I am of the opinion that we might not all have the same thinking and ideas but we can all agree to pursue a common cause. I believe that we cannot rid the world of disagreements but we can envisage potential disagreement situations and deploy tools and skills to intervene in these disagreements before they grow out of proportion.
I am poised to share the knowledge, tools and competencies gained from this course with hundreds of other concerned, committed and progressive youths that i am in network with and i believe that together, we can help to improve conflict management capabilities of stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural and natural resources management circle.
It is in this light that i apply for this course and wish for a favourable review and consideration of my application.
I am from a country of over 250 ethnic groups speaking close to 600 languages. I am from Nigeria, a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-lingual country with the largest population of humans in Sub-Saharan Africa.
With close to 150million highly-opinionated, energetic and concerned people, ideology constantly differs and, disagreements regularly happen. Indeed, we are a nation of men and women who are tolerant, loving and committed to one another. However, in the wake of leadership failures and resource mismanagement that have gripped the country for decades, selfish tendencies and aggressive demeanours have found their way into our national character and national life.
Our post-independence history is laced with numerous conflicts most of which led to loss of lives, properties and trust. Some of these conflicts had started as simple disagreements and in the absence of effective disagreement and conflict management tools and skills, had grown into unmanageable fracas, clashes and fallouts. The national character and identity of this promising country have constantly being threatened. We are in a situation where we are trying to cement broken trust and build comatose institutions all because we could not identify potential fail-out situations in time and/or we did not respond promptly to some of the ongoing conflicting concerns.
As a nation, we have lost time and potential years of development owing to civil wars, religious misunderstandings and political unrests. More than ever before, we now need regular and effective disagreement management interventions to keep our nascent democracy going. We need improved conflict resolution competence to channel us in the path of growth and development.
One of our key disagreement hotspots has being in the area of natural resource management and governance. Nigeria is a country rich in natural resources – land, water, agricultural and mineral resources. Apart from being one of the oil-rich countries in the world, our agriculture has also over the years performed well. We derive considerable proportion of our GDP from exporting agricultural products alongside oil and natural gas.
Unfortunately, instead of these resources being a blessing for us, they have served more as a curse. Nigeria today is a classic example of resource management failure essentially owing to conflicts that have fuelled mismanagement and crisis; the Niger Delta region being a noteworthy case.
I do not hope proffer solutions to all the resource management challenges and conflicts Nigeria have. I rather want to focus on the agricultural sector of the country and contribute my quota to improving this sector. My passion for change and my conviction to be involved was what influenced my taking up a Masters Degree study in Agricultural Science and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ARTS) at the University of Bonn, Germany. As a contributor to change, it was imperative I understood the state-of-the art dynamics and nexus between resource management and development.
While on this conflict management course, i hope to learn strategies for conflict recognition and also acquire skills in intervention and mediation of conflicts. I am of the opinion that we might not all have the same thinking and ideas but we can all agree to pursue a common cause. I believe that we cannot rid the world of disagreements but we can envisage potential disagreement situations and deploy tools and skills to intervene in these disagreements before they grow out of proportion.
I am poised to share the knowledge, tools and competencies gained from this course with hundreds of other concerned, committed and progressive youths that i am in network with and i believe that together, we can help to improve conflict management capabilities of stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural and natural resources management circle.
It is in this light that i apply for this course and wish for a favourable review and consideration of my application.
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