Report of Back-to-School Students Program, October 2024 edition

Theme: BUILDING DIPLOMACY AND YOUTHS ENGAGEMENT IN
SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Topic: DIPLOMACY IS A MYTH IN AFRICA THAT CAN NEVER BECOME A
REALITY
Exchange on diplomacy, teaching its history, evolution, and application in the real world characterized this October 2024 edition of the Baseline back to school debate at Mboa hub with young secondary school and university students. At exactly 10 am that Saturday, October 19th, we started with a word of welcome from the moderator and coordinator of the day, Miss Ethel LEHDUFE, Vice President in charge of programs and projects at Baseline Orators Network (BON). After this, we had a detailed breakdown of how
diplomacy discussions started and how it evolved to become a matter of international relations, which was led by Mr. Joseph LAMBE, Vice President in charge of administrative affairs at BON. We had a series of question-and-answer sessions where the attendees sought
to understand the concept of diplomacy, especially its use in Africa before we proceeded to the second part of the session, a diplomatic debate using the rules of the UN diplomacy debate module.
The debate started with a 15-minute reflection on the topic given by the attendees to decide if they wanted to be for the motion or against the motion. After the sides were chosen, we divided the group into two teams: those in support of the topic and those who
held a different opinion. The various groups proceeded to a 30-minute preparation of their arguments and chose two representatives each to present the arguments from both sides. The aim was to try convincing each party and getting to an agreeable conclusion for both parties. The debate started after a short coffee break, with both sides of the debate giving good arguments to support their claims, making it a very heated and interesting debate. After the debate was ended, the moderator guided the parties into agreeing on one thing to take as a solution.

We then took photos and networked. We departed at 3 pm, filled with the spirit of diplomacy and ready to engage in more diplomatic conversations.