Keynote Address at the 30th AFS Youth Assembly
New York City – August 9, 2025
By Honourable Chernor Bah
Minister of Information and Civic Education, Sierra Leone
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Good morning, friends, fellow changemakers, and young leaders from over 80 countries.
Standing here today feels like déjà vu. Exactly 11 years ago—on this very date—I stood on this same stage, then as Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advocacy Group for the Global Education Initiative. I told my story—of growing up in war, of refusing to be silent, and of believing that education could be the bridge from despair to peace.
I remember the standing ovation. I remember the hope in the room. Today, I return—older, in a different role—but telling the same story, now with new chapters, to a new generation in a changed world.
I grew up in Sierra Leone, once called the “Athens of West Africa.” We had the first schools, the first university in the region—yet deep divisions remained. By the 1990s, our literacy rate was about 20%. Corruption was rife. And then came war—deliberately targeting schools, tearing communities apart, forcing children into violence.
I was a child then. I went to school to the sound of gunfire—until I too was forced into exile. But exile didn’t silence me. Out of that darkness, I found my voice.
We didn’t know terms like “SDGs” or “global citizenship” back then. But we knew this: education was the only way forward. It could heal. It could unite. It could give us the tools to imagine a different future. We marched for it, we demanded it—because we knew that without education, there could be no lasting peace.
Today’s young leaders face a different battlefield. Hatred, misinformation, and propaganda travel at lightning speed. Climate change denial, conspiracy theories, and manufactured fear divide nations. In Sierra Leone, some of the same forces from my youth still exist—sometimes fuelled from thousands of miles away—with the same goal: to fracture communities, keep children from school, and weaken democracy.
And yet, the solution is still the same: education. Education that teaches peace, citizenship, and resilience against lies.
The dream we fought for is now shaping national policy. Under President Julius Maada Bio, Sierra Leone invests 22% of our national budget in education. We sit on the UN Security Council. Our President chairs our sub regional Ecowas bloc. We have progressive policies. We have eliminated the death penalty. Our cabinet has approved the decriminalizing of abortion. We ended criminal libel. We made education free. And we are feeding our people through “Feed Salone.” We have the youngest cabinet in African history, with over a third being women.
As our President says:
“When I talk about Human Capital Development, I mean feeding the brain with education, feeding the tummy through agriculture, and caring for the body through healthcare.”
As Minister, I have worked to bring governance closer to the people—weekly press briefings in our national language, civic festivals, and presidential town halls. We have climbed nine places on the Global Press Freedom Index. We are modernising broadcasting, protecting digital rights, and making civic education address climate, health, and technology.
My journey—from war-affected child, to young activist on this stage 11 years ago, to Minister today—is proof that defying adversity is not a slogan. It is a daily choice.
Sierra Leone’s story proves that no country is too small, and no history too broken, to build lasting peace through education.
So to you, the young leaders of the AFS Youth Assembly: see adversity not as a wall, but as a doorway. Lead with courage. Unite with purpose. Build with love.
If a child who grew up under gunfire can return here, decades later, to speak to 700 young leaders from 100 countries—then nothing, truly, is impossible.
Thank you.
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