IIAS - One Africa
(Africa Unification and Harmonization)
Dr. Joyce Dadzie is Chairperson of the IIAS ONE AFRICA Program. Africa has 54+ countries. Africans should occupy the IIAS Volunteer Representative Seats for those countries, research the respective countries, run into opportunities, share those opportunities with the migrant peoples who are already in such countries, and deliver those opportunities to them. Thereby, the continent will begin to benefit from the creativity and ingenuity of IIAS Fellows. This Institute will continuously demonstrate charity and support with the opportunities out there that Africans are often denied in their respective countries by the political elite.
The benefit is that a scholar is co-creating an avenue for self and fellow scholars to collaborate and operate Africa.
(1) People usually do not respect anything that did not cost them money.
(2) Becoming a Fellow at IIAS involves a one-time registration fee. There are no monthly dues or any regular charges.
(3) Everyone is a Volunteer. Imagine yourself being the arrowhead for a country. Needless to sell the potential business opportunities a person can run into. The danger in selling such opportunities and using them to induce people to become IIAS Fellows is that people could rely ONLY on the information, and that is wrong. It is better for individuals to bump into good opportunities by chance. There must be a reason the Chinese are flooding ALL African countries they can get their hands on. The people of those nations are there and cannot see what the Chinese are seeing. Now, Scholars are coming in. Individuals can request to join the Institute and consequently enter the official Forum and interact with other Fellows.
Each scholar deployed as a Country Representative is a Volunteer. That Fellow Registration Fees are listed at https://iiasglobal.net/ where individuals could Donate the appropriate amount based on passion.
Welcome
Mindset
This is to welcome everyone to IIAS. Also, welcome the Africanization Program Committee whose responsibility it is to assist all Country Representatives achieve their country-specific IIAS goals. As IIAS kicks this off, the Committee Members should seize this opportunity to get acquainted, especially because of the positive implications of these international collaborations. All three Members of the Committee are known to the IIAS as highly disciplined, moral, and ethical people who understand what humanity represents in this world, to cultivate it like farmland, to dominate it, and multiply it. Please welcome one another. Also, get ready to begin to welcome others who become part of the program. The journey to help Africa stand on its feet requires passion. That is why IIAS is playing up on passion and commitment. IIAS is an organization of volunteers who want to use their education for social change. As the Institute’s name goes, the ‘A’ in IIAS is Africa. Charity, they say begins at home. IIAS Fellows have direct ties to Africa.
Country Representatives are Volunteers to their countries of assignment. Deliver value to the masses through IIAS policies that are publicized. The masses will gravitate towards the new body. The Institute will collaborate with appropriate entities. High ethics, moral, and self-discipline are a sine qua non in delivering the value that will rescue Africa from continuous bleeding. The overarching strategy of independent pursuit of objectives will eventually reveal like-minded entities that might show interest in collaborating with IIAS in the different countries. The average African masses don’t read policy papers. IIAS Country Representatives will need to give this a deep thought with an aim to crafting and adopting multi-prong strategies that’d target different audiences. For example, the Representatives may be able to reach the elite and educated audiences via policy papers, and generate other avenues to reach the masses.
Commitment
Doctrine
Africa expects her children to come to her rescue. That self-evident truth is made even more evident by the events unfolding across the continent – as the continent reels in pain under the combined terror of greed and unpretentious invasions. IIAS makes a difference. In this regard, IIAS Fellows and other functionaries uphold integrity, honesty, probity, and accountability in all their activities across the continent. People characteristically live out their lives, maybe up to 120 years of age, and depart this planet. IIAS wants to re-emphasize the already known UBUNTU lessons as well as moderation. Country Representatives always avoid greed in their respective countries of assignment. IIAS Fellows always think about the wellbeing of the poor masses of the countries they individually represent at the IIAS Roundtable. Program-specific guidance is in place for specific activities. New Representatives have the opportunity of asking questions for guidance. .
Registered members who desire to be assigned to countries should so indicate in the official forum or privately by email – iiasglobal2@gmail.com.
Individuals who want to register and become Fellows should log on to the IIAS web site http://www.iiasglobal.org/, register, report their registration by email (above) to Admin or by using the Contact Form on the web page, and get assigned to a country.
Thanks to everyone for sharing the vision for Africa – ONE AFRICA!!! On the other hand, since no individual is the depository of knowledge, it would surely take the collaborative efforts of all (irrespective of the country of assignment) to craft effective strategies aimed at solving the multifaceted and hydra-headed problems of Africa. Moreover, such collaborative platform would enable the sharing of best-practices on how to solve unique and peculiar countries’ problems.
No one person can have access to the entire Africa. If IIAS had 54+ Fellows respectively representing each country, then, one Representative could have access to the entire African continent through collaboration. For instance, a Representative may not know what might be happening in Cote D’Ivoire, Tanzania, or Somalia right now. If IIAS had a Fellow representing all the different countries, such Fellows would share information about their respective countries at the IIAS Roundtable. The Institute’s Fellows would team up and generate ideas for solving problems as might be appropriate or applicable to those climes. If IIAS does not deploy Fellows to all African countries, the Institute will be shortchanging both the poor masses of those countries and the Institute. IIAS only has the brains, pens, and papers. The pen is mightier than the sword, they say. Oftentimes, subjective minds make like to know what they would get before embarking on tasks. They would like to get something from their efforts. However, when individuals focus on doing what need to be done, surprising positive personal rewards emerge as against the “what’s in there for me” attitude. Let us go into Africa – ONE AFRICA and help the hopeless and hapless. The people of the land deserve better. Getting busy is better than marking time and busy rationalizing things. Welcome to IIAS. The Institute urges everyone to totally subscribe to the mindset behind this post. The main goal and objective should be to voluntarily assist the masses gain a well-governed Africa where the rule of law reigns supreme to the benefit of the poor masses. An Africa with reliable social structures, efficient infrastructures, and one where merit reigns over everything else.
Pertinent Contemporary Thoughts and Questions
Taking COVID-19 as an example, nobody knew how long this was going to last as we went into it. The lowest of murmurs warned that the current set of measures could be with us for up to 18 months. The problem for small and informal businesses is that they may not be allowed to resume operations. Even if they were, it might not be business as usual. An example of this is that some governments might extend relief offers to private firms. The operators are caught in between a rock and a hard place with assets lying fallow. Some businesses may simply not be able to function while others might make tough modification decisions. Is Africa ready for that?
While business, in general, has suffered from the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown, no businesses have suffered more than small, startup, and informal businesses. The lockdown has been harshest on the smallest of businesses when these businesses are in their greatest hour of need. Some African governments might have inadvertently left the businesses out to die. We understand that these are unprecedented times and no set measures were ever going to be perfect. Beyond their handling of the situation let’s look ask questions, try to get answers, and use such exercise to create solutions for Africa.
Those businesses fortunate enough to continue operating may not be able to operate as usual because of emerging and abnormal conditions. Social distancing requirements are already impacting businesses such as restaurants with dining facilities. Consider being asked to use only half the number of seats in a restaurant, this obviously impacts profitability. Doubling the cleaning schedule and providing sanitizer and PPE will certainly ramp up business costs. How will your business adapt to this reality? These contemporary situations demand strategic approaches. All IIAS Committees are already addressing such considerations in their deliberations.
You’ve been doing things the way you characteristically do them for so long. You probably never questioned if there were other ways of doing them. Maybe, you have, but only just considered that it was not worth the trouble as everything was fine the way it was. Well, things are not fine anymore for many businesses, and this is a question I encourage many to revisit. There are so many brilliant examples of entrepreneurs who asked themselves this pertinent question and found an answer. What can you change about your business?
It’s great advice to guide the regular rural country folks across Africa to learn how to sell online or embrace technology. However, that may not always be applicable. For brick and mortar businesses, increasing hygiene measures can drown business investments. The point is there are certain aspects of business that just cannot be changed. These have to be managed. If we ask ourselves the right questions we can find meaningful answers. Therefore, IIAS Fellows are predisposed to deliver value to all nooks and corners of Africa to the benefit of the peoples.
Things may not look right at this time, especially in the face of the COVID-19 threat. However, your business that might have been forced out of operation because of lockdown or greatly restricted may find a new opportunity that has opened up to you. For instance, those in the garment and textile business found a new opportunity with cloth mask manufacturing. Some times it’s not that simple and straight forward, but there are definitely opportunities opening up on different business fronts that people might not generally be aware of yet. Research can help. IIAS covers that niche.
Collaborations
Domiciliation
IIAS is collaborating with diverse entities. One of them is a university that made available one of their Faculty Online Classrooms for the Africanization Program Representatives to interact like the regular online classrooms. The collaboration is with Emmanuel University United States. That location is where the IIAS policies about Africa takes place. It is so great that the university is making its resources available to the Institute. For instance, the Emmanuel University has awarded a 3-Month Scholarship to African Youth from different African countries to gain critical knowledge towards harnessing Africa’s rich resources in their respective countries. IIAS is at a great moment in history for new opportunities in business, health, science, education, etc.
IIAS is a United States entity. Its Fellows are Fellows of a U.S. based Institute. The Fellows do not have to travel to any country to open an IIAS office. IIAS Fellows stay wherever they are and establish contact with an individuals in their respective countries of assignment. The Fellow successfully identified the youth who have been awarded scholarship to study online at Emmanuel University in the United States. Such scholarship awardees do not have to deal with Visa or travel problems. They stay in their respective countries and benefit from Emmanuel University online education. When they complete their studies, they become eligible for other opportunities that might arise from time to time. Furthermore, they immediately become Emmanuel University alumni. They also receive continuous mentoring by IIAS Fellows.
Unify and Harmonize Africa
