The following is a report on the proceedings in the 1st and 2nd committee sessions and workshops of the The Department of Infrastructure and Energy. In the duration of the lively and engaging debates and discussions the following key points were brought up and the following events unfolded. The committee was debating on the topic “ Energy Poverty and the Effort Towards Energy
Equity on the Continent.”
“There will always be a first time” is what they, whoever they are, say. Well for most if not all the delegates in the Department of Infrastructure and Energy this would be the first but not the last time to be speaking in this department on this topic. With it being the first time one has to expect mistakes but more importantly the lessons to be learnt after making the mistakes. This is why I really appreciate the D.I.E dais led by chairlady Shahd Hekal who was very merciful towards the delegates, because even though some mistakes were repeated by the delegates, she still continued to remind the delegates what was expected of them.
The first committee session began with a opening speeches from the 12 present delegates. This was then followed by speeches from delegates on the speakers list. It was an interactive session and some delegated questioned other delegations policies to curb energy poverty. Some of the questions remain unanswered to this moment either due to running short of time, not understanding the questions clearly and knowing the answer and just saying that indirectly ( smart move, Ivory Coast, smart move ). However, much as it was engaging it was also educative:
(eg) Tunisia: Suggested the use of natural resources like the sun or water to generate electric energy.
The session got even more interesting when the chair asked for any delegates who had any motions they would love to propose. Some had two, all of which were painfully rejected by the other delegates, others wanted to propose a motion but were disallowed. In fact, the delegate of Tunisia proposed the same motion thrice but got rejected in all. Talk about persistence! In the end Tunisia realised that an ‘unmod’ is all they needed. The delegate proposed an unmoderated caucus which got 100% votes. Needless to say it was extended for another 5 minutes. That seemed to have done the trick as the delegates seemed more lively after that. Lively so that the session proceeded for half an hour before everyone agreed that a break to grab some coffee wasn’t so bad after all.
After the first committee session were two workshops, the first being more interesting due to the candy that we were all rewarded with for participation in my biased opinion. To ‘energize’ delegates for the second workshop we played a ‘ That’s me’ game that showed nothing more than people’s love for Afrobeats and Samsung. Yes, Samsung! The workshops were also similarly educative as we got some education on:
Identifying the major problem, coming up with the smartest solution and discovering ways to implement the solution. ( That’s How some of us got candy.)
The various levels of youth participation in various organizations, institutions and even government agencies.
Committee session II unfolded with the loud and exciting demonstration of the moderator on how to give a speech loudly and lively, something which was quickly adopted by the delegates before the heartbreaking news of “The Crisis’ was broken unto us. The committee seemed energy drained by the news and needed something to get them back to their previous selves. If only they could do something to help get their chairperson back. Then bam! The notorious abductor sent a video stating his terms and conditions for the freedom of the chair: Answers (Resolutions) to his questions(challenges) energy related. This was the only perfect chance the committee had to save their beloved chairperson. Off to work they went through two extended unmoderated caucuses until they had completed whatever the abductor had requested.
The abductor must have been seriously impressed by their work because he freed our chairperson almost immediately. Mission #SavetheChair as they had called it had succeeded and they had themselves to thank for it.
Regardless of who seemed to have contributed more to the committee’s work, I saw resilience, hard work, determination, sacrifice, and the ability by the delegates to stay and keep calm under great pressure throughout my time with the delegates. I really learnt a lot from today and I hope you did too.
This is James Ngatia reporting precisely for Sky News.