Ms. Aya Chebbi, a multi award-winning Pan-African feminist. She rose to prominence as a voice for democracy and shot to global fame as a political blogger during 2010/2011 Tunisia’s Revolution. She received the 2019 Gates Foundation Campaign Award and was named in Forbes’ Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women and New African Magazine List of 100 Most Influential Africans. Her story and talks have been critically acclaimed by the Guardian, Huffpost, Jeune Afrique, France24, Deutsche Welle and more.
She served as the first ever African Union Special Envoy on Youth and the youngest diplomat at the African Union Commission Chairperson’s Cabinet.
Over the span of the past decade, she has single-handedly transformed the youth participation space across Africa and created various online and offline platforms with a holistic focus on youth and women leadership. From running an award-winning blog Proudly Tunisian and a popular Mentorship Programme Y-PHEM to building Afrika Youth Movement, one of Africa’s largest pan-African youth-led movements and mobilizing for Nala Feminist Collective.
She served on the Board of Directors of CIVICUS, World Refugee Council, Oxfam Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Generation Unlimited, Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, the Council of the Africa Public Health Foundation among others.
She is a graduate of University of Tunis El Manar with Bachelor in International Relations, Fulbright scholar at Georgia Southern University and Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholar for her Masters in African Politics at SOAS, University of London.
Chebbi’s extensive experience made her an influential leading voice known for rebranding Africa and commitment to peacebuilding, gender equality and Africa’s integration. Although she was blacklisted and banned from entering Egypt between March 2014 and December 2019, she continued to travel the continent organizing thousands of young people in non-violent mobilization and Pan-African activism.
Syeda Re’em Hussain is an early career International Relations scholar. She holds a PhD in International Relations and is currently Adjunct Faculty at the United States International University-Africa.
Re’em is passionate about cultivating safe spaces for learning, reflection and empowerment. She has worked in Egypt and Kenya; and has experience working with multilingual groups. Her research interests include postcolonial theory, decoloniality, spatial theory, public space, resistance, Pan-Africanism and transnational activism.
Re’em has served on the National Council of the Kenya Girl Guides Association, and is currently a Board Member at the African Legal Think Tank on Women’s Rights.
She has published three works; articles titled “Reclaiming the City: Guerrilla Gardening in Nairobi,” and “Sustainable Transitional Justice Policies in Africa: A Searchlight on Pan African Youth Organizations”; as well as a book titled “Hip-Hop: Lessons From The Frontline. The Disenchantment of Liberal Legal Discourse” which is a development of her M.A Thesis.
She has additionally co-authored two reports. A co-authored report published and commissioned by OXFAM, titled, “Shaking Up to Move Forward: Visions for Stronger Partnerships between Youth Movements and Social Organizations”. As well as the co-authored report published by the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy, titled, “Facts & Figures of Africa Youth Agency, Challenges and Recovery Roadmap on COVID-19”.
Rahel Weldeab Sebhatu is a postcolonial feminist, Pan-Africanist, political scientist and a PhD candidate in Global Politics at the Malmö University’s Department of Global Political Studies. She is also a board member of the Pan-African Forum for Justice (Afrosvenskarnas Forum för Rättvisa).
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration (minor: Political Science) at the University of Asmara in Eritrea, and her Master of Science in Global Studies (major: Political Science) at Lund University, in Sweden. She has also taken many advance level courses in gender, postcolonial theory, Middle Eastern studies, and media and communication studies.
While pursuing her bachelors, she initiated what would be a ten-year career in international affairs at the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS). Through that experience, she had been part of initiatives related to diaspora issues, gender, peacebuilding, Pan-Africanism, and youth policy. Rahel’s research interests include postcolonial feminism, postcolonial theory, decoloniality, negotiation theory, diplomacy, critical security studies, (youth participation in) peacebuilding, Pan-Africanism, transnational activism and resistance.
In 2009, Rahel was the 2nd place winner of the CIPE International Essay Competition in the category of citizenship in a democratic society (title of essay: Engaging Youth in Decision-Making: A Path toward Active Youth Citizenship in Eritrea), an essay which has also been cited on Youthpolicy.org.
As a result of an academic internship at Lund University’s Department of Political Science, Rahel wrote a working paper titled (En)gendering youth for gender-just peace and transitional justice with UN Resolution 2250, which has been featured as one of the thematic papers connected with the UN’s Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security.
Rahel conducted further research on UN Security Council Resolution 2250 for her master’s thesis, titled “(En)gendering and Securitizing Youth with UN Security Council Resolution 2250”. Other academic publications written by Rahel include Reaching higher: Women liberators and gender (2017) and The Digital Mediatization of Feminist Foreign Policy (2017). Rahel’s latest publication is a chapter in the Routledge Handbook on EU-Africa Relations, titled “Applying postcolonial approaches to studies of Africa-EU relations”.
Leadership positions that Rahel has held include member of the NUEYS Central Council (2005-2013), Vice-President of the Pan African Youth Union for the East Africa/Indian Ocean region (December 2011-2014), member of the International Steering Group for UNOY Peacebuilders (January 2011 – June 2014), and the Vice-President and co-founder of the Association of African Affairs at Lund University
