Former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings left Accra Tuesday for Brussels, Belgium to participate in the Crans Montana Forum on Africa which opens today. The four-day meeting which closes on Saturday under the theme, “Africa after the London & Pittsburgh G 20s: - The New Economic Parameters”, is a forum for African as well as International Government Officials and Businesses to take the pulse of the most influential of Africa’s stakeholders. Former President Rawlings is Honorary Chair of the Forum and will oversee several of the meetings. He has also been nominated co-Chair of the Founding Meeting of the ‘Forum of New Leaders for Tomorrow’, which will be launched on Saturday, April 10. Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings who is also the President of the 31st December Women’s Movement and Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Congress will participate in an Extraordinary Session of First Ladies under the theme, ‘Promoting Women’s Dignity’. She will address the session on the topic ‘Reaching out to youth and in particular Girls – support for their involvement in societal affairs and governance’. The Crans Montana Forum on Africa brings together the most influential leaders in business, government and civil society and enables them to contribute towards making Africa a better place for Foreign Investment and Business and to shape a more humane Africa. The Crans Montana Forum on Africa takes place every year and is renowned for its informal atmosphere that allows informal conversation among the most influential leaders with a stake in the region. Former President Rawlings will co-chair the opening session of the forum on the theme Africa and the World Crises: prospects for tomorrow alongside Ambassador Jean-Paul Carteron, founder of the Forum. The former President will also lead a panel discussion on “The impact of the World Food Demand in Africa: addressing the Land Property issue”. The Crans Montana Forum of New Leaders for Tomorrow whose founding meeting will be co-chaired by former President Rawlings aims to be a unique, multi-stakeholder community of Arab and African young leaders who are shaping the global agenda and implementing a better cooperation between Arab and African Countries in the framework of the new South-South Cooperation. The Crans Montana Forum will assist those New Leaders for Tomorrow and provide them with the capacity of having a concrete impact on global affairs and creating the tools, which will help their generation to be integrated at the World level. Business and political personalities attending the forum include Mahamane Ousmane, speaker of the Niger Parliament and President of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU); Roy Maybud President of Energy giants, Energy Holding; Louis Sylvain Goma, former Prime Minister of Congo; Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein, former Afghan foreign minister and presidential candidate in the last elections, Abdullah Abdullah and Guinean Premier, Lansana Kouyate. The First Ladies session will bring together the likes of Ghana’s Ernestina Naadu Mills, Albania’s Teuta Topi, Chantal Compaore of Burkina Faso, Chantal Muzito Ngalula of Congo and Fanta Kouyate of Guinea. The rest are Maria da Luz Dai Guebuza of Mozambique, Patience Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Fouzia Raza Gilani of Pakistan and Princess Loulwa Al Faisal, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Effat University, Saudi Arabia. Source: Visit Former President Rawlings’ blog site