Marginalisation and the failure to invest in young people exposes Africa to economic underperformance.
Africa has about 420 million young people aged 15 to 35 and this number is expected to increase to 830 million by 2050 and approximately 46% of Africa’s labour force will be young people aged 15-34 by 2063.
Presently youth face significant challenges in accessing key development resources such as education, skills, employment and experience barriers to engagement that would enable them to contribute to society.
Approximately 50 per cent of secondary-age Africans are out of school and access to quality education which builds relevant skills are limited. In addition there is a rising mismatch between education and the needs of industry and the labour market.
Furthermore, an estimated 11 million youth enter the job market annually; however, only 3 million formal jobs are created within that time frame.
The lack of waged jobs push the youth into the informal sector where jobs are typically less stable and have lower earning potential.
As a result, thousands of young Africans resort to desperate measures including forced migration in search of jobs, livelihood, and a better future.
Marginalisation and the failure to invest in young people exposes Africa to economic underperformance and brain drain, youth criminality, and political and social unrest of youth in the society.
The extent to which we are able to commit to youth development through transformational initiatives will be key to harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend and achieving Aspiration 6 of Africa’s Agenda 2063 which envisions “An Africa whose development is people -driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children”.
To achieve this vision stakeholders need to identify and implement initiative that will embolden stakeholders to consider new perspectives, test new ideas and scale up promising practices across the continent that will improve the lot of youth in Africa.
This will be done through leveraging public-private sector partnerships among key regional and continental players in the development space, leading to the incorporation of a sustainable ecosystem built along collaborative and pan-African lines.
In April 2019, the African Union rolled out a new initiative the 1 Million By 2021 which aims to reach 1 million young people in Africa by creating opportunities for youth to actively and meaningfully drive the full realisation of Africa’s Agenda 2063.
The initiative which was launched at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia, during a four-day Pan African Forum organised under the theme ‘Africa Unite for Youth: Bridging the gap and reaching African Youth;” brought together over 400 young people from across the continent to co-create solutions identified around the key areas of Employment, Entrepreneurship, Education and Engagement (4E’s) which will accelerate socioeconomic development on the continent.
The 1 Million By 2021 Initiative will address the roots of the problems facing youth and identifies gaps such as the mismatch of qualifications and work force requirements, limited or restricted youth participation in leadership and governance structures, insufficient number of teachers at secondary and vocational level and limited access to investment capital for young entrepreneurs, among a myriad of other issues.
The 4Es and 12 Solution Pathways
• Education: Provide scholarship opportunities to young people especially young women at all levels (secondary, post-secondary, TVET), provide alternative pathways and remote learning resources and tools for skills development and establish a Teachers Without Borders program to address quality of delivery and availability.
• Employment: Provide professional internships and apprenticeship programs to ensure young people are able to contextualise learning to the world of work, establish physical and virtual job preparedness and matching services to connect young people to available opportunities, develop a digital skills program to prepare young people for new skills that enable them to be globally competitive and access roles outside their traditional geographical areas.
• Entrepreneurship: Mobilise and catalyse capital to allow youth ventures and start-up companies to grow, achieve economies of scale, and move into underserved markets, provide scale up opportunities including physical and virtual mentorship initiatives for young entrepreneurs; entrepreneurial and business development education delivered within a network of in-person and virtual spaces and Incubation services delivered through established companies.
• Engagement: Identify virtual and physical leaders to coach, nurture and continuously support emerging leaders across thematic areas on the continent.
Twelve pathways have been identified as drivers for the 4Es to facilitate the expansion of opportunities in youth development.
EDUCATION
EMPLOYMENT
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENGAGEMENT
The 1 Million By 2021 initiative adopts a Pan-African outlook and facilitates long term strategic partnerships to open up new opportunities for young people in Africa.
It will promote African solutions and innovations, co-created with and driven by young people, while building frameworks, institutions and structures for effective engagement of stakeholders, sustainable financing, implementation and accountability.
The initiative builds upon the progress Africa is making in improving capacities through education and skills development; creating, as well as establishing conducive environments for opportunities in employment and entrepreneurship for young people and ensuring they are meaningfully engaged in the development agenda of the continent.
Along with other strategies such as the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) and the Continental Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as well as the push to ensure African states ratify the African Youth Charter the African Union aims to ensure Africa’s youth are equipped to benefit from and drive the achievement of Agenda 2063.
Pledges received at the 1 Million By 2021 initiative commitment roundtable in April 2019.
Open Society Foundations
TRACE
UNICEF
GENERAL ELECTRIC
VMWARE
ILO
KOREA
UNFPA
AGA KHAN FOUNDATION
GERMAN GOVERNMENT
JOBS4AFRICA FOUNDATION
Establish 5 Africa 2063 Youth Innoparks in each African region as a centre of innovation for the acquisition of knowledge, practical and interpersonal skills for employment; entrepreneurial skills to develop businesses; a platform for youth engagement.
ECOBANK
AFREXIM BANK
AFRILABS
SAVE THE CHILDREN
AFDB
Find out more about 1 Million by 2021 and other AU programmes targeting the youth by visiting www.au.int/ en/youth-development of Agenda 2063