Boosting youth employment in Africa

ADDIS ABABA (ILO News) – The African Union (AU), the ILO, the UNCA and the African Development Bank agreed to enhance their engagement to accelerate the implementation of the Joint Initiative on Job Creation for Youth in Africa.

Representatives of the four organizations met in Debre Zeit (Ethiopia) to discuss the Agenda 2063 of the AU, Employment and Social Protection in the context of the new SDGs, Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs), Labour Migration as well as funding and resource mobilization.

Young people make up the bulk of the total number of unemployed in Africa. They represent 60 % of total unemployment in the region. Although many jobs have been created, there have not been enough to accommodate the number of young people in search of work. The ILO estimates that between 2000 and 2008 Africa created 73 million jobs, but only 16 million for young people aged between 15 and 24. As a result, many young Africans find themselves unemployed or, more frequently, underemployed in informal jobs with low productivity and pay.

The actions proposed in the Joint Initiative are meant to provide a framework and guiding principles for an informed and effective support in the design, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs promoting productive and job-rich growth for youth.

The expected outcomes are to (i) Assign centrality to youth employment in national development frameworks; (ii) Improve livelihoods and employability of Africa’s youth; (iii) Sustainable political leadership and technical capacity established for achieving results on youth employment promotion.

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