Let’s chart a path for our youth, African leaders now declare

NAIROBI, Kenya - Last week  African heads of states and top government officials gathered in Dar es Salaam-Tanzania where they all agreed on a seven-point declaration that could chart the future of youth contribution to development.

The Human Capital Development Summit was about gaps in employment opportunities, especially for those coming out of school.

According to a declaration read by Tanzania President Samia Suluhu on Wednesday, all leaders agreed that human capital development was critical for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in Africa.

“Investment in human beings through quality education, healthcare, nutrition, job creation, and skills development is necessary for improved social and economic outcomes,” President Samia said.

However, massive effort and coordinated financing are needed to strengthen the quantity, efficiency, and impact of investment in people.
 The declaration borrows heavily from the UN Sustainable Development Goals and African Union’s Agenda 2063.

 “Challenges impeding youth productivity include low access to quality education and skilled development, high adolescent fertility, drugs and substance abuse, and child marriages”, said Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera.

“We have to make sure that education and skills development, science, technology and innovation health and nutrition are central areas to focus on.”

Malawi’s 2018 population census showed as many as eight in ten people, in a population of 17 million, were aged 35 or below.

Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi said his government was taking steps to improve the number of women in the labour force through compulsory basic education and practical training.

“If we invest in human capital and believe in gender equality, we will be able to overcome many challenges that face us,” he said.
 Kenya President William Ruto called for collaboration.

“We have a chance to transform our population explosion and youth bulge into a demographic dividend,” he said.

The Kenyan president Africa was a green continent of the future where its young people are the global driver of a new industrial revolution.
 The São Tomé and Príncipe President Mr Carlos Vila Nova, said half of his country’s population is aged under 35 years, something he said may be good or bad.

“If the youth workforce is not used well, it will become a problem, so what we need is to implement strategic policies that will enable us to benefit from the dividend of human capital,” he argued.

Sierra Leone president Mr Julius Maada Bio has launched a deliberate policy to ensure parents send girls to school.

“And they have been doing better in classes than boys. On average, out of 12 students who pass exams, eight are female students,” he said.

According to the World Bank, learning poverty which is the share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10, stands at 89 percent in Africa.

Estimates from the African Development Bank (AfDB) show that the number of youth will double to 850 million by 2050. In an interesting twist, nearly 38 percent of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa want to move permanently to another country.

Countless times African governments have been seen to slow down sustainable demographic growth, pulling down all developmental capabilities. Consequently, as the rest of the developed world, the US, Japan, and South Korea, registering declining birth rates—the situation in Africa is rather different.

World Economic Forum (WEF) finds the region to feature untapped potential and hurdles at the same time. WEF 2022 report noted that Africa’s burgeoning young population keeps being characterized as merely a recipient of human development infrastructure, including higher education.

“When it comes to creating value, Africa’s youth is anything but passive. The millennial generation has lived through the continent’s meteoric rise in mobile and internet penetration rates. Today, African youths are increasingly taking an active role in shaping their future. In Accra, Nairobi, Cairo, or Benguerir, fully-fledged start-up scenes are disrupting how we think about African agriculture, industry, IT, and sustainability,” the report read in part.

GAROWE ONLINE