Abdelmonem Fawzi
Young people in our continent face many barriers on the road to employment.
These barriers include the inability to identify the skills they need. They also fail to access training opportunities.
Meanwhile, employers face difficulty verifying skills obtained by new employees.
We need to draw a roadmap to help youth understand the skills employers need, and help youth acquire these skills, and get certifications.
Youth unemployment across Africa continues to be a challenge, especially with the youth population increasing and Covid-19 disrupting education and training.
The question now is how can we solve this problem by developing job creation hubs?
Some experts believe industries offer the greatest potential for the employment of Africa’s growing young population.
As a matter of fact, we need some intervention to help youth gain confidence and optimism for their careers, despite the challenges posed by Covid-19.
We also need workbook with exercises for youth, as well as facilitators to support youth as they try to find secure and successfully completing virtual gig jobs that can lead to long-term careers or entrepreneurship.
Understanding the skills youth needs to succeed in virtual gigs and the tools to leverage their new skills for future professional opportunities.
Africa needs to build back and forward better by investing in training, statistical and trade capacity to inform policy implementation in achieving the sustainable development goals on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, development experts say.
During a presentation on economic and social development at the on-going 39th ECA Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Director of the Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) Sub Regional Office for West Africa, Ms. Ngone Diop, said the disruptive impact of Covid-19 on the economic well-being of ECA member states made investment in capacity building more crucial for the achievement of the SDGs.
Diop’s presentation was on the outcome of the ECA’s sub-regional offices’ Intergovernmental Committees of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE).
“There is need to respond decisively to Covid-19’s health and socioeconomic impacts, including through effective collaboration,” Ms. Diop told the meeting, highlighting one of the recommendations from the ICSOEs.
The ICSOEs provide strategic direction to the work of the Sub-Regional Offices, offering senior officials and other technical experts a platform to discuss economic and social development issues across the sub regions.
Director of the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), Ms. Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, talked in the same session about her institute.
She underscored the need for training and capacity building for Africa to realise the SDGs on poverty reduction, economic growth and work, reducing inequalities and building sustainable partnerships.
The IDEP is the training arm of the ECA, based in Senegal. It has helped build the capacities of ECA member countries on many development issues and recently on e-learning and preparing them on the newly launched Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“Capacity building is a key issue, a prerequisite to build a better future for Africa,” Ms. Soltane said. “We are training to make a difference in Africa’s development”.
The institute provides focused research, training and knowledge management for ECA member states.
It has migrated training courses from physical delivery to online platforms, which Ms. Soltane said had doubled participation in training courses.
In 2020, the Institute trained 2,300 people above the target of 2,000, with more women participating in the programmes, despite limited access to ICTs.
“There is no development without training,” Ms. Soltane said, calling for harnessing ICTs in building the skill capacity in Africa to tap into opportunities presented by the AfCFTA and in meeting the SDGs.
“The SDGs will remain a bridge too far, if there is no capacity to utilise vital data and statistics,” Tinfissi-Joseph Ilboudo, head of the Statistical Development, Data Innovation and Outreach Section in the African Centre for Statistics told the conference.
Mr. Ilboudo noted that Africa needs to prioritise and invest in robust and agile statistical systems to meet the SDGs through the generation and use of timely and relevant data.
Africa, he said, is challenged by a poor and under sourced civil registration and vital statistics systems (CRVS) which are still largely paper-based.
“Yet a functional CRVS system compiles and disseminates vital statistics, such as birth, death records and other demographics on time, regularly and online to enable development planning and investment,” he said.
He highlighted the need for security and public confidence in CRVS systems to ensure that Africans provide correct statistics for planning.
“That will ensure we leave no one behind in development,” Mr. Ilboudo said.
He said to meet the SDGs, which needs more than $200 billion annually, Africans need robust policies to plug the data and statistical gaps which curb the prioritisation of adequate technical and financial resources towards SDGs.
Ilboudo said Africa needs to integrate geospatial information into national development plans to accelerate the attainment of SDGs.
He presented a report about the Fifth Conference of Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration and the seventh meeting of the Statistical Commission for Africa.
