The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and African Union (AU) in consultation with Member States have developed a joint youth employment strategy for Africa to address significant labour market challenges for the youth.
The strategy is championing “economic solutions for economic problems,” where structural transformation of economies through pro-youth employment policy frameworks, including gender-responsive macroeconomic and sectoral policies, public and private investment strategies and (inter-continental) trade, would be boosted.
In the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 for Sub-Saharan Africa, the strategy would accelerate the implementation of labour and social protection, and in turn, boost the transition to formal employment and the transformation of jobs to decent work.
It would continue to invest in demand-driven education and skills development systems for young people to ensure that as higher productivity job opportunities emerge, young people are adequately prepared.
The report said the strategy would keep the youth in the driver’s seat of policymaking, promote and strengthen the institutions of youth inclusive social dialogue.
“Across all action areas, prioritise the ultimate creation of decent jobs through a theory of change that convincingly captures how policies and programmes will trigger employment growth,” it added.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the main concern was not youth unemployment, which consistently showed rates that were among the world’s lowest of 8.9 per cent in 2023.
The report said a few young people could afford to forgo some form of income generation through work.
In 2023, as in the early 2000s, nearly three in four working young adults in sub-Saharan Africa were in insecure forms of work; one in three paid workers earned less than the median wage; and more than one in two working youth eked out a living in the agricultural sector.
It said with the region’s youth population fast increasing, economies were under intense pressure to create productive and decent employment.
It said the lack of decent work opportunities and the situation of unequal access reflected in high shares of young Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) negatively impacting the motivation and wellbeing of young people in the region.
“The rise in conflicts is another factor behind young people’s rising anxiety levels,” it said.
The report said political instability translated into economic instability, further limiting young people’s job opportunities and standards of living and despite some positive signals about growth and jobs recovery, young people showed signs of growing levels of anxiety about their future.
It said surveys highlighted in GET Youth 2024 report said many young people felt stressed about job loss and job stability, the state of the economy, increasing violence and conflicts, not to mention the many other known stressors like climate change and technological progress.
GNA