10 July 2012

1. Dialogue of Executive Secretaries with ECOSOC 2012on Regional Perspective on youth and Development“Youth, Governance and Leadership” 10 July 2012

2. Outline • African Moment • Importance of Youth in African Development • Challenges • Policy Response

3. African Moment • Increasing faith and belief that Africa is on the rise • Credible economic performance of the continent & demonstrated changes in the area of governance • With enormous natural resources, demographic advantages, better macro-economic management: Africa has potential as a pole of global growth • Capacity, will and determination to make Africa a global player that can contribute to global prosperity and associated processes • African youth to be inspired and provided with opportunities to contribute to the development and transformation of our continent.

4. Importance of Youth in African Development • African Youth in vanguard of political and governance changes: • Youth contributed to anti-colonial struggle and against apartheid • Youth led the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Lybia. • Africa youth bulge to remain until 2050 • Youth will also be needed to play a critical role in sustaining Africa moment • In particular, Africa requires human capital to power its economic progress and achieve sustained development in the 21st century • Young people are crucial drivers of progress and socio-economic development

5. Challenges • Marginalization of youth: • Not part of policy formulation processes or designs of programmes • Age discrimination when it comes to jobs • Access to land and credit facilities • Channel their energies into productive uses • Youth unemployment (over 20%) and underemployment (Rural area) • Lack of structured opportunities for political participation: • Their voice and ideas not heard and used • Lack of opportunity to exercise leadership • Education being provided is not preparing youth for the modern economy.

6. Policy Response • Critical Factors of success in policy making aimed at responding effectively to challenges of Youth, Governance and Leadership • Need to invest and partner with the youth (High quality education, gainful employment, infrastructure and science and technology) • African Youth Charter was adopted at the AU Head of States and Governments to improve youth participation in all spheres of society including decision-making at all levels of governance and civic life • Other frameworks at regional level include the African Decade Plan of Action 2009-2018 and AUC-ECA-AfDB Initiative on Youth Employment • ECA, in partnership with International IDEA, is organizing a major international conference on “Youth and Democratization in Africa: Comparative Experiences and Lessons Learned” in October 2012 • Several African countries have established National Youth Councils, Youth Employment Schemes and Youth Parliaments

7. Policy Response, cont’d • Enhancing youth skills and opportunities in overall development processes at regional and sub-regional level: • Examine trends and current situation of young people in Africa • Promote awareness among regional and national policy-makers about the need to mainstream youth perspectives in their development planning • Upscale support to programmes that address the needs of young people in the priority areas of the UN World Programme of Action for Youth • Strengthen the capacity of policy makers to analyze the effectiveness of existing youth-related policy frameworks in Africa • Involve youth representatives in governance processes such as the African Peer Review Mechanism

8. Thank You