Africa’s youth will change the world order
AFRICA’S young population has been booming for decades and is building to a crescendo.
Atectonic shift is now underway, and this major demographic change will transform the international order and balance of power in our multilateral systems.
More than 60 percent of the continent’s population is under the age of 25, and they are giving voice and urgency to a wide range of issues — from clean energy and sustainable growth to technology and health innovations.
Their views and recommendations will inform global processes like the United Nations Summit of the Future next year — including the Pact for the Future — and structures like the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation to help spur investments, address debt crises and foster public-private collaborations for young countries.
By 2100, Africa will be home to almost half of the world’s young people, and the influence of these young change-makers will be felt far and wide.
Already, young people across Africa have advanced initiatives that prioritise educational equality, youth representation in government and accessible technology. They can bring about huge change when their power is unleashed.
For instance, 24-year-old Kenyan Faridah Ally, who witnessed the pervasive denial of girls’ education during the pandemic, built an organisation to collect and distribute learning materials and other vital supplies to help girls keep up with their studies.
In Nigeria, a group of young people led a constitutional reform lowering the eligibility age to run for political office through the #NotTooYoungToRun movement, a testament to young people’s ability to rewire institutions.
In Sierra Leone, the Children’s Forum Network worked to unite young people after the civil war, leading the nation’s healing and transformation, while Purposeful, born during the Ebola crisis, seeks to magnify girls’ activism on a global scale and has amassed more than US$30 million in funding.
Africa’s youth are not just the future — they are the now.
Young people in Africa also hold the ability to transform economies, both on the continent and worldwide. They are making an incredible financial impact: African start-ups, the majority of which are youth-led, raised over US$3,3 billion in funding last year, up 55 percent from the year before.
This is the power of young people: relentless, bold and unafraid to shake up the status quo.
But we must do more to help them continue to harness it.
An engaged and entrepreneurial youth population is not by itself a golden ticket to prosperity. The Open Society Foundations’ 2023 Barometer, and other surveys like the 2022 Africa Youth Survey and Afrobarometer, underline young Africans’ growing mistrust in institutions and anxiety about their future, with concerns ranging from dwindling job opportunities to daunting environmental challenges.
The success of Africa’s youth and enabling this younger generation to reach its potential require significant engagement and investment. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 is a primary vehicle for investment in the continent’s young people — a transformational blueprint for a better future designed by Africans, for Africa. By enacting global frameworks like the AU Agenda and the UN’s Agenda 2030, we will prioritise young people across Africa to have access to education, health, technology and employment opportunities. Equipping these young people with the tools they need will allow them to make more of the incredible progress we have seen from them time and again. What we need right now is an opportunity to unite the world’s youth-led and youth-focused organisations already making a difference in the lives of many. Elevating African change-makers through these channels is an essential step in charting a course towards a future that accelerates investment in young people and the young countries they call home. One example of that in practice is the Unlock the Future coalition. Hosted by the UN Foundation, this initiative is uniting organisations committed to working with and for young people to make a difference in the lives of nearly one billion people across the globe. The paths we have travelled, from Kenya, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, converge and lead to a singular, powerful conclusion: Africa’s youth are not just the future — they are the now. We have seen them drive change, innovate and emerge as the soul of the continent. They are the architects of change, the pioneers of innovation and the promise of Africa’s future poised to reshape the world. Investment in the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Agenda 2030 is vital in positioning young people as drivers of Africa’s renaissance. It is incumbent upon leaders, policymakers and investors across sectors to unlock the funding, access and opportunities they need to establish a better, more prosperous future for Africa — and the world. — devex.com
◆ Chido Mpemba is the African Union’s youth envoy. Chernor Bah is Sierra Leone’s minister of information and civic education, and Stephen Omollo is the CEO of Plan International.