GEO-6 for Youth: Africa


into marine renewable energy technologies for wind, wave, and tidal energy; mineral production; boat building; shipping and ports activity; aquaculture; bioproducts (pharmaceutical and agrichemicals); ‘blue carbon’ (carbon storage in mangroves, seagrass, and saltmarsh) and desalination. All these sectors present golden opportunities for blue- economy powered youth employment.


Africa’s immensely rich biodiversity is also fertile ground for sustainable livelihoods. The continent’s vast land, water bodies and skies are full of all manner of plant and animal life that constitute the continent’s rich biodiversity. So rich is this biodiversity that 25 per cent of the world’s biodiversity can be found in Africa.


The wealth of this biodiversity extends beyond forests into rangelands that cover 65 per cent of the continent’s total land area. The biodiversity of Africa’s rangelands is so abundant that the world’s greatest diversity of large mammals can be found in Eastern and Southern Africa’s rangelands. This has boosted wildlife tourism and created thousands of jobs for young people. These economic opportunities inherent in wildlife tourism can be further enhanced through ecotourism. Further to this, Africa’s aquatic ecosystems are also flowing with rich biodiversity. Across the continent, wetlands, rivers, lakes, and coastal environments are home to distinctive aquatic biodiversity. Against this backdrop of a biodiversity-rich continent, it is incumbent on African youth to increasingly anchor their livelihoods at the intersection between biodiversity and sustainable development because our shared wealth, health, and well-being is rooted in this intersection.


Ultimately, only sound and successful environmental policies can ensure and enforce long term sustainability gains. The United Nations has had a long-standing recognition that youth imagination, ideals, and energies are critical in fostering sustainable development. Stakeholder involvement is a central component of policymaking and implementation. Because sustainability is anchored in good policies, youth must be involved in policy processes from conception to implementation. As key stakeholders in society, African youth must be on the frontlines of advocating for transformative environmental policymaking as well as implementation. Young people have a wide array of knowledge and skills that are needed in curbing environmental challenges and can help fill data gaps needed for sound policymaking, as well as raise community engagement and compliance. Making them part of the policy making processes could bring in a fresh breath of ideas that will help in proper policy implementation and enforcement.


Africa’s sustainability future is bright. In that future, green jobs abound so much that youth unemployment is dealt a decisive blow. But for this future to materialise, young people, policymakers, private sector players, local communities, and Africans as a whole must roll up their sleeves and work very hard at ensuring replenishment and not depletion of natural resources. The numerous pathways that lead to this future can be found in parliaments, learning institutions, work places, local markets, city streets, farms, and all across Africa. This publication showcases over 30 such pathways that have already been carved successfully by young people from all over the continent.


xii


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100