in the continent today and the number is set to double to 830 million by 2050 (AfDB 2018b). With the fastest-growing population in the world, the percentage of working-age Africans is expected to increase from 12.6 per cent in 2010 to 41 per cent in 2100. (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UN DESA] 2017). This transition in demography, if properly utilized, can generate a “demographic dividend” capable of stimulating economic growth (Gribble and Bremner 2012).
This chapter and the rest of this publication provide ample evidence of sustainable youth action that capitalizes on their energy, innovation, ideas, and solutions. When channelled into green jobs, these initiatives can potentially transform local communities and the continent at large.
1.2.1 Challenges facing Africa’s greatest asset
African youth continue to face a multitude of challenges: unemployment, low literacy rates, inadequate access to funding, violence and conflict, inadequate medical services, poor mentorship, policy limitations, poor governance, and corruption (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa [UNECA] 2017).
Unemployment is particularly challenging. The African Development Bank reports that of Africa’s nearly 420 million youth aged 15 to 35 years, 31 per cent are unemployed, 35 per cent are vulnerably- employed, 19 per cent are inactive, and only 15 per cent are in wage employment. To bring this into perspective, only 3.1 million jobs are available for the 10 to 12 million youths entering the labour force every year. Furthermore, youth in Africa are twice as likely to be unemployed as adults (AfDB 2018c). This can only serve to exacerbate poverty and inequality in the region. The ripple effects of youth unemployment in Africa are already resulting in social unrest and unsafe migration even as they threaten global peace and security (United Nations 2013).
Message to Africa’s youth, from H.E. Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, Arab Republic of Egypt
African youth hold the future of the African continent, and I call on them to take up their responsibility to come up with innovative and unconventional ideas, approaches, and initiatives that accelerate a transition to a green and circular economy, as effective tools for achieving sustainable development. Africa’s Agenda 2063 stressed on the role youth have to play in transformative leadership in all fields and as drivers of change, and particularly in their potential to lead African development, making it imperative to implement the African Youth Charter.
A group of students in Accra receiving training to become sanitation ambassadors in their communities
A demographic dividend can be described as accelerated growth in an economy borne out of a shift in the population’s age structure that results in the nation having a larger working- age population compared to a non-working-age population. Through strategic investments in human capital; in the form of employment, entrepreneurship, education, and skills development; nations can truly harness the promise of the demographic dividend to change the development trajectory.
I call on African youth to ensure the adoption of nature- based solutions that take climate change impacts into consideration; solutions that are inclusive, transparent, and participatory. Adopting such approaches would contribute to the diversification and revitalization of economies and the creation of decent and sustainable green jobs, thus securing the future of African generations to come. Youth have a vital role and stake in the successful implementation of the proposed policies of the African continent and should therefore be part of their design and formulation, and in the implementation of programmes and plans translating those policies into action. Youth hold the future of societies across the world, it is imperative that policies, plans, and programmes reflect their priorities, hopes, and aspirations.
3
Youth-led Green Solutions
Divine Agborli
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