AFRICAN YOUTH PANEL
(AYP)
Final Report
"African Youth Experts Meeting on Youth Employment"
“Unleashing the potential of Africa’s youth to reduce youth unemployment”
20 - 21 May 2013
Adot-Tina Hotel,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Table of Contents Pages
I. Introduction...... 3
II. Attendance...... 4
III. Opening Ceremony……………………………………………………..………...... …4
IV. Discussion on the Concept Note by Robert Nkwangu……………...……………...…7
V. Plenary Sessions………...... 8
1) “Meeting the 2% Target on Youth” by Mr. Emmanuel Ishie Etim……..9
2) “Unleashing African Entrepreneurship – Youth Entrepreneurship
Facility Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Fund”: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda from
2010 to 2014 by Ms. Minna Mattero……………………...... …10
3) “Creating New Entrepreneurs: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Providing Access to Markets through Youth Trade” by Mr. Alek Sudan………………………………………………...………………………12
4) “Access to the Labour Market and Social Inclusion” by Mrs. Patricia Jumi-Kjelsgaard……………………………………………………………………………...13
VI. Feedback from Regional and International Meetings on Youth Employment and Related issues…………………………………………………………………
VII. Group works on Governances and Policy and Strategic Actions, Innovative Programs and Youth Entrepreneurship, and Finance Mechanisms, Job Demands and Youth Competitiveness………………………………...... ……………17
1) Group I: Government and Policy and Strategic actions……………….17
2) Group II: Innovative Programs and Youth Entrepreneurships and finance mechanisms……………………………………………………..18
3) Group III: Job Demands and Youth Competitiveness…………………19
VIII. Developing Priority Actions on Youth Employment and Key Recommendations for African Union………………………………………………………………………….20
Annex I: Programme of the Meeting ……………...…………………………………………22
Annex II: List of Participants………………………………………………………………....26
I. Introduction
Africa Youth Experts Meeting on Youth Employment under the theme “Unleashing the Potential of African Youth to Reduce Youth Unemployment” was organized by Africa Youth Panel in collaboration with the AU Youth Division. The meeting was supported in part with funds from the Roskilde Charity Society. The African Youth Panel (AYP) aims to commit itself to interventions aimed at reducing youth unemployment by 2% annually (as per the declaration from the heads of states in Malabo and the African decade plan of action for youth). The panel also believes the policy, strategic and programmatic actions required to address youth unemployment and underemployment should be immediate, deliberate, and multi-sectoral. The main areas of focus of the panel are centered on youth employment, Governance and youth Participation.
The main objectives of the expert meeting included the following among others to:
· Bring together youth experts, relevant civil society organizations and development partners to deliberate on initiatives for translating the commitments of reducing youth unemployment in Africa by 2% per annum into tangible programmatic actions; and
· Form a think –tank working group to provide recommendations and expert advice to the Africa Union on issues of youth unemployment and to identify options for the group’s engagement.
The expected results from the meeting were:
· Recommendations and concrete strategies on how to tackle the youth unemployment problem in Africa;
· A working group formed to continue with engagements on youth unemployment with the AU and other relevant stakeholders; and
· A strengthened AYP role in contributing to the work of the AU especially on Youth empowerment, involvement and participation.
II. Attendance
The meeting was attended by youth entrepreneurs, youth led organizations, Civil Society Organisations and other relevant partners like ILO, Youth Employment Network, Sustainability among others. The opening ceremony was graced among others by Mr. Charles Dan, the Regional Director of ILO Regional Office for Africa. The session was chaired by Ms. Zipporah Maina-Kenya Association of Manufacturer; Selected individuals gave opening remarks which included Mr. Robert Nkwangu, AYP East Africa Representative and Mr. Ibrahim Ceesay-Chairperson of AYP. The list of participants is herewith attached (Annex II).
III. Opening Ceremony
The chairperson of the opening ceremony was Ms. Zipporah Maina-Kenya Association of Manufacturers. She welcomed all participants to the meeting and invited Mr. Charles Dan- Regional Director ILO-Regional Office for Africa to make a key note speech.
Mr. Rei indicated that every day, millions of youth in Africa struggle to secure decent employment. He noted that lack of opportunities, poor salaries, absence of protection render them vulnerable and, often, discouraged. He also indicated from the recently published 2013 Global Employment Trends for Youth report and reflected that youth unemployment and its scarring effects are particularly prevalent in three world regions, one of which is North Africa. On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Africa presents relatively low regional youth unemployment rates, but, as we all know, this is linked to high levels of poverty which makes working a necessity for many young people. Indeed, in Sub Saharan Africa, the youth employment challenge is as much a problem of poor employment quality as one of the area affected by unemployment and under employment.
He acknowledged from the above report that only 21.4 % of the workers in Sub Saharan Africa are in wage employment, compared to approximately 50% worldwide, while -it has to be remembered- even those who are in wage employment tend to be informally employed. He also confessed that Economic growth is back in most African countries, notably in Sub Saharan Africa. While job creation does not automatically follow up, the conditions we have to deal with are vastly improved. Hence, he noted that more needs to be done and the job waiting us is sizable and challenging. Problems, sometimes endemic, do exist and solutions too as he underlined.
Mr. Rei underlined what ought to be done in the future. Chief among these are ensuring the current economic growth is sustained and associated with employment generation; to further increasing and diversifying economic opportunities; to upgrading the capacity of the labour force and ensuring proper labour market governance as well as respect of fundamental labour rights for young women and men. Finally he indicated that youth can constantly contribute to the solution, rather than being the problem.
The second speaker of the opening ceremony was Mr. Robert Nkwangu, AYP Representative of East Africa. Mr. Nkwangu underscored that one of his expectation from this meeting is the issue of youth unemployment to be addressed very well with concrete initiatives from a practical point of view. He also indicated that the recommendations coming out of this meeting will help to unleash the potentials of Africa youths to reduce youth unemployment and be shared with relevant stakeholders. He also threw some questions to provoke thoughts for the participants. These are: How is it possible to reduce 2% unemployment within a year in African countries? How can youth get jobs? And, how can things be changed in a positive way for the youth in Africa? Finally, he thanked the guest of honor from ILO, the chair of AYP and all the participants for sparing time to attend the meeting.
The final speaker of the opening ceremony in his official opening remarks was Mr. Ibrahim Ceesay-Chairperson of AYP. Mr. Ceesay welcomed all participants to the meeting and noted that AYP was born in Addis Ababa in 2008. He noted that the African Youth Panel (AYP) aims to commit itself to intervention aimed at reducing youth unemployment by 2% annually as per the declaration from the heads of states in Malabo. Mr. Ceesay also underlined that AYP believes the policy, strategic and programmatic actions required to address youth unemployment and underemployment should be immediate, deliberate, and multi-sectoral. He also thanked all partners that helped in the preparation of this meeting namely Roskilde Charity Society and the African Union Youth Division and finally declared the meeting officially opened.
Mr. Deigo Rei of ILO giving a Keynote Address.
IV. Discussions on the Concept Note by Robert Nkwangu
Key Issues Raised Include:
· He mentioned that as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the OAU/AU celebration, in the meantime, the AYP with AUYD should focus on youth employment and governance / youth participation as these are the key issues of concern to Africa’s youth.
· The aim of the AYP for this meeting is to unleash the potential of young people and the need to involve selected persons with expertise and skills on youth unemployment. The main objective is to come up with strategies to reduce youth unemployment by 2% annually. The other objective would be to share our recommendations from this meeting with different development partners and government representatives at the AU meeting and other fora;
· Comments were shared on the issue of youth unemployment especially on the issue of where the major responsibility lies on youth employment. Is it government or CSOs? Some participants raised their concern that if they count only government to solve the issue of youth unemployment then how can they count to achieve the target for the reduction of youth employment by 2 % annually;
· A different thought was shared by a participant that there are some countries such as Botswana that even reward youth entrepreneurs yet the youth are not fully exploiting these opportunities in that country and shared their concern that government alone would not be counted as the only factor for youth employment. Young people themselves also have a role to play.
· There are fifty four countries in Africa with different development issues and challenges so how can we come up with one solution as the problem of youth employment is wide and very complex to address when different countries face different challenges.
Key Recommendations:
· The sole responsibility of creating employment lies in the hands of the government. The government is responsible in creating an enabling environment for youth employment, and also among others shortening the time needed to register a new business; fighting corruption in the civil service sectors; creating the red tape in the bureaucracy; addressing the issue of heavy taxation for youth entrepreneurs, provision of free markets for youth and ensuring that there is dependable power supply to reduce overhead costs for business so that they can hire more people in their business.
‘’Participants in Action’’
V. Plenary Sessions:
In the plenary session of the meeting four papers were presented under the title “Meeting the 2% Target on Youth”. Remarks were made by Mr. Emmanuel Ishie Etim from the African Union; Presentations were made on “Unleashing African Entrepreneurship – Youth Entrepreneurship Facility Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Fund”: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda from 2010 to 2014 by MS. Minna Mattero; “Creating New Entrepreneurs: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Providing Access to Markets through Youth Trade” by Mr. Alek Sudan; “Creating New Entrepreneurs: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Providing Access to Markets through Youth Trade” by Mr. Alek Sudan and “Access to the Labour Market and Social Inclusion” by Mrs. Patricia Jumi-Kjelsgaard
1) “Meeting the 2% Target on Youth” by Mr. Emmanuel Ishie Etim.
Mr. Etim posed some question on the theme like how do we get government to take action, where you look at it upward or forward that government should reduce youth unemployment by 2%? He noted that after the declaration in Malabo a commission was mandated to support countries in responding to the target and revive the advisory required for countries to respond. The first step taken is that we (the AU) have started the process of creating African Youth Information System to provide analysis of where countries are. How many countries have made the first level commitment to respond by putting in place the National Youth Employment Action Plan? And a resource mobilization strategy attached? Mr. Etim underscored that the absorption capacity of the economy created a new scenario for any countries to create jobs to be put into consideration. He confessed that for countries to reduce youth unemployment it meant that the economy must grow by 12% annually. So it makes the GDP an indicator an important measure where they can achieve this goal or not. Growth in terms of number and in terms of human development as Mr. Etim indicated.
Key Recommendations:
· The importance to have Youth Development Fund for countries was indicated and it was noted that in September 2013 there is a plan to set up an African Youth Development Fund and the aim is to have a conference to encourage the African Private sector to Pledge money for the fund.
· It was mentioned the need to map out different stakeholders participating in youth related activities for funding, capacity building etc in different countries to avoid duplication of efforts. It was responded that this can be done in the level of the AYP and the result can be communicated to the commission. If the AYP desires to partner with AUYD, there is an upcoming national data collection in July socio demographic data in all African countries. Sixty people will be involved in the data collection process for one year. Therefore, the AYP can support this process in different countries.
· AYP to use the platform to be a youth think tank on youth employment and become a strategic partner to AUYD. It was also mentioned that AYP should do a progress report focusing on progress in Africa towards unemployment.
2) “Unleashing African Entrepreneurship – Youth Entrepreneurship Facility Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Fund”: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda from 2010 to 2014 by Ms. Minna Mattero
The presentation focused on unleashing African entrepreneurship–Youth Entrepreneurship Facility’s Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Fund from the experiences of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda from 2010 to 2014. She noted that the agencies involved in this project are International Labour Organization (ILO), Youth Employment Network (YEN) with initial funding 23 million USD from government of Denmark through the Africa Union Commission.
She also explained briefly the five components of Youth Entrepreneurship Facility’s (YEF). These are promoting a culture of entrepreneurship that is improved attitudes towards entrepreneurship among young women and men. The second component is entrepreneurship education, it aimed the education system to produces more entrepreneurial graduates. The third component of YEF is promoting evidence based advocacy. The fourth component of YEF is Youth-to-Youth Fund, which means youth are an active development partner implementing innovative entrepreneurship development projects. The final ccomponent of YEF is sustainable business development services; it means youth have increased access to business development services (BDS) and affordable finance.
She has further elaborated features of competitive grant scheme such as competitive grant scheme for youth-led organizations to propose innovative project ideas on how to create entrepreneurship and business opportunities for their peers. The organizations with the most innovative project ideas receive a grant and complementary capacity building to help them implement their projects and test the viability of the ideas. Promoting the most successful initiatives in order for them to be taken to scale and replicated elsewhere. Ms. Mattero explained in length the organizational structure of YEF and how it operates. She underscored that Y2Y fund was selected to be among the 30 most important and innovative entrepreneurship programs globally by the World Bank in 2013. Finally, she has indicated the accomplishment of YEF.