Staff Reporter
Addis Ababa, Nov. 2 – Africa must enhance the quality of its basic education to cultivate a skilled workforce capable of generating more and better employment opportunities, thereby fostering economic transformation across the continent.
Sweta Saxena, Acting Director of the Gender, Poverty, and Social Policy Division (GPSPD) at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), emphasized the significance of generating suitable jobs for Africa’s burgeoning youth population. Policymakers in Africa face the pressing challenge of addressing the employment needs of a growing young and working-age demographic to harness the continent’s demographic dividend and meet its developmental goals.
Addressing participants at the Opening Session of the Expert Group Meeting of the Social Policy Section organized by GPSPD, Ms. Saxena underscored the formidable task of providing adequate jobs for Africa’s youth. She highlighted the critical issue of insufficient skills among Africa’s young population.
Statistical data reveals that nearly a quarter of primary school students fail to complete their primary education. Moreover, less than 50% of young boys and girls finish lower secondary education, a stark contrast to the approximately 80% completion rates seen in South Asian and Latin American countries. Additionally, tertiary-level enrollment in Africa stands at less than 10%.
“The quality of education is also very low, and as a result, young people in Africa enter the formal labour market with few employable skills,” noted Ms. Saxena. She emphasized that it is no surprise that nearly 90% of African youth commence their working lives in the informal employment sector, with almost a quarter of businesses citing a lack of skilled workers as a major constraint.
Another pressing challenge for Africa is the significant number of trained individuals who remain unemployed, work in fields unrelated to their training, or emigrate to other countries. This trend represents a misallocation of resources that African countries can ill afford.
The two-day Expert Group Meeting has brought together technical experts from 16 countries, including individuals from government, academia, think tanks, and the United Nations system. The primary objective is to review the key findings of the draft report, “Jobs in Africa or Jobs for Africans.” This report aims to inform and stimulate debate, contribute to better policies, facilitate further research, and identify prominent knowledge and data gaps.
The meeting offers an opportunity to engage in discussions about demographic challenges, education, and skills migration in an integrated manner, intending to accelerate actions at national and regional levels to expand employment prospects for young Africans.
The Economic Commission for Africa plays a crucial role in supporting its member states by convening discussions that identify collective challenges and potential solutions for the continent. The ECA functions as a think tank, conducting interdisciplinary research and analysis to address key challenges facing member states and Africa as a whole. It also promotes peer learning and development while providing direct policy advice and support to member states, often stemming from meetings and interactions such as the Experts Group Meeting.
Ms. Saxena highlighted the importance of expert group meetings in helping the ECA fulfil its core mandate of promoting economic and social development among its member states.
In a globalized world characterized by the easy flow of capital, goods, and services, the mobility of skilled workers across international borders is a natural consequence of global integration and orderly migration. This movement brings many benefits, including remittances, investment, and trade linkages with destination countries. However, Africa faces a different scenario.
Ms. Saxena expressed concern over the “loss of skills in Africa, which is particularly troubling for countries already grappling with low human capital. Tertiary and professional education is funded from severely limited public education budgets, effectively leading to poorer African nations subsidizing wealthier countries through the migration of highly skilled labour.”
Properly managed migration presents a significant opportunity to alleviate the challenge of job shortages for skilled workers in Africa, offering development benefits for all parties involved.
Ms. Saxena concluded by stressing that “creating a skilled workforce necessitates improvements in both access to and the quality of basic education” and called for a reconsideration of education within a New Social Contract.
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