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The African Economic Research Consortium’s (AERC) plenary session of the 60th Biannual Research Workshop was held yesterday at Radisson Blu Upper Hill, Nairobi, attended by national (Kenyan) and international participants from Africa, Europe, North America and Asia. The opening session, chaired by Dr. Patrick Njoroge, immediate former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, called for tapping into the youth and harnessing technology to generate jobs and sustainable economic developments in Africa.

The plenary session, themed on “Youth, Demographic Dividend, Migration, and Economic Opportunities in African Economies”, was based on AERC research projects and provided timely opportunity for researchers to interact with policy makers and private sector decision makers from across many African countries.

Representing Hon. Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning in Kenya, Dr. Rose Ngugi, the Executive Director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), referenced the efforts being put in place by the government of Kenya to close the youth unemployment gap, while also noting the advantages and disadvantages of the demographic dividend.

“We need timely and actionable policies to reduce the huge unemployment gap across the continent. There is no better development plan than investing in our youth who are our future. Their continuous increase in numbers is a double edged sword. It can be beneficial for inclusive growth and sustainability or a ticking time bomb on a quest for highly productive livelihoods if not appropriately harnessed by African governments. African governments can proactively harness demographic dividend benefits when young people have adequate employable skills and access to decent employment,” Dr Ngugi remarked.

During his opening remarks, Professor Victor Murinde, the Executive Director of the AERC,  emphasized AERC’s continued commitment to providing evidence-based research for uptake into policy to help improve economic opportunities for the youth, while fostering benefits of demographic dividend and migration in Africa.

“Africa is grappling with the complex issues of creating jobs, migration, and demographic dynamics. The labour market aspect of this year’s plenary underscores the importance of job creation and poverty reduction in Africa,” he said, adding that AERC has a long tradition of researching these interrelated issues in order to generate new ideas and transformational policies.

“In Africa, despite the investment in education, access and quality of provision remain enormous challenges limiting the possibilities of youth, women and the vulnerable to have decent work. With the growing population, rapid urbanization, increased trade and technology, entrepreneurial and employment possibilities can be uncovered,” he added.

Professor Aly Ahmadou Mbaye, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, and the Vice Chancellor, University of Cheikh Anta Diop, in Senegal, pointed out how the promotion of youth productivity in the informal sector should be a key strategy to capture the demographic dividend.

“Productivity affects international competitiveness and we need to close the mismatch in the informal sectors to balance unemployment and also be able to compete in global levels. The demand for employment is still very high in Africa, and this general trend is compounded by the fact that the proportion of the young population is high, leading to people turning to the informal sector for jobs,” he said.

“The African informal work sector’s importance to the continent’s development in providing jobs for the youths cannot be overemphasized. However, the sector’s full potential to accommodate the ever-growing youthful population across the African continent is yet to be realized and as policy makers, we need evidence-based sessions like this one to convince governments on the need to pay more attention to this area.”

Economic opportunities for African youth, women and the whole population can expand by leveraging technology implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and improvements in educational quality with the aim of inclusive growth. One of the arguments for youth engagement in the productive sectors of the economy is the development of employable skills. Well-educated and healthy individuals with diverse skills are likely to participate in highly valued economic activities, thus boosting economic development prospects.

The plenary session featured three additional presentations by eminent economists: Prof. Imran Rasul, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University College London (UCL) on “Tackling youth unemployment in Africa”; Prof. Lant Pritchett,Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, spoke on “Investing in human capital/education for a demographic dividend” and finally, “Migration Policies in Africa’s RECs” by Blaise Gnimassoun, Université de Lorraine, and Université Paris Nanterre.

A high-level policy panel discussion on the theme, moderated by Ms. Maggie Mutesi, Africatalyst, set the stage for frontier research by leading academics generating evidence on opportunities, risks, and challenges that affect the youth and how African economics can harness the trade-offs of demographic dividend and migration for sustainable development.

Concurrent sessions of the biannual research workshop start today on Monday, 3 June 2024. They feature 63 presentations of research proposals, work in progress, final reports, and interim PhD thesis reports. The sessions cover a wide range of topics that fit into one or the other of the focal areas of AERC’s thematic research programme: poverty, income distribution and labour market; macroeconomic policies and growth; finance and resource mobilization; production, trade, and economic integration; as well as agriculture, climate change and natural resource management issues.

Just to highlight some of the notable emerging suggestions from the ongoing AERC Biannual meeting: fronting human capital development to enhance youth skills to nurture employability and entrepreneurship via widespread TVET provision; and aligning the education curriculum to embody science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related courses in order to spur innovativeness and ingenuity in young people, thus creating jobs in the digital space, the manufacturing sector and the ever-growing AI-driven future.