Africa is the most youthful continent in the world with significant potential. With this great potential, the time has come for bold and accelerated action towards achieving the goals set within the vision of Agenda 2063.Investing in our youth will result in exponential gains which will break inter generational poverty and address the inequalities which have dogged us for details. Recognizing the significant challenges young Africans face in accessing the education,skills and employment required to concretely contribute to society, tangible action is crucial to ensure a stable Africa, free of conflict, home to citizens who are educated,gainfully employed, healthy and fully engaged in society. Africa has a growing population and experiencing a youth bulge. About 40% of Africa’s population is young (15 –35) and 65% of Africa’s 1 billion population is under 35. Africa’s opportunity is to turn its youthful population into a dividend
#1Mby2021 Aims to catalyze action for youth development in Africa, through providing one million unique young Africans with opportunities in the areas of Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Engagement (4E’s). At its core, the Initiative will adopt a pan-African outlook and facilitate strategic partnerships to open up new opportunities for young people on the continent. It will promote African solutions and innovations, co-created with and driven by young people, while building frameworks, institutions and structures for effective engagement of stakeholders, sustainable financing, implementation and accountability. The initiative aims at providing education, entrepreneurship, employment and engagement opportunities for millions of African youth by 2021 through:
Education
- Provide alternative training options
- Provide new opportunities in STEM (mathematics)
- Keeping young people in existing schools
Entrepreneurship
- Working with entrepreneurs to address regulatory issues
- Providing Business development and mentorship services
- Increasing access to finance and financing options
Employment
- Providing effective school-to-work transition models
- Facilitate apprenticeships for professional training
- Seek to address labour/skills mismatch in selected themes
Engagement
- Convene meaningful youth engagement forums/congress
- Strengthen institutions to respond youth issues
And the Push for easy access to different African countries so that there’s more employment and business opportunities for the youths of Africa. #1mby2021 #AfricaUnite4Youth