Africa Up Close

Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) participants at a summit in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of the White House via Pete Souza. 

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Tibor Nagy, participated in a March 3 discussion sponsored by the Wilson Center’s Africa Program regarding African policy during the current United States administration. Referencing the previous Wilson Center event at which he spoke in 2018, he discussed the priorities he had laid out when he took on his position, the first of which was to harness the potential of youth populations throughout Africa. Ambassador Nagy’s focus on engaging youth coincides with the end of a decade-long initiative called the Decade of Youth Development in Africa, an African Union (AU) framework that aimed to create more youth development plans and boost resource allocation for youth-related programs. In the face of projections that “by 2030, 375 million young people in Africa will reach working age,” the Decade of Youth Development in Africa has been a necessary step for pushing African governments to respond to their growing youth populations.

African youth learn how to build a community center in North Darfur. Photo courtesy of UNAMID via Flickr commons. 

Youth, broadly defined as persons between the ages of 15-35 by the African Union, constitute one-third of the population in Africa. Roughly half of the populations of Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Kenya are youth. The ten countries in the world with the biggest youth populations are in Africa. However, a large youth population is a double-edged sword in many ways. One example—if the pipeline into labor force participation includes quality education and good employment prospects, youth are likely to contribute to national and continental development. However, when met with an environment infertile for personal and career development, a youth bulge can quickly become a source of instability.

A student working on carpentry at Nyanza Vocational training center in Southern Rwanda. Photo courtesy of Graham Holliday via Flickr Commons. 

Education and training for productive employment is an important tool for economic growth and development. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)—an aspect of the educational process—is viewed as a tool for productivity enhancement towards achieving economic growth. TVET focuses on practical applications of skills learned, and are intended to prepare trainees to become effective professionals in a specific vocation. It also equips trainees with a broad range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are indispensable for meaningful participation in work and life.

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian non-profit organization that builds the capacities of Nigerian girls and women. It also aims to increase their economic power and ability to speak about issues affecting their lives. This is done through technology literacy training, mentoring, and research.

W.TEC was conceived and created in January 2008 in response to research that demonstrated that, although information and communications technology (ICT) significantly contributes to a nation’s development and growth, women – who comprise approximately half of Nigeria’s population – are severely lacking in their knowledge and use of technology.

A revered leader on the African continent and former candidate for the World Bank presidency, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a strong advocate for the empowerment of women, especially for female entrepreneurs. Her speech at a TED conference in which she encouraged investors to “help [African] women to stand on their own feet” and argued that “some of the best people to invest in on the continent are women” has begun to resonate throughout Africa.  As a female entrepreneur who has spent the past decade working with women-owned enterprises, as well as running my own business initiatives and having personally seen the accelerated and exponential payback that women deliver, I concur with Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. Investing in women-owned enterprises is no longer a nice thing to do; it has become an economic imperative for both the public and private sectors as there is increasingly solid evidence that shows that “Women’s economic empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development.”

By Edith Kirumba
Postdoctoral Research Officer at the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS)

As Africa gradually becomes a knowledge-based society, the role of women and youth in this transformation cannot be overemphasized. African youth and women are the driving forces of Africa’s development due to their zeal, innovativeness, and aspirations about the future of the continent. The African Youth Charter defines ‘youth’ as persons aged between 15 and 35 years. Africa is the most youthful continent with close to 65% of its population being men and women below 35 years of age. The youth and women in Africa are faced with numerous challenges including illiteracy, unemployment and underemployment, gender based inequalities, isolation from the development process, and rampant poverty. Science, technology and innovation (STI) are crucial to Africa’s development and global competitiveness, and the youth and women are key partners in this journey.

By Gregor Young
Management Systems International

Today, May 1^st, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars will host a conference entitled African Women and Youth as Agents of Change through Technology and Innovation. This conference, co-hosted by the African Technology Policy Studies Network, will present examples of technology innovation by women and youth in Africa, as well as discuss the critical role of leadership and innovation mentorship for sustaining future generations on the continent, enabling a brighter future.

Additional discussion on the role of technology and innovation relating not only to development, but to the status and participation of women and youth, is timely. The past decade has seen exponential growth in adoption of increasingly available and context-specific ICT solutions across the African continent. Many citizens and civil society groups have begun to demonstrate the vast potential of technology to improve several key sectors and daily realities of life in developing countries. Early targeted innovations in ICT have started to foster improvements in the accountability of government, generated new areas of economic opportunity, facilitated more savvy participation in local markets, and advancement of gender equity. Locally-developed models for future engagement of people and markets through technology in the developing world abound; these should have of attention of the development community, to provide evaluation and investment in the most promising models. Local technology innovators have the potential to create beneficial systems for their users, installing predictability and accountability into areas which previously were undermanaged or not available to common citizens (the success of M-Pesa in Kenya, and a recent new business offering, comes to mind). Perhaps most critically, extant and emergent uses of ICT are creating fissures in long-standing traditional political and social power dynamics, empowering economic participation and vast numbers women and youth to have their voices and concerns heard. The upcoming conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars seeks to examine how to and with what resources, women and youth can become effective change agents in their own communities and continue to strive towards social equity and economic well-being.

By Liz Ngonzi 
International entrepreneur, speaker, and educator

I’m really thrilled about and honored by the opportunity to share my perspective on “Paying it Forward” through this blog post and on May 1^st during the Wilson Center’s African Women and Youth as Agents of Change through Technology and Innovation event, as part of its Paying it Forward: How to Sustain New Generations of Female and Youth Leaders in STI panel.

My awesome mom, Hilda Rwabazaire Paqui always likes to remind me that from the time I was a teenager, I’ve always been sought out as a mentor to others. She instilled in me the necessity of giving back to others as a means to demonstrate my gratitude for all the blessings I’ve received in my life.  When the Wilson Center contacted me to participate in its event and subsequently requested that I write a piece, I was naturally excited to do both, as I am being provided with the opportunity to share how I’ve “paid it forward,” supporting others with similar perspectives about the interconnectedness of who we are as people. I am particularly interested when this allows me to engage with Africa, as I was born in Uganda and am passionate about the continent as a whole.