2% of our youth study agriculture. Who’s going to build and develop Africa?
This was one of the questions asked by Mo Ibrahim at the 2016 African Development Bank’s annual meeting, which took place on 24 May in Lusaka, Zambia. Dr Ibrahim participated on a panel on Jobs for African Youth – From Demographic Dividend to Economic Dividend, which aimed to discuss the way to provide the relevant skills needed by African countries to create sustainable jobs for youth.
Mo Ibrahim also raised issues around Africa having the lowest rates of engineers and highlighted that, similar to raw materials, the continent was good at wasting natural resources by exporting its youth without adding any real value.
Other panellists included:
- Akinwumi Adesina, President, AfDB, Chair of the Panel
- E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya
- E. Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria
- Thomas Silberhorn, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Federal Republic of Germany, AfDB Governor
- Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary, UNECA
- Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings.
On Monday 23 May, Abdoulie Janneh participated on the panel at the official launch of the African Economic Outlook report themed ‘Sustainable cities and structural transformation in Africa’.
Mr Janneh highlighted that MIF has noted that Africa is making a lot of progress from the governance point of view in ensuring that structural transformation is applied in the creation of sustainable cities and was optimistic that Africa could create sustainable cities if programmes such as regional integration were further enhanced.
The panel was moderated by Mr. Alan Kasujja of the BBC. Other panellists included:
- Mario Pezzini, Director, OECD Development Centre
- Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa, UNDP
- Aisa Kirabo Kyacira Deputy Executive Director UN-Habitat
- Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director Rockefeller Foundation
- Abebe Shimeles, Ag. Director, AfDB.
