Bloemfontein, South Africa – In commemorating the birthday of the late Prof. Calestous Juma, the African Union High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) organised a youth Dialogue at the University of Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The dialogue was held at the Ukubizana Hall of the University of Free State's South campus through the Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue on Emerging Technologies (CJED). The CJED convenes policy and decision makers, executives, youth and relevant stakeholders to deliberate on harnessing appropriate innovations and emerging technologies for Africa's socio-economic development.

APET has prioritised and recommended enhanced youth engagements on continental policies and frameworks towards harnessing innovations and emerging technology for Africa's socio-economic development. Thus, this dialogue was to kickstart university engagements across the continent. The dialogue also marked the celebration of Youth Month in South Africa with planned activities.

In her opening remarks, Ms Barbara Glover, Programme Officer of APET, introduced the audience to the African Union, AUDA-NEPAD and Agenda 2063. She engaged interactively with the youth present by soliciting their views on the African Union and Agenda 2063 through anonymous polls.

Earlier in the day, following a meeting with the MEC of the Free State province, the AUDA-NEPAD delegation was invited to participate in a youth dialogue organised by the Premier of Free State Province, Premier Sisi SH Ntombela. The dialogue was organised for young engineers in the province as part of the launch of Youth Month to dialogue with the premier on innovative approaches to addressing unemployment and youth development in the province. During the dialogue, Dr Justina Dugbazah, coordinator of the APET-CJED programme, was invited to speak to the young engineers. In her remarks, she encouraged the youth to expand their horizon when looking at job opportunities and consider sharing their skills for the benefit of other African countries. She believed Africa has the requisite skills for development, and one step in regional integration is the harnessing and utilisation of the inherent skills rather than importing engineers for major projects across the continent.

Following discussions at both dialogues, the engaged youth offered the following recommendations:

1. There's a need for structured student engagements with other universities across the continent on Agenda 2063 and contributions to policy development. This could be structured like mini-African union general assembly sessions focused on youth development and outcomes submitted for consideration during continental deliberations. Inter-university dialogues on innovative solutions to Africa's socio-economic challenges can also be held.
2. There's a need for intensified domestication of agenda 2063 among the youth on the continent, as even at the university level, most of them are unaware of the continental Agenda. There's a further need to start advocating for Agenda 2063 among young students from basic school levels through extracurricular activities, for instance
3. As young people, it's important to rethink "What are we doing as youth to address continental challenges". We need to move from continuous debates to solutions as youth through innovative approaches
4. There's a need for regional integration across multiple sectors on the continent. This also requires stability to support integration, so some economies are not disadvantaged. There's also the need to address challenges with diversity across the continent toward regional integration
5. It has been identified that there's limited emphasis on youth in Agenda 2063, with only 7 mentions in the aspirations, although the youth shall drive its implementation. We need to formalise structures for youth involvement in deliberations on the Agenda rather than ad-hoc initiatives.

The student dialogues were revealing and insightful as they afforded the AUDA-NEPAD delegation the opportunity to hear from select youth in the Free State Province on their impressions about the African Union, what they believe Africa's challenges are and most importantly, innovative solutions to these challenges. The engagements also afforded the delegation the opportunity to engage students on the essence of broadening their horizons when they think of work and impact – beyond South Africa. The students reiterated the need for such continued engagements among their peers in other universities on the continent and were challenged by the delegation to kickstart and own such initiatives.

For more information or requests for APET to visit your university next, please contact:

Barbara Glover,

Programme Officer, APET
African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD)
Email: barbarag@nepad.org