Skills for Africa’s Economic Growth

The African Union Commission (AUC) and the AUDA-NEPAD launched a series of regional virtual workshops within the “Africa Creates Jobs” initiative under the theme “Skills for Africa’s Economic Growth.” The fourth workshop is scheduled to take place virtually on 22^nd  and 23^rd  September 2021 for the Southern Africa region.

The Africa Creates Jobs (ACJ) initiative is a dialogue platform to develop a continental answer to youth employment and skills promotion. It was created in 2017 with the initial title ‘Africa Talks Jobs’ which was then renamed in 2019, in the spirit of mobilizing and strengthening partnerships to transform skills development delivery and employment prospects for youth. It is piloted by the AUC and the AUDA-NEPAD with the support of the German Cooperation (GIZ) under the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) programme.

As the continent faces the challenges of adjusting to an economic recovery post the Covid-19 pandemic, policymakers are also grappling with how to spur growth through opportunities for expanded industrialization, markets and trade brought about through adoption of the economy, and the opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. With these prospects in sight, and new requirements for skills, the Africa Creates Jobs dialogue will take place in November 2021, under the theme ‘Skills and Jobs for Africa’s Economic Growth’, to explore how the envisaged growth could meet the demand for over 20 million jobs that the continent needs per year.

As a prelude to the conference, online workshops will be organized in five regions to share knowledge and experience among Member States. Information from these workshops will guide investment decisions by Member States as they select sub-sectors prone to boost employment in a Covid-19 environment. The regional workshops will also provide opportunities for cross-regional lessons learned which will be aggregated at the continental level to feed into the conference.

The fourth regional workshop, the Southern Africa Regional ACJ virtual workshop is to be held on September 22^nd and 23^rd, 2021.

Key stakeholders representing government, the private sector and the civil society from the West region will discuss the key sectors for economic growth and skills needed for job creation. Key questions to be discussed are:

- What key sectors of the economy can ensure growth and create jobs for Southern Africa?

- What skills are needed in these growth sectors?

- What linkages, policies and practices are needed to create the synergy among public and private stakeholders to seize these opportunities at national and regional levels?

Join the discussion on September 22^nd and 23^rd 2021 to reflect, learn and share your experiences to determine policies and strategies for the Southern Africa region. The key recommendations will be presented to African policymakers at the continental event in November 2021.

  
Mr. Nicholas Ouma/Senior Youth Advisor/ Email: OumaN@africa-union.org
Unami Mpofu/Team Lead - Skills and Employment/ Email: UnamiM@nepad.org
Ms. Cheryl James/ Regional Coordinator/ Email: cheryl.james@giz.de

Registration for the online discussion is now open at: 

 https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYtcemrqz8pEtcEd0HANSUH6IMkbeJ_1yB0