Youth and innovation in Africa: harnessing the possibilities of Africa’s youth for the transformation of the continent

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) hosted a moderated online discussion from 3 to 30 March 2014 on “Youth1 and Innovation2 in Africa: Harnessing the possibilities of Africa’s youth for the transformation of the continent” on the electronic discussion platform Dgroups. The purpose of the discussion was to elicit ideas on how innovations in technology can be used to harness the possibilities presented by Africa’s very young population to advance the African development agenda and to stem steadily rising youth unemployment rates.The discussion provided a forum to a wide range of stakeholders an opportunity to identify ideas, poli-cies and programmes and share experiences on how African youth can take advantage of the new op-portunities presented by innovations and new technologies and of how African governments can take advantage of innovations and new technologies to harness the promise and potentials of their youth to transform their economies and improve the social welfare of their citizens. Topics discussed included skills acquisition and enhancement for improved employment prospects/performance of youth; re-moving or attenuating the constraint of access through technology; and financing technology and in-novations using the dividends of Africa’s resurgent growth. The discussion thus focused on answering the overarching question of how innovations in science and technology can build on the momentum of Africa’s economic growth by removing barriers and increasing the relevant skill acquisition through academic, technical and vocational training for increased youth employability. The discussion attracted 162 participants. Experts were drawn from  civil society (youth groups); the public and private sectors; academia; experts in the areas of information and communications technol-ogy (ICT), innovation hubs,, planning; and representatives of national and international non-govern-mental organizations. The wide-ranging discussion was held simultaneously in English and French and resulted in 56 contributions3 from 27 participants,4 representing 15 countries. The discussion was moderated by Tsega H. Belai (NTIS Consultant5) and Mactar Seck (Economic Affairs Officer), under the direct supervision of Kasirim Nwuke, Chief of New Technologies and Innovation Section, and the general guidance of Fatima Denton, Director, Special Initiatives Division.This report summarizes the discussions. It also provides based on the discussions a number of recom-mendations for the consideration of (and adoption by) policy makers on the possibilities that innova-tions and rapid technological progress present to Africa’s youth and for the Continent’s transformation.