This archive report was first published on 24 December 2019.
Unlocking Africa's Demographic Dividend ¶
With the youth population in Africa projected to double by 2050, the continent is at a crossroads. Governments can either harness this demographic dividend or face a ticking time bomb of high youth unemployment and widespread protests.
Africa's youth are its best resource, with their mobility, resourcefulness, creativity, flexibility in learning, responsiveness to change, and ability to adapt making them agents of change and propagators of transformational leadership.
However, current approaches to youth engagement in leadership are piecemeal, insufficient, and inadequate. Governments must invest in projects that create jobs, enable youth to start their own businesses, and make agriculture more attractive to youth.
Furthermore, governments must pass and implement laws that end cultural practices promoting child marriages, support gender equality, empower women and girls, and tackle communicable diseases.
It is time to strengthen efforts to groom the youth, listen to them, and significantly involve them in the process of strengthening participatory governance and democracy.
Growing Our Leaders Programme ¶
I propose a programme called 'Growing Our Leaders Programme' (GOLP), which aims to reduce the intergenerational gap and conflict through a mentoring program for seniors and youth.
Mentors from the community level and elsewhere will provide young people with academic, technical, experiential assistance, references, enrichment, and linkages to guide them in solving their problems, exploring and exposing their talents to become contributing members of society.
GOLP is intended to facilitate the development of a code for youth based on principles and values, and to establish leadership centers that equip young people with leadership capabilities.
Young people can no longer be termed as leaders of tomorrow but must be seen and act as leaders of today. Transformation in governance and leadership can only be sustainable by meaningfully engaging the youth right from their learning institutions.
