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By Baboloki Semele
The newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) says the organisation recognises the critical role that the youths play on the African continent and has developed programmes that focus on their empowerment.
In a message of solidarity in commemoration of June 16, Ms. Nardos Bekele-Thomas noted that, through AUDA-NEPAD’s Skills and Employability work, they have developed key knowledge products such as the Jobs Fair Handbook and have further created freely accessible platforms for youth such as the Gender Makes Business Sense training course which equips entrepreneurs.
Ms. Bekele-Thomas noted that they continue to work with African countries to equip policymakers, practitioners, and trainers to ensure agility and responsiveness of training curricula in order to improve the employability prospects of youth. She highlighted that Africa is a youthful continent whose young people continue to innovate and play a critical role in its development.
“The youth of today aspire for an Africa that provides opportunities for them to innovate and to contribute towards its growth, Noted Bekele-Thomas.
According to her, African youthS want economic and social security and have an awareness that peace on the continent will lead to greater prospects for them as young people, adding that they want their voices to be heard.
“In essence, they are saying there can be no development without them.”
As South Africa commemorates Youth Day on 16 June, she glimpsed that the expectations of the ‘youth of ’76,’ as they are popularly referred to, were noT different from the expectations of the youth of today.
When the youths of 1976 marched against an apartheid regime that sought to implement the policies of the Bantu Education Act, they defied the system and highlighted that decisions that affect them, cannot be made unilaterally, hence the need for youth involvement in all sectors of society if inclusive development on our continent is to be fully realised.
In her June 16 message, Ms. Bekele-Thomas pointed out that AUDA-NEPAD through continental Africa Creates Jobs events, is strengthening dialogue amongst stakeholders to create a shared skills development and youth employability agenda. She further highlighted that as outlined in Agenda 2063, AUDA-NEPAD strives for an Africa whose growth is inclusive and improves the quality of life for youth through addressing youth unemployment.
For the African continent to derive its demographic dividend, according to Bekele-Thomas, deliberate action and partnerships are required to develop appropriately skilled young people and create quality jobs in Africa. She, spelled out the ATVET 4 Women project, with which AUDA promotes skills development for youth and women in agriculture. AUDA also has taken heed of the call for digital solutions and recently launched an e-learning course targeted at African youth, which integrates principles for women’s empowerment in entrepreneurship, and in addition, have trained over 10,000 youths to date and continue to push the envelope towards promoting youth employability across the continent.