The East Africa Regional “Africa Creates Jobs (ACJ)” will hold the first workshop under the theme “Skills for Africa’s Economic Growth” virtually on 16 and 17 August 2021.

Africa is known as the fastest growing labour force in the world yet needs to create 15-20 million jobs per year. The ‘Africa Creates Jobs’ initiative that was created in 2017 is a dialogue platform to develop a continental response to youth employment and skills promotion. Piloted by the African Union Commission (AUC), AUDA-NEPAD with support of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and European Union (EU) under the Skills Initiative for Africa programme (SIFA), its objective is to mobilize and strengthen partnerships to transform skills development delivery and employment prospects for youth.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa’s economy has experienced significant impacts. As Africa progresses into a post-COVID-19 recovery, the need for an accelerated economic boost has never been more prominent. The new African Continental Free Trade Agreement must therefore spur growth and job creation. This demands new skills to expand industrialization, markets, and trade. 

The Africa Creates Jobs Dialogue will take place in November 2021, and will bring together representatives from governments, the private sector and the civil society from East Africa to discuss key sectors for economic growth and skills needed for job creation under the theme ‘Skills and Jobs for Africa’s Economic Growth’. They will seek to develop solutions to meet the demand for the 20 million jobs the continent needs per year. 

As a prelude to the conference, online workshops will be organized in the 5 African regions (East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Central Africa and Northern Africa) to share knowledge and experiences among Member States and provide recommendations to guide investment decisions for sub-sectors prone to boost employment in the current economy. The regional workshops will also provide opportunities for cross-regional lessons learned which will be aggregated to contribute to the continental conference in November 2021. The outcomes from each of the regional workshops will be integrated under the continental conference.

Key questions to be discussed are:

• What key sectors of the economy can ensure growth and create jobs?
• 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?
• What are the key lessons from the experience of the East African Community in facilitating economic growth and job creation?

Join the discussion on 16 and 17 August 2021 to reflect, learn and share your experiences and to determine policies and strategies for the East Africa region. Recommendations will be presented to African policy-makers at the continental event in November 2021. 

Registration for the online discussion is now open at: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqcuiurTMjH9a5yv8agfvA_bZXdEnKXle7

For further information, please contact:   

Mr. Nicholas Ouma/Senior Youth Advisor/ Email: OumaN@africa-union.org

Unami Mpofu/Team Lead - Skills and Employment/ Email: UnamiM@nepad.org

Ms. Sabine Klaus/ Regional Coordinator/ Email: sabine.klaus@giz.de