The participants formed a taskforce of African employers charged with addressing employment and employability, taking into account sectoral as well as other strategies that have proven successful in creating jobs/FILE
The summit to be held November 20-21, 2015 in Diani is a follow up to the roundtable held on 18th March 2013 on Sustaining Growth and Accelerating the Pace of Job Creation in Africa.
It is also a follow up to the symposium held in Casablanca, Morocco on November 25-26, 2013 on developing a job creation strategy for African countries – evidence and experience regarding sectoral strategies.
The participants formed a taskforce of African employers charged with addressing employment and employability, taking into account sectoral as well as other strategies that have proven successful in creating jobs.
Key issues to be looked at include how African governments can tap and sustainably exploit the private sector’s ability to address high unemployment levels as well as the strategies needed for countries to embrace labour policies that will promote enterprise growth whilst also ensuring a ready market for the youth.
In Kenya the challenge of unemployment still persist with the overall unemployment at 12.7percent; however youth, who form 35 percent of the Kenyan population, have the highest unemployment rate of 67 percent.
According to the Africa Economic Outlook 2015, Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to strengthen to 4.5 percent in 2015 and 5 percent in 2016 after subdued expansion in 2013 (3.5 percent) and 2014 (3.9 percent).
Despite Africa’s relatively strong economic growth over the past decade, many countries in the continent are grappling with several development challenges ranging from food insecurity, high unemployment, poverty and inequality, to commodity dependence, lack of economic transformation, environmental degradation, and low integration of the continent in the global economy.
The continent has a population of almost 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 years.
This category makes up 40 percent of the workforce, and 60 percent of the unemployed active labour force.
This number is expected to double by 2045, bringing a big challenge on African economies since high youth unemployment is an impending threat to stability in Africa.
