The Gap

4. Youth involvement in the AfCFTA Agreement Implementation Process: The Gap

The African Union (AU) Youth Charter defines youths as people between the ages of 15 and 35 years old (AU Youth Charter, 2006). Africa is currently experiencing a youth bulge.1 In 2015, the population of youth aged 15-24 in Africa stood at 226 million, accounting for 19% of the youth population globally. Over the next 35 years, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to have a higher youth-to-population ratio. The region is still on the upward slope of a youth bulge: the youth population is estimated to increase until 2030, when 20% of the population will be between the ages of 15 and 24, while 28% will be between the ages of 15 and 29. Within SSA, West and Central Africa will continue to have high youth shares until 2050 (AfDB, 2015).

In recognition of the strategic position of youth in deciding Africa’s future, the AU Agenda 2063 mainstreamed the youth in its implementation strategies towards actualising “The Africa We Want”. Specifically, Aspiration 6 of the AU Agenda 2063 identified engagement and empowerment of the youth as a priority area. Although the AfCFTA aligns with the AU Agenda 2063, especially as it is one of the AU flagship initiatives, it has yet to adequately recognise the youth as critical for the success of the implementation of the continental agreement. The findings from a study by the MS TCDC/YouLead Secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania revealed that the AfCFTA agreement presents an abundance of promises for young people. However, youth involvement in the implementation process was lacking due to structural constraints in the design of the initiative, which did not make provisions for youth as active stakeholders in the AfCFTA implementation. The study further revealed that knowledge of young people in Africa on the AfCFTA is very low and their capacity hangs in the balance. Moreover, there is a lack of documentation and profiling of African youth-led businesses, which is perceived to be a key area that will require intervention by policymakers, development partners and other actors involved in the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement.

1 The term “youth bulge” was coined by Fuller in 1995 and is used to refer to a situation where the population share of young people aged 15-24 years exceeds 20% and share of children aged 0-14 is higher than 30% (Schomaker, 2013).