AFRICA TALKS JOBS: A PLATFORM FOR DIALOGUE ON JOBS IN AFRICA

At the invitation of the African Union Commission (AU) and in reference to the recommendation of the Union of Central African Employers (UNIPACE), the Advisor to the President of Unicongo participated in the Round Table of the Africa Skills Initiative, within the framework of Africa Talks Jobs.

The first roundtable was held under the impetus of the resounding message of Professor Sarah Anyang Agbor, African Union Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology: "The development of a society is determined by the investments it makes in its youth.

120 leading companies pledged their support for the African Skills Initiative, with the aim of promoting the continent's development through the upgrading of skills of its youth.

Faced with the challenges of the continent's very high population growth and the pressure of youth unemployment, whose desperation is one of the causes of migration across the desert and the Mediterranean towards Europe, this platform brings together since 2017 continental stakeholders from governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and youth. It aims to present and exchange innovative and effective approaches to develop an appropriate continental response to the promotion of youth skills, employment and entrepreneurship, through a sustained partnership between governments, the training system and the private sector.

Thanks to the support of GIZ (German International Development Cooperation), which is financing the organization of the Africa Talks Jobs (ATJ) platform, Africa Skills Initiative (ASI) projects will be set up in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon for Central Africa Kenya and Tunisia to help the continent develop and implement public-private partnerships and partnerships between the training sector and the private sector to create synergies for increased skills, employability, and entrepreneurship among African youth.

The exchange of experiences between the different countries in terms of vocational training and promotion of employment and entrepreneurship of young people have allowed very fruitful discussions, which urged the organizers to invite to the next round table of 2019 the maximum of representatives of states and institutions involved in training and employment of young people, knowing that very few French-speaking countries were present, the majority of countries represented are English-speaking and southern and eastern Africa.

Recommendations included:

• The promotion of a basic education that fosters a spirit of responsibility and entrepreneurship in children from an early age;
• The close relationship between the training system and the private sector;
• Ongoing public-private dialogue on training, employment and entrepreneurship issues;

The development of national action plans, their monitoring and evaluation involving all the actors concerned.