Sahelian youths hardest hit as Africa suffers shortfall of 17m jobs, says ILO

Widespread working poverty in Africa, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, has created a gap of 17 million jobs across the continent, inflicting a devastating impact on working opportunities for young people particularly youths in the Sahel region, who are the most vulnerable.

Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, assistant director/regional director for Africa, International Labour Organisation (ILO), stated this at the virtual launch of the developmental initiative for the Sahel region organised by Generation Unlimited (GenU), tagged, ‘A Leap For Sahel Youth’, targeted at empowering and connecting 10 million Sahel’s young people to opportunities.

Samuel-Olonjuwon, who spoke on behalf of the ILO noted that a vast number of young women and men across the Sahel region lack access to decent jobs, noting that 90 percent of the young workers in the Sahel countries have informal employment.

To ensure a prosperous Sahel where decent jobs are made readily available, she encouraged governments in the region to shape their environments for job reach, invest in sectors that drive digital and environmental transitions, encourage good working conditions and access to social protection, and create partnerships with the private sector to invest in youth development programmes.

The ILO assistant director also emphasised the relevance of partnerships among public, private, as well as multilateral organisations to attain sustainable development goals.

According to Samuel-Olonjuwon, the global initiative on decent jobs for youths is part of the ILO’s partnership platform for engagement and actionable employment. She added that the labour organisation has launched a joint programme together with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the African Union to boost youth employment in Africa’s digital economy.

“The ILO’s rich and growing Sahel portfolio is focused on creating decent job opportunities through innovative interventions that foster employability, support formalisation, improve the business and entrepreneurial climate, promote the rural economy and strengthen active labour market programmes,” she added.