Technical Cooperation for
Capacity Building Workshop:
Youth development in Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 27-29 June 2006

Introduction

At the beginning of the new millennium, Africa remains a continent facing enormous challenges. The 2005 Human Development Index (HDI) shows in clear numbers that many countries are not only failing to progress in human development, but are actually slipping backwards. For example, twelve of the eighteen countries experiencing a reversal in their HDI are in sub-Saharan Africa. (Human Development Report 20005, UNDP).

At the same time, we know that “Africa is young”, meaning a substantive portion of the population on the continent is under 24 years of age. In several African countries, over 50% of the population comprises of young adults between the ages 15 to 29 years of age. Failure to respond to the education, health, employment, and other development needs of such a large share of the population will entrench future generations in poverty.

The Youth Development in Africa workshop will provide participants with increased knowledge and skills to develop policies and programmes that respond to the needs of young people in relation to poverty and employment, education, health, including HIV/AIDS; youth participation in decision-making and young people in situations of armed conflict.

Objectives

Specifically, the objectives of the Youth Development in Africa workshop are:

  • To examine the current situation of young people in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of demographic and social characteristics in relation to the five priority areas for youth;
  • To promote awareness among policy-makers about the need to incorporate youth perspectives in their development planning and to strengthen their capacity to design and implement policies and programmes that address the needs of young people in the five priority areas;
  • To further develop the capacity of participants to analyze the effectiveness of existing youth policy frameworks and to advance recommendations for addressing youth issues and social integration in Africa in the context of the four youth priorities;
  • To work with participants to identify further capacity-building needs and knowledge gaps for follow-up activities;
  • To foster inter-regional collaboration for youth development in Africa across governmental, civil society and academic sectors.