She spoke during the Ministerial Meeting to promote African youth employment, organized by UNESCO and the Cabo Verde government from 28-30 November 2013.

The Proceedings of the ministerial meeting to promoting youth employment within Africa’s creative economy is now available. The publication brings together the interventions made by experts and representatives of countries and development partners.

The Ministerial Meeting brought together about ten ministers, high-level government officials of different departments, delegates from UN agencies as well as experts and young cultural entrepreneurs from the following eight countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Sao-Tomé.

A brief reminder

The objective of the meeting was to explore ways to tap into the vast potential of engaging young Africans in the creative economy, in order to reduce the high unemployment rate in the continent: Some 200 million African youth are unemployed, representing 60% of the total number of unemployed in Africa.

African authorities who took part in the meeting underlined the need to strengthen their cultural policies.

At the closing ceremony on 30 November 2013, ministers and policy-makers attending the meeting adopted the Declaration of Praia. The representatives of the eight countries made the commitment to implement the Declaration, which has to give place to pilot projects in the creative economy, according to the Cabo Verde Prime Minister, José Maria Neves.