Africa has the youngest population of the world and while this in itself can be consider an advantage, to yield the so called youth dividend, the potential of this young people will need cherished and stimulated for Africa to reach the goals of Agenda 2063. Countries in Africa however are battling with challenges in identifying policies and resources to serve adequately its’s youth. One of the main areas of concern is the creation of meaningful and decent (self-) employment. By necessity or choice, more and more of young people in Africa are embracing entrepreneurship either to create wealth and make profits or to create social value and ensure their financial autonomy.
This creative and innovative entrepreneurial spirit of young people is deployed and manifested in almost all areas of the social and economic life of the continent’s countries. Based on «success stories», this 2nd session of the Youth Forum highlighted not only all the concrete solutions and good practices of young people themselves in terms of entrepreneurial innovation for their economic empowerment and job creation including the use Artificial Intelligence, but also the challenges (in terms of financing, matching training/employment and support, etc.) that they are facing on a daily basis as economic or social entrepreneurs.
Concretely, this session focused on young people answering the following questions: what are the inclusive public policies that promote the development and empowerment of African youth in African countries for the Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Innovation of young people? Can Entrepreneurship be used to help address the problem of youth unemployment?