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Youth20 (Y20), one of 13 official engagement groups involved in the policy formulation process during G20 meetings, has its work cut out at the upcoming summit in South Africa. The group, which is composed of young delegates aged 18-30 from G20 member countries, will convene in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, 38km east of Johannesburg, to thrash out an agenda touching on priorities ranging from jobs and skills to climate justice and inclusive growth.
This year, the Y20’s work is centred around five thematic areas, each reflecting the aspirations of young people around the world and aligned with South Africa’s G20 presidency priorities. They include: Climate change and environmental sustainability; Inclusive economic growth and employment; AI, digital innovation, education, and the future of work; Meaningful youth engagement in global governance and decision-making; and inclusive social development and fighting inequality. Each theme will be steered by a dedicated working group.
Tackling youth unemployment
For many delegates representing African countries at Y20, issues of employment, skills and inclusive growth remain the most pertinent. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), between 10 and 12 million young Africans enter the labour market each year, yet only about 3 million formal jobs are created on the continent annually. South Africa, the summit host, underscores the scale of the crisis. Youth unemployment there remains among the highest in the world, with more than 60% of young people out of work.
In addition to young people who are out of work, multitudes are engaged in informal jobs that fail to deliver the same security or quality of life that conventional formal jobs would. The AfDB estimates that in low- and lower-middle income African countries, just 10–15% of employed youth secure wage employment. The majority try their luck in informal jobs, which often means infrequent pay, limited to no benefits, poor chances of upward mobility, and the constrained ability to budget, save and create wealth.
Informal jobs, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation notes, “are the default rather than the exception” for many employed youth in Africa. “Due to a lack of formal jobs and social safety nets, many young Africans have to find an alternative in the informal sector in order to get by; getting trapped in a precarious employment status which contributes to a delayed transition to adulthood (‘waithood’). This results in a negative outlook when it comes to living standards and financial independence,” the Foundation notes.
Africa is the world’s youngest continent, with a median age of just 19.3 years and over 60% of its population under 25, according to UN estimates. Moreover, Africa’s population is projected to grow rapidly from 1.55bn in 2025 to 2.5bn in 2050, when one in every four people on earth will be African. This demographic shift presents both a historic opportunity and a potential risk. Without sufficient jobs for its youth, Africa will have to contend with poorer living conditions for large swathes of its population, increased migration out of Africa, social conditions that foment conflict and instability – among other adverse economic, social and political consequences.
“Over the past 12 months we have watched with concern as young people protest in Kenya, Morocco and Madagascar. They are rightly asking for access to decent jobs and decent lives,” says Mona Idrissue, the head of Youth Employment and Skill at African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET).
TVETs offer quickest path out of crisis
Idrissu argues that African governments must prioritise investments in technical and vocational education and training institutes (TVETS) to equip young Africans with employable skills. This, she argues, requires fiscal reform to ensure that governments can free up resources for social investments in education – as opposed to the present situation where many governments allocate more resources to debt servicing and a miniscule share to skills development.
“Without fiscal space, governments cannot invest in the systems that create opportunities such as skills development. At ACET our call is clear: governments must invest in inclusive TVET and the private sector must engage in shaping the curriculum to ensure the training young people receive will be useful in current and future job markets,” she notes.
According to a recent research report authored by Idrissu and Habtamu Edjigu, an economist at ACET, Ghana allocates just 2% of its education budget to TVET, while Ethiopia spends less than 10%. These funding gaps have stifled investment in infrastructure, teacher training, and curriculum modernization. In Rwanda, 93% of students surveyed cited outdated equipment and inadequate facilities as major barriers to effective learning.
Beyond budgetary constraints, stigma continues to undermine uptake, the study found. TVET is widely perceived as a “last resort” compared to academic pathways, limiting its appeal among youth and parents alike. It’s the place to go if you couldn’t get into college, which should not be the case.
“TVET systems in Africa, despite diverse national contexts, face common, deep-rooted challenges that limit their effectiveness––chronic underfunding, a shortage of instructors, inadequate professional development, poor infrastructure, and weak alignment between training and labor market needs, to name a few,” the report notes.
