About The Event
G-PAD 2020: WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
Africa has the world’s largest population of young people. By 2030, 20% of the global labour force and approximately 33% of the global youth labour force, are projected to come from Africa. Whereas about 12 million young Africans enter the labour market every year, only 3 million jobs are created in the formal sector. The informal sector provides 85.8% of the total African employment, which absorbs 95% of the youth. The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a hard blow on the African economy as it has done in other parts of the world. Reports show that this trend is set to worsen as in the first months of the crisis, the income of workers in Africa's informal sector dropped by 81%.
These numbers are bound to worsen as the effects of the pandemic soar. Lead Africa International is concerned that as these effects exacerbate, youth unemployment will increase and social unrests will manifest. This has been witnessed in the demand for decent employment by youth during the Arab Spring that dominated North Africa between 2010 and 2012. The Regional Risks for Doing Business 2019 report has also identified “unemployment or underemployment” as the top risk in Africa.
It is against this backdrop that Lead Africa International has organised its 2020 Global Partnership for African Development (G-PAD) forum with a principal focus on establishing and reinvigorating multilateral cooperation with Africa for growth and development. Particularly, this year’s G-PAD will build on the progress made at the 2019 G-PAD conference to foster synergy between Germany’s and the European Union (EU)’s partnership with Africa around investments aimed at job creatin on the continent.
BUILDING ON PRIOR PROGRESS: AFRICA-EU-GERMANY
In recent years, Germany and the EU, have demonstrated commitment to deepening their relationship with Africa for economic growth. Through the harmonised Africa Policy adopted by Germany in 2019 and the new Africa-Europe proposal announced in March 2020 by the European Commission, a promising collaboration was burgeoning only to be curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has caused the EU and most of its Member States including Germany, to shift their priorities to domestic affairs. However, the pandemic will not last forever, but sustainable partnerships will, as they are a gateway to resolving a plethora of challenges on the two continents including, the European migration ‘crisis’, unemployment in Africa and the spill-over effects it has on both continents.
In July 2020, Germany took over the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, committing to its strategy to encourage partnership between the EU and Africa, and to further its cooperation with African enterprises to establish African markets which will lead to job creation. Through the 2020 G-PAD conference, Lead Africa International aims to bring together stakeholders, from Africa, Germany and the EU at large to develop a comprehensive approach to policy and multilateral collaboration that will be of mutual benefit to all in accordance to its thematic core this year: Strengthening Ties and Building Bridges For Recovery And Growth.
TARGET PARTICIPANTS:
- African entrepreneurs and business leaders
- African government officials and diplomats
- African development policy experts
- German and European government officials and diplomats
- German and European development policy experts
- Representative of African and European civil society organisations
- Representative of the African Diaspora community
- Academia, young professionals and students, as well as other interested individuals from around the world
Source: LEAD Africa International