Africa’s Youth as a Demographic Dividend

By Dr. Segenet Kelemu - Director General ,icipe

One of icipe’s strengths is constant alertness to the changing developmental needs arising from emerging issues in Africa. Currently, the Centre recognises the urgent need to create productive employment for young people.

Africa has the youngest population in the world, with more than 400 million people aged between 15 to 35 years. This “youth bulge” will become a demographic loss if the status quo is maintained. For example, while the young people make up 40 percent of the continent’s workforce, they also comprise 60 percent of the unemployed. And that is not taking into account the “poor working youth”, that is, young people in vulnerable employment and those who are underemployed in informal sectors; or unpaid working youth, majority of them women. Icipe is committed to contributing to realising the potential of the youth as a demographic dividend for Africa. The selected examples below demonstrate the Centre’s approaches and outcomes towards the goal of harnessing the youth, as Africa’s most valuable resource.

Dignified jobs The dignity of any unemployed or underemployed person is compromised due to personal frustration, as well as the risk of marginalisation and social exclusion. In contrast, diginified jobs enable people to exploit the most valuable assest that they hold – their labour – leading to meaningful livelihoods, enhanced social status and, overall, healthy economies. One factor that may contribute to such opportunities, especially for the youth in Africa, is the transition from informal to formal economies.

This policy driven process should be supported by efforts to increase skills and specialisation, and endeavours to tap into the entrepreneurial potential of young people. Indeed, this is the vision of the More Young Entrepreneurs in Silk and Honey (MOYESH) project, launched collaborative initiative between icipe, Mastercard Foundation and the Ethiopia Jobs Creation Commission. The MOYESH project aims to see 100,000 young men and women in Ethiopia secure dignified and fulfilling work along honey and silk value chain. The venture builds on icipe’s extensive experience in leading successful modern beekeeping and sericulture enterprises across Africa, including development and marketing of related innovative high quality products. MOYESH will capitalise on significant progress made through the Young Entrepreneurs in Silk and Honey (YESH), a project implemented in Ethiopia by icipe and the Mastercard Foundation between 2016 and 2019.

Agriculture and the youth
Agriculture has immense potential to create employment opportunities for young people, turning rural areas into sites of possibility and transformation, while also curbing urban migration and its associated challenges. However, agriculture continues to be perceived as an option for the older generation; the least educated; few young people consider farming a profitable or desirable opportunity. But, icipe technologies and strategies are 26 successfully attracting young people to agriculture. For example 30% of all farmers using the Centre’s Push- Pull technology are aged below 35 years.

Push-Pull controls the main constraints of cereal production: Striga, stemborers and fall armyworm infestations, while also providing quality fodder and improving soil health. Young Push-Pull farmers include Peace Nakato, a 25 year old primary school teacher from eastern Uganda who has realised her passion for farming, while also rescuing her family’s piece of land that was on the verge of being abandoned due to the various menace mentioned above.

In addition to impressive cereal harvests, she also uses the technology as a platform to rear pigs, dairy cows and goats. icipe’s fruit fly integrated pest management strategies and technologies enhance the quality, quantity and marketability of yield. Access to the icipe IPM packages has provided a new lease on life for Joseph Wambua, a 31 year-old Kenyan and former urbanite. After an unsatisfactory stint as a computer programmer in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Joseph relocated to Machakos County, a farming region in eastern Kenya, where he is using mango farming as a base for a thriving livelihood.

Unique partnerships
Against the din of the numerous odds stacked against them, it is easy to forget the amazing talent embodied in Africa’s youth. Predominant narratives project young people as a passive demography. But icipe has had the privilege of welcoming the youth as a unique category of partners; ambitious, skilled, savvy, and apt in identifying solutions for socio-economic challenges. For example, our Insects for Food and Feed programme has linked us with Kimani Mungai, a 25-year-old Kenyan postgraduate degree holder from the UK, and an entrepreneur, focused on addressing the protein scarcity faced by farmers.

Having started off selling brewer’s yeast to dairy farmers to enhance milk yield, and to icipe for the manufacture of fruit fly bait, he has now co-founded a company specialising on black soldier fly farming for the feed industry. The entity is coordinating over 2000 farmers, collaborating with icipe to provide training and marketing, through a participatory out grower model and inclusive business approach. Meanwhile, in the heart of Kiambu County, Central Kenya, 24-yearold Talash Huijbers, who earned a degree from the Netherlands, has initiated a thriving enterprise to rear BSF primarily for the fish industry with support from icipe.

Tech-driven initiatives For long, the effective translation of knowledge, as well as transfer of technologies for impact has been a challenge for many research and development (R&D) organisations in Africa. The booming technology scene driven largely by mobile phones, has become an important platform for an R&D shift across.

Africa, for example by providing alternative dissemination pathways for knowledge and technologies. Capitalising on Africa’s ‘digital generation’ – their technological ability and desire to lead socio-economic change – will create a win-win scenario for individuals and economies. For example, icipe has partnered with mHealth Kenya Ltd, a mobile phone based health Solutions Company, to develop and implement a cloud-based agrovet system known as LiMA to market and distribute the Centre’s tsetse repellent collars. The result is an intergenerational effort that has mobilised community members across the spectrum, bolstering availability and accessibility of the tsetse repellent collars, creating mutual learning, income generation opportunities, big data and a platform to address other challenges like pest and disease surveillance.

Engendered approaches
Young women face substantial barriers to enter the labour market. Indeed, research shows that the chances of young women being unemployed are twice as high as those of young men. There is also evidence that technologies can effectively benefit women if designed and delivered with a gender lens. Therefore, all icipe’s research activities are designed to promote equality of opportunity and outcomes for women and men. As a prerequisite, we continue to make extensive efforts to engender the research and development impact pathways of technology development and adoption; capacity development; and policy influence.