Tangier hosted on Tuesday the Continental Youth Symposium under the theme “African Youth at the Frontier of Technologies, Innovation, Sovereignty and Jobs in the Digital Age,” an event organized by the Pan-African Youth Union (PYU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
African youth leaders, policymakers, experts, and development partners gathered on the sidelines of the UNECA’s 58th session to help young participants engage directly with UNECA officials on advanced technologies, digital sovereignty, and job creation.
Discussions focused on the challenges facing African youth within the digital ecosystem, especially access to opportunities, financing, and digital skills, as well as ways to strengthen their participation in decision-making processes.
Speaking on the occasion, PYU Head Moumouni Dialla praised Morocco’s commitment to African youth, with a view to strengthening dialogue between youth, decision-makers, and partners on digital economy issues.
He stressed that youth represent a key driver of the continent’s development, underscoring the need to adapt public policies to current tech transformations, which he described as essential engines of economic transformation.
Dialla called on African governments and their partners to invest more in youth training, particularly in technological and digital skills, noting that economic progress cannot be achieved without mastering technology and innovation.
He also urged participating youth to come up with concrete and actionable recommendations at the end of the symposium, in order to contribute to building a competitive and sovereign Africa, while calling for collective mobilization to effectively meet the aspirations of the continent’s youth.
For her part, the Resident Representative of the UNDP in Morocco, Ilaria Carnevali, highlighted Africa’s demographic weight, characterized by a predominantly young population, describing it as a “competitive asset” for the continent.
To her, this is a key potential in terms of talent, creativity, and innovation, calling for expanded economic opportunities and efforts to combat youth unemployment.
The UN official emphasized that African youth are not only beneficiaries of public policies, but already “architects of the systems of tomorrow,” highlighting their central role in innovation, particularly in the digital, fintech, and agritech sectors.
Throughout the UNECA’s 58th session, ministers, central bank governors, policymakers, private sector leaders, and development partners will examine how advanced technologies, particularly AI, digital public infrastructure, and advanced data systems, can boost productivity, and economic diversification.
The discussions will result in ministerial recommendations on digital sovereignty, data governance, innovation-driven growth, and investment in digital and energy infrastructure.
