[Guy Ryder] We welcome you sincerely warmly
to our Conference and to the ILO.
An activist and a medical doctor,
with a distinguished political career
in your own country, South Africa,
you are the first woman at the helm of the African Union Commission.
And this year marks the 50th Anniversary of the African Union
and it is being celebrated under the theme of Pan Africanism
and the African Renaissance.
I was privileged
not only to attend the important commemorative event in Addis Ababa
that confirmed that Africa is rising
but also to witness at first hand African leaders' engagement and enthusiasm
for consolidating and advancing Africa's achievements.
Africa is rising
and it is encouraging to see African economies growing so strongly
and those countries bringing down poverty levels
and progressing on the decent work agenda.
[Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma] Three weeks ago, as you've just said,
we commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the OAU/AU.
It was an opportunity for us to reflect on our past
but also to look forward to our future with hope,
and agree on what should be done in the next fifty years
to fully realize the objective of the African Union
to build a united, prosperous and integrated Africa,
at peace with itself and representing a dynamic force in global affairs.
There was unanimity among African leaders
that job creation was among the most important factors for achieving this objective.
Allow me to also mention a joint initiative developed by the AU Commission,
the African Development Bank, the UN ECA and the ILO
which also goes in the same direction of promoting youth employment.
We look forward to its speedy adoption and implementation.
Basically, this joint initiative focuses on three main areas:
1. Policy advice and advocacy during the development of youth employment policies;
2. Direct interventions and capacity building in favor of the youth,
notably over the creation of quality and sustainable jobs
and the provision of entrepreneurship skills and work experience for the youth; and
3. Knowledge production and sharing.
By all estimates, our continent is a continent of young people,
and it is getting younger.
By 2025, it is estimated that the African youth will make up one-quarter
of the world's population.
By 2040, half of the world's youth population will be African,
the majority of which will be, of course, women and girls.
This means that in the next fifty years, approximately 1.1 billion of the workforce
will be African.
By contrast, the African Development Bank Group estimates that presently,
the youth make up only 37% of the labour force in the mainstream economy.
Yet it constitutes 60% of overall unemployment.
It is therefore imperative that we invest in our people's health, nutrition and education
and have them acquire the skills
that will enable them to become productive members of our society.
But to be properly employed, the youth must be employable.
So it means young people must be well prepared
to respond to the professional and economic needs of the time.
If we attend to all the infrastructure,
transport, energy, ICT and industrialization needs of the continent,
we will be able to increase both intra-African and external trade.
We will also be able to unlock the intra-African tourism
and increase the revenue of our people.
We need to harmonize our regulations and increase our cooperation
to improve the movement of goods and people
and accelerate job creation, particularly in favor of the youth.
Africa needs courageous and visionary leadership,
good planning and good implementation to realize the objective of the AU
to build a united, prosperous and integrated continent, at peace with itself.