Today, we join the rest of the world to celebrate the International Youth Day, a day set aside to specially celebrate the role that young women and men play as essential partners in change, and also raise awareness of the challenges and problems facing the world’s youth and how young people can be empowered to provide solutions to these challenges.
The theme for this year’s celebration, “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development” is an important one that highlights how young people are harnessing technology to create sustainable solutions for our world’s most pressing challenges. It also highlights the key connection between digitalization and accelerating the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which would not have been possible without the contributions of young people.
Our world has been transformed by digital technologies which have made work and living easier, faster and more efficient. In Nigeria, tech innovations from Flutterwave, Bamboo, PiggyVest, Paystack, Norebase, Jobberman and many more have changed how we do business, save, invest, register businesses, find and apply for jobs, etc. We have also seen emerging civic tech innovations that are poised to transform how we engage with governments and participate in our democracy. Young people have been at the forefront of this transformation as creators, early adopters and users of these technologies. It has also created numerous employment and fulfillment opportunities.
As we get closer to 2030, the expected time for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is important to recognise the roles that will be played by mature technologies like mobile devices and emerging innovations such as artificial intelligence in advancing the SDGs. It is estimated that currently, digital technologies and data contribute to at least 70% of the 169 SDG targets, with profound impacts across economic, social, and environmental dimensions.
Thus, it is critical that young people, as digital natives who are at the forefront of adopting and innovating with new technologies, are increasingly enabled to be able to leverage technologies towards addressing global challenges.
This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa, where the digital divide – the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology (ICT), and those that don’t or have restricted access – is the largest: only 37% of people in the region have access to the internet, almost half of the next least-connected region. This lack of access to computing technologies means that young people on the continent are unable to create digital solutions that can solve the problems around them, or even use the solutions created by others.
There is also a need to expand access to quality education on the continent, as this has a direct impact on the capacity of young people to harness digital technologies and its transformative power to create change. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that at least 100 million children in Africa who are of school age are not going to school, and 86% of children who are 10 cannot read and comprehend simple texts.
This is a looming disaster, especially considering that it is expected that one-third of young Africans will be seeking jobs by 2040. However, without having the requisite skills and competences, they would not be able to find the right kinds of jobs that would provide them with social mobility and produce economic growth for their communities and countries.
As we celebrate this year’s International Youth Day, we call on governments across the continent and all stakeholders to recognise the potential of young people in applying their creativity, energy and passion towards innovating digital solutions that would actualise the SDGs, and prioritize their development to better prepare them for it.
Happy International Youth Day
Signed
Samson Itodo
Executive Director,
Yiaga Africa
