African leaders and development experts have warned that the continent is struggling not with a lack of ideas, but with turning existing policies and frameworks into concrete results, as calls intensify for stronger implementation to address a worsening youth employment crisis.
Speaking at the inaugural Africa Development Impact Forum (ADIF), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary Clever Gatete said Africa must accelerate its shift from policy formulation to execution in order to unlock jobs and stimulate sustained economic growth. Gatete said Africa possesses “one of the world’s greatest strategic assets: its people,” highlighting that more than 60% of Africans are under the age of 25, making the continent the youngest globally while also presenting major employment challenges.
The forum was convened under the theme “Bridging the Implementation Gap: Best Practices and Innovative Solutions for Job Creation in Africa,” with participants focusing on how to translate development strategies into measurable outcomes. Gatete stressed that the central challenge is not the absence of policies, noting that frameworks such as Agenda 2063 and various national development plans already exist across the continent. Instead, he said, decades of investment have not consistently produced the expected social and economic gains, pointing to an urgent need to close the gap between planning and delivery.
He said Africa must generate more than 15 million jobs annually to meet the needs of its growing youth population, adding that more than one million young people across the continent are currently unemployed. He also noted projections indicating that by 2050, one in three young people globally will be African, with the continent’s youth labour force expected to grow by over 73 million people by that time, according to the International Labour Organization.
The ILO has also estimated that 53 million young people were not in employment, education or training in 2023, while many who are employed remain concentrated in informal and low-productivity sectors.
“If Africa’s greatest challenge is jobs, then Africa’s greatest opportunity is also jobs,” Gatete said, adding that the continent holds key resources required for economic transformation.
Discussions at the forum also focused on structural opportunities for growth, with organisers highlighting Africa’s entrepreneurial base, renewable energy potential, and critical mineral reserves linked to the global energy transition. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was cited as a potential driver of intra-African trade growth, with projections suggesting it could increase trade by up to 45% by 2045.
The forum also pointed to ongoing industrial development across several countries, including Morocco’s automotive manufacturing expansion, Rwanda’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, Ethiopia’s industrial and agro-industrial parks, Kenya’s digital economy growth, and Egypt’s manufacturing sector expansion.
Mona Iddrisu, head of the Youth, Employment and Skills Programme at the African Centre for Economic Transformation, said evidence and research alone are insufficient unless translated into actionable policies. She said the forum aims to bring together policymakers, researchers, innovators, development partners and the private sector to identify practical solutions and implementation pathways.
United Nations Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed said the forum comes at a critical moment for Africa, stressing the need to move from policy design to measurable impact. She noted that while frameworks such as Agenda 2063, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Pact for the Future provide a shared vision, “blueprints do not create jobs” and must be matched with delivery to transform communities.
Gatete reiterated that Africa’s progress depends on building an enabling environment for inclusive and job-rich growth, emphasizing that implementation, rather than policy abundance, will determine the continent’s development outcomes.
