Africa's youth agency, resilience and transilience.

AfriCan Geopardy

In the June episode of African Geopardy, we are discussing "Africa's youth agency, resilience and transilience". This is an important topic as the African continent is seen to be experiencing "youth bulge" - a demographic pattern where a large share of the population is comprised of children and young adults. According to the United Nations, 226 million youth aged 15-24 lived in Africa in 2015, representing nearly 20% of Africa’s population, making up one-fifth of the world’s youth population. The share of Africa’s youth in the world is forecasted to increase to 42% by 2030. However, many commentators (the African Union is not one of them) see this as a problem, as they declare that the majority of young Africans are stuck in "waithood" and struggling to make ends meet. To discuss this topic with us, we have Mr Femi Balogun, a researcher, evaluation consultant and policy analyst. He sees the African youth population as trailblazers as they have continued to find creative ways to solve the problems in their respective environs. Their contributions might not be adequately captured, but, he made a strong case on the need to move the discussion around youths in Africa away from resilience to transilience. Like always, thanks for listening and do share.