The United States Consul General, Lagos, Mr. Will Stevens, has said collaboration between Africa and America’s thought leaders critical to solving the challenges on the continent.
Speaking at the unveiling of a report, titled, ‘Future Work Africa (FWA): Designing Africa’s future of work’, Stevens explained that the challenges in Africa were also the same as global challenges.
The report, ‘Future Work Africa,’ unveils the opportunities in Africa’s evolving economy and skills relevant to the future of work.
Stevens said: “The challenges that we face as a world are global in nature, whether it be the impacts of climate change and how we mitigate those impacts, whether it be global food insecurity, or backsliding in democracy and the challenges that are faced around the world, and we need to work together, we need to recognise that those are global challenges and recognise that there are going to be African solutions and American solutions. And we need to bring them together and collaborate.”
He added that the private sector should be given opportunities to invest and do business easily, saying this would help grow and develop Africa.
A co-founder, Mr. Mayowa Tijani, said he and two other Nigerians, Uche Pedro and Azeez Salawu, set up Future Work Africa.
Tijani added: “The project, born at a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers accelerator in 2022, sought to understand the jobs of the future, and the skills needed by young people in Africa to effectively match those jobs.”
We commissioned this research to better understand the needs of the continent, the skills we can export to the world, and how to adapt to a rapidly changing future.
“For a prosperous future across Africa, achieving Global Goal 8, which promotes decent work and economic growth, is essential. To do this, we should be creating jobs for beyond 2024 – jobs for 2025, 2030 and many more years into the future.”
Also commenting, Pedro said the task of driving positive change is the journey FWA and its partners are embarking on. “I’m particularly encouraged by the progress being made in the creative space and digital economy.”
On his part, Salawu said: “Jobs of the future in Africa will be different from those in the US, Europe, or other parts of the world. As goalkeepers, our mission, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is to drive positive change in our own countries and continent, one job at a time.”
