By Abdou Samb

The foundations of this generational imperative were laid during the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, in February 2026 in Addis Ababa. In the critical analysis that followed that Summit, I highlighted a structural shortcoming: by formally recognising the diaspora as the “sixth region” on July 11 2003, the African Union took into account those whom geography had distanced from the continent. It has not yet addressed an equally profound exclusion: that of its youth. Generational exclusion is no less contrary to Pan-African principles than geographic exclusion.

Over the following months, through consultations with actors from the African Union and the diaspora, the proposal was refined. On June 16, in Johannesburg, more than a thousand young Africans themselves took it up and affirmed it with force: their formal recognition as the seventh region of the continent.

The Foundation’s teams then carried this momentum to Bujumbura, during the celebrations marking the twentieth anniversary of the African Youth Charter.

The idea met with a favourable response. It is appealing. It is just. In many respects, it is even necessary. But a favourable reception is not yet a transformation. It is sometimes even the moment when ideas are most at risk of being diluted. That is precisely why we cannot allow it to become a mere symbol.

The sixth region: A precedent that sheds light
The 2003 decision to recognise the diaspora as the sixth region was a historic step forward. It affirmed that those whom migration had separated from the continent remain stakeholders in its destiny. More than twenty years later, however, this recognition has not translated into equivalent influence: consultative status without voting rights on the Executive Council, a marginal budget, and intermittent presence in major arbitrations.

That is precisely why these lessons must be drawn for the seventh region: so that symbolic recognition is never confused with transformation.

For decades, Africa has spoken of its young people as its “future.” A convenient formula that allows everything to be promised and nothing to be delivered. African youth — more than 60 percent of the continent’s population — remain largely absent from the institutions they are supposed to inherit.

According to the African Union itself, fewer than five per cent of leadership positions in continental institutions are held by people under the age of 35.

Making them a region means offering them a voice, a budget, and power. It is an institutional revolution. But institutional revolutions have a flaw: they can integrate without transforming. They open seats while preserving the logics that long kept these same young people at a distance. That is precisely what must be avoided.

The choice of meritocracy
What we are defending is not a simple expansion of the organigram. It is the creation of a space capable of weighing: a space that can influence, initiate and follow through — not merely be consulted.

More than that: a space whose access does not rest on co-optation or proximity, but on merit. For a youth integrated according to clientelist logics would reproduce the same blockages. In Ghana, the “Diaspora Engagement” programme launched in 2019 enabled professionals to contribute to national projects, but the absence of clear selection criteria generated frustrations and a sense of injustice — precisely what meritocracy helps to avoid meritocracy, understood here as the real possibility for skills to emerge and to access responsibilities — independently of networks — is the condition for this seat not to become a new form of rent.

For the past ten years I have been building bridges between the diaspora and the continent. I have seen highly qualified profiles want to return, only to run into unclear procedures, the absence of structured reception mechanisms, and administrative inertia. The problem was not a lack of discourse on the return of talent. It was the absence of an architecture capable of mobilising them according to their skills.

What the seventh region must be
A genuinely equipped youth questions existing balances. It questions the often peripheral treatment of youth issues. It also questions the persistent gap between discourse and transformation.

The classic objections are familiar: “They are not ready,” “they lack experience,” “they are too influenced by the outside.” These arguments have accompanied almost every attempt at renewal. They reassure. They also protect immobility.

The demographic diagnosis, by contrast, is unambiguous. Africa is the world’s youngest continent, with a median age of 19, while that of its heads of state is well above 60. This gap is not merely symbolic. It weighs on public priorities — less than five per cent of national budgets are devoted to youth — on the relationship to time, and on the capacity to anticipate coming disruptions.

The seventh region can respond to this gap. On condition that it is conceived as an instrument, not as an honour. On condition that it is accompanied by precise mechanisms: a real capacity for initiative, dedicated resources to act, and public evaluation of its impact — all underpinned by rules of access based on merit rather than co-optation.

Building a prosperous Africa requires more than symbols. It requires institutions capable of bringing skills to the fore and holding them accountable. That is the meaning of the Foundation’s commitment: an architecture that rejects clientelism and genuinely opens pathways for contribution.

Talent without opportunity remains a promise in suffering. The seventh region can be that opportunity.

But a poorly constructed opportunity can also become a cage.

So, should African youth really be given a seat? Yes. On one condition: that this seat is not an end, but a beginning. That it is not one more symbol, but a lever. That it compels institutions to change their method, and not merely to widen the table.

The seventh region will succeed only if it avoids the pitfall of the sixth region: recognition without transformation. It is on this condition — and on this condition alone — that it will be more than a fine idea.

Samb is President, Abdou Samb Foundation and Honorary Ambassador to the Pan-African Parliament for the Diaspora.