Abdalla Hamdok calls for targeted policy in order to harness youth potential

Abstract

Getting the fundamentals right is the first step to harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend and must be supported by targeted policy actions that foster investment in the youth. The statement was made by Abdalla Hamdok, Acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in his address to the Thirty-First Ordinary Session of the AU Summit Executive Council at the African Union Headquarters over the weekend. Speaking on the theme of this year’s Summit, “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth”, Mr. Hamdok welcomed it as “relevant and timely”, given its centrality to the political, economic and social issues shaping the debate on the continent’s development and the need to put in place policies which take advantage of the demographic dividend.