The African Youth Agenda for Advancing Peace and Sustainable Development

Prepared by the researche :  Amr Rashad Ismail – Expert in African Affairs

DAC Democratic Arabic Center GmbH

The African Youth Agenda on Peace and Security (Youth Peace and Security, YPS) is a central pillar for achieving peace and sustainable development on the continent, especially given the major challenges Africa faces—rising youth unemployment, widespread poverty, and growing security threats. This agenda focuses on empowering young people by involving them in decision-making, strengthening their role in peacebuilding, and providing economic and educational opportunities that improve living conditions. The African Union and the United Nations launched the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda to enhance the role of youth in preventing conflict and building peace. It rests on five core pillars: Participation, Protection, Prevention, Partnerships, and Disengagement & Reintegration.

Despite ongoing efforts, implementation has faced serious obstacles, including limited resources, inadequate political will, and an overemphasis on security dimensions at the expense of economic and social development. The renewed agenda stresses the importance of creating jobs and educational opportunities for youth and increasing their participation in economic sectors—contributing to social and political stability—while pressing ahead with continent-wide initiatives to reform security in African states and to strengthen ties between the African Union and its member states.

Youth, Peace, and Development: The Key to Africa’s Stability

A shift is needed from a narrowly framed YPS agenda toward a more comprehensive “Youth, Peace, and Development” (YPD) agenda that deliberately links peace with development. This shift is essential to address root causes of conflict—such as poverty and unemployment—that push youth toward violence and extremism. The new agenda underscores job creation and education for young people and their participation in economic sectors as drivers of social and political stability.

Africa’s youth agenda faces large challenges: youth unemployment rates reach 70–80% in some countries; investment in education and healthcare remains insufficient. Yet Africa’s demographic opportunity—youth forming a large share of the population—can be a pivotal engine of development if harnessed properly. Investing in youth can deliver a “demographic dividend” that boosts growth and reduces poverty.

Given global and regional dynamics, it is vital to embed peace, security, and development in the African youth agenda, with a shift from YPS to a more holistic YPD. Progress on YPS implementation has been limited; it has focused mainly on youth participation in peace processes while neglecting the two-way link between peace and development. The report argues that development is foundational for peace and security; neglecting it worsens security challenges amid high youth unemployment and poverty. It calls for a comprehensive approach that integrates development into youth policy, with emphasis on economic and educational opportunities. It proposes revising the continental YPS framework to include development indicators and strengthening cooperation among Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to adopt YPD strategies. It also stresses the need to implement trade agreements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to create jobs and spur growth. The conclusion is clear: investing in youth development is key to peace and stability in Africa; neglecting this group will have damaging consequences for the continent’s economic and political future.

Toward a Comprehensive Youth, Peace, and Development Agenda in Africa

It is essential to ensure the effective inclusion of African youth at every stage of peace processes—from conflict prevention and management to post-conflict reconstruction and development. Many global, continental, and regional frameworks have sought to strengthen youth contributions to peace and security. These include UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (2015) on Youth, Peace and Security; the African Youth Charter, adopted by the African Union in 2009; and the AU’s Continental Framework on Youth, Peace and Security, adopted in 2020. Together, these frameworks codified the YPS agenda and aimed to push policymakers at all levels beyond seeing youth as passive beneficiaries and toward recognizing them as active agents for sustainable peace and security.

Since these frameworks were created, notable gains have been achieved at national, regional, and international levels across the five YPS pillars—Participation, Protection, Prevention, Partnerships & Coordination, and Disengagement & Reintegration. Youth have contributed to peace and security through mediating local conflicts and promoting reconciliation, demonstrating the transformative power of youth engagement.

However, misconceptions persist about the YPS agenda and its broader goals, limiting policymakers’ ability to implement it and reducing its overall impact. These misunderstandings stem from the agenda’s failure to fully address the widely recognized nexus between peace, security, and development.

The YPS agenda has focused on the youth–peace–security triad. Although it emerged from the broader relationship among peace, security, and development, it often treats development merely as an auxiliary factor in insecurity. While UN and AU frameworks—as well as many National Action Plans—call for stronger economic and development policies, YPS implementation frequently overlooks the mutual reinforcement of peace and development.

The success of the still-young YPS agenda depends not only on implementation but on the extent to which it grapples with underdevelopment and its long-term effects on youth. This policy paper explores YPS and identifies gaps in the current approach. It makes a compelling case for moving to a more comprehensive Youth, Peace, and Development (YPD) agenda based on the continent’s current and expected development trajectory—and what that implies for the medium and long terms.

African Youth: Between Unemployment Challenges and Opportunities for Development and Peace

Africa is the world’s youngest continent, with a median age of 19.7 years. African youth are projected to make up 42% of the world’s youth by 2030, and by 2080, the number of 15–24-year-olds could reach 500 million. Each year, roughly 10–12 million young Africans enter the labor market, yet only about 3 million jobs are created. By 2035, more young people will enter Africa’s labor force annually than in all other regions combined.

Despite these figures, African youth remain heavily marginalized and exposed to high levels of unemployment and poverty. As of 2023, average youth unemployment in Africa stood at around 20%, and in some countries it peaked at 70–80%. Sub-Saharan Africa records the highest youth unemployment rate globally. Demographics therefore matter enormously for the future of development and security.

A core limitation of the YPS agenda is its failure to fully recognize development as a potential driver of (in)stability. While policy instruments like the AfCFTA and the African Youth Charter acknowledge young people and offer avenues for them to shape the continent’s socio-economic landscape, YPS implementation has focused primarily on engaging youth in peace processes.

Instead of considering the long-term demographic impacts across key sectors—education, health, and industrialization—many initiatives have been largely symbolic, centered on youth involvement in conflict prevention and resolution. This prioritization of security over development reflects governments’ failure to plan effectively for transitions from childhood to youth and adulthood. Insufficient planning and limited development opportunities have left large cohorts of idle youth, enabling negative narratives that paint young people as drivers of insecurity and conflict. Africa’s youth bulge can be either a source of instability or a catalyst for development, depending on how this age group is engaged. With sound policy choices, it can yield a demographic dividend.

The conflict–development relationship is mutually reinforcing. Conflict disrupts economic activity, destroys infrastructure, and weakens institutions, hindering development. In turn, underdevelopment is a root cause and amplifier of conflict. In Nigeria, for example, the rise of Boko Haram in the northeast is linked in part to underdevelopment, poverty, and lack of access to education, which left many young people vulnerable to recruitment by violent extremist groups. In the Sahel, development deficits have been compounded by climate change, intensifying competition over resources like water and land, stoking tensions, and drawing disaffected youth into violent conflict.

Many African countries—even those not currently in conflict—face similar dynamics where the lack of youth opportunities and development poses a latent threat to stability. A comprehensive, integrated approach to youth policy is essential to address root causes of conflict and ensure youth are both beneficiaries and agents in fair, peaceful, and advancing societies. Given Africa’s large youth population and development potential, the pivot toward YPD is now necessary.

This shift recognizes that lasting peace and security cannot be achieved without tackling the economic challenges and livelihoods of young people. Integrating development into the youth agenda ensures that youth are seen not only as peacebuilders but as core drivers of economic growth and innovation—capable of reducing cyclical and protracted violence.

Assessing the Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) Agenda and Its Limits

The African Union and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) have taken steps to leverage youth potential. Many frameworks and initiatives aim to boost meaningful youth participation in peace and security processes. Yet, despite these efforts, YPS faces resource constraints, weak political will, and issues of internal coherence. This section evaluates YPS through three lenses: interpretation, implementation, and coherence.

At the continental level, the African Union has launched several frameworks and initiatives, including:

• African Youth Charter (2006)
• African Youth Decade (2009–2018) and its Plan of Action
• 2017 Theme of the Year: “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth” / “Youth for Peace in Africa”
• Continental Framework on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS)
• AU Special Envoy on Youth
• African Youth Ambassadors for Peace (AYAPs)
• WiseYouth Network

At the regional level, notable initiatives include:

• ECOWAS: integrated youth empowerment into its conflict-prevention framework
• IGAD: mainstreamed youth into its regional strategy
• EAC: launched a youth policy and established a Youth Ambassadors Program
• COMESA: embedded youth inclusion across its programs
• ECCAS: created a youth program contributing to early-warning systems
• UMA (Arab Maghreb Union): developed a regional youth engagement strategy
• SADC: launched a policy to promote youth employment

The breadth of these interventions reveals a proliferation of initiatives and varied interpretations of YPS. SADC and COMESA have leaned toward youth-centered development agendas, while ECCAS and ECOWAS have approached YPS through a more security-centric lens. A similar split appears at the continental level: the African Youth Decade Plan of Action emphasized accelerating youth development for sustainable development, while the 2020–2029 Continental YPS Framework prioritizes youth engagement in peace processes. The absence of alignment and sequencing across regional and continental initiatives has contributed to the inherent limits of YPS.

Despite differences in interpretation, policymakers have built tools and mechanisms to implement YPS. Chief among these is the AU’s Continental YPS Framework, notable for its scope. It is anchored in the five YPS pillars and paired with a 10-year implementation plan that specifies key outcomes to be achieved by 2024 and 2029. Mid-term analysis indicates that, by the 2024 milestone, the AU and member states have not met most of the stated targets.

Challenges and Constraints in the YPS Agenda

With most YPS outcomes still unmet, concerns persist about resource gaps, political will, commitment, and effort. Reviews point to conceptual challenges within YPS itself. Programmatic indicators focused on increasing youth participation in peace processes risk producing symbolic initiatives with only marginal gains. Adopting National Action Plans (NAPs) on YPS, training youth groups in conflict prevention and mediation, and endorsing continental policies on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) and Security Sector Reform (SSR) are unlikely to deliver meaningful improvements in peace and security on their own. As designed, YPS programming remains limited in scope and impact, and is unlikely to substantially improve the lives of 400 million young Africans.

The Shift to a Youth, Peace, and Development (YPD) Agenda

Development is a multidimensional process aimed at improving quality of life, social progress, and economic well-being by advancing health and education. A major global shift occurred with the 1994 Human Development Report, which introduced the concept of human security—broadening security to include threats to human well-being such as poverty, disease, and environmental degradation. This affirmed the deep interdependence of development and security. Tackling the root causes of conflict and instability through development is now essential to guaranteeing human security. Economic development expands employment, reduces poverty, and raises living standards—addressing the inequalities that often fuel conflict.

A secure environment attracts investment, supports economic activity, and fosters social cohesion. Education, health, and social-inclusion initiatives build cohesive communities with shared interests and goals, lowering the risk of instability. Conversely, countries in protracted crisis illustrate how underdevelopment aggravates insecurity, creating a vicious cycle in which conflict erodes economic opportunity and underdevelopment breeds further conflict. Countries experiencing long-running crises tend to sit at the bottom of the Human Development Index.

A Framework for Advancing Youth Development

Given the development–security nexus, many policy frameworks include provisions to improve youth development prospects as a pathway to sustainable peace. The AU’s Agenda 2063 and the AfCFTA offer hope and pathways to unlock Africa’s youth potential. While these frameworks do not set youth-specific development milestones, they provide a basis for action at regional and national levels. For example, Phase II of Agenda 2063’s implementation (2024–2033) can be leveraged to absorb 100–120 million young people entering the labor market—expanding the chances for peace.

The AfCFTA is a pivotal opportunity to break the underdevelopment–insecurity loop by deepening economic integration among African countries. If effectively implemented, it can boost trade, create jobs, and reduce inequalities—key factors in stability and peace. Removing trade barriers and strengthening regional value chains can stimulate growth and address the socio-economic disparities that feed unrest. COMESA—the continent’s largest regional trading bloc—can, for example, enhance trade facilitation and adopt inclusive policies aligned with Agenda 2063.

RECs that pursue development- and youth-focused policies—such as SADC, COMESA, and the UMA—tend to include member states with higher Human Development Index rankings. The pivot to YPD is therefore essential for sustainable peace and inclusive development in Africa.

Alongside frameworks like AfCFTA and Agenda 2063, action-oriented programs such as “1 Million by 2021” and the African Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment (APAYE) 2019–2023 are critical and should be implemented and scaled.

The Need for a Comprehensive Youth Policy

A comprehensive youth policy must treat development, peace, and security as integrated, mutually reinforcing elements, aligned across all youth-related strategies—an alignment that should also be reflected within the RECs.

The AU Commission launched the “1 Million by 2021” initiative in 2019 to create opportunities for one million young Africans across four priority areas: employment, entrepreneurship, education, and engagement. The African Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment (APAYE) commits AU member states to accelerate, scale, and sustain youth-empowerment measures. The AU’s extended “1 Million Next” initiative offers a chance to realize these aims and to support smooth, prosperous transitions to adulthood. APAYE is also intended to guide the development and implementation of other high-impact youth programs and policies.

Despite these initiatives—and their recognition of the links between YPS and development—they are often designed and implemented as separate, competing priorities, with a stronger tilt toward YPS. In many cases, continental mechanisms for youth engagement focus either on peace and security or on development, with greater resources and political attention going to the former. For instance, the continental YPS framework centers on peace and security, while initiatives like “1 Million by 2021” and APAYE are frequently treated as standalone efforts and receive less political traction than YPS.

Conclusion

Africa is a continent of youth: around 75% of its people are under 35, and roughly half are under 19. Yet the continent struggles to unlock the full potential of its young population, even though doing so would dramatically improve prospects for growth and development. As the youth cohort expands over the next three decades, it will become a principal engine of Africa’s economic growth and prosperity.

Without substantial investment and resources directed to a Youth, Peace, and Development (YPD) agenda, gains in economic growth, service delivery, and education will be slow—with knock-on effects for security and stability. The shift to YPD can unlock youth potential to transform Africa’s socio-economic landscape and strengthen the foundations of sustainable peace and development.