Ethiopia: Harnessing Potential of Youth for Africa’s Bright Future

Although Africa is home to a large proportion of the world population, its contribution to the global economy, health and education is practically insignificant. Africa faces a huge burden of illiteracy and disease in the world. This reality reflects the wide gap created between the continent and the rest of the world. Such inequity in education and health services calls for “Harnessing African Youth Potential” in line with the economic and social needs of the African people.

Moreover, the widening gap implies that Africa is heavily dependent on social research conducted in the advanced and high income countries. These studies are often irrelevant to the specific challenges and unique socio-cultural contexts of the continent. Being heavily reliant on interventions based on research conducted in different economically advanced countries, the potential of the African, including Ethiopian, youth should address these gaps.

Faced with these gaps and difficulties, the African youth have the task of designing, and effectively implementing strategies that are consistent with their realities. The realities on the ground reflect the variations in socio-cultural practices in different parts of the continent. Dealing with these gaps requires promotion of home grown innovations and youth engagement.

However, this calls for capitalizing on future African, including Ethiopian, vibrant potential. In this endeavor, it is important to give recognition to the impressive efforts of Africa, including Ethiopia, researchers who continue to make significant advancement in the service of their people. They face immense challenges and consistently work to generate knowledge, skills and solutions tailored to the African context.

However, these efforts are negatively affected by the low representation of Africa in global research to overcome disease, ignorance and poverty from the continent. This low level representation affects the development of a research culture, undermines the capacity-building of African youth researchers. It stifles the youth from engaging in innovative activities designed to solve the continental challenges.

Harnessing African youth potential is a strategy that increases the future continental contribution to global economic, education, health, and other social activities. These endeavors promote and advance equity and equality that empower the continent to develop relevant and specific skills and knowledge to resolve the economic and social challenges of Africa. Such endeavors guarantee that scarce resources are more effectively utilized.

African governments will also be guided by contextually appropriate, and result oriented outcomes that avoid wastage of resources. They would invest in the broadening of realistic expertise in key sectors of the economy. Africa currently experiences a demographic shift towards a younger population. By fostering education, health and scientific inquiry among these youth, they can be empowered with the skills necessary to address the challenges Africa is facing currently.

Researchers recommend that priority be given to investment in the holistic development of the African youth, including Ethiopian youth. Of particular significance is the perspective of the youth. As the largest population in Africa, the youth have an important interest and stake in the decisions that affect their lives. They represent the future leaders, innovators, researchers, educators and healthcare professionals. However, their potential is mainly untapped due to limited opportunities for understanding their future contribution to the continent.

Researchers make an urgent call for recognition of the potential capability, ambition, and essential role of the youth in driving the socio-economic progress in the continent. To accurately understand the current state of research in the socio-economic situations of Africa, it is necessary to evaluate the challenges to the advancement of acknowledge and compare them with global standards.

The most formidable impediment that arises is the insufficient funding, which also impedes youth involvement in research. According to the UN report, despite a global rise in spending on research, no African country is allocating 1% of its Gross Domestic Product towards research and development.

Inadequate funding for social research in Africa, including Ethiopia, leads to dependency on external donors. This trend favors research towards global rather than local needs and limiting the contribution of young researchers. This focus may neglect important socio-economic areas and leaves young African researchers at underfunded institutions with scarce career development opportunities. Such restricted investment research undermines quality and negatively affects research options for young African and Ethiopian researchers. The global call to “decolonize” social research strongly supports invest in strengthening the capacities of African young researchers.