1) I attended this policy dialogue & learned a lot from the presentations & contributions. HOWEVER, I have a major reservation about how the entire discourse & narrative about African young people & COVID-19 is framed #BuildBackBetter @AUYouthProgram @auyouthenvoy_
2) I find the entire conversation both in this policy dialogue & similar platforms almost NEVER mentioning the role the AFRICAN STATE. There is a strong push to frame the entire image through the prism of innovation, entrepreneurship, the private sector & finance. @ECA_OFFICIAL
3) One of the core problems of this framing is the pressure it puts on African young people to individualise themselves and to remain disconnected from the AFRICAN STATE which needs to be at forefront of both response & recovery from COVID-19. @UNICEF_AUOffice
4) There is no problem with innovation & entrepreneurship. However, it becomes a huge problem if we take it as the ONLY way through which African young people need to shape their socio-economic engagement. By excluding the AFRICAN STATE from our conversations @_GenUnlimited
5) we compromise the power of our efforts to address the structural problems in Africa. Every country across the world that controlled the COVID-19 pandemic effectively used the coordination & implementation capacity of their state structure See here
6) There is no country in this world that succeeded in transforming their society without an ACTIVE role of the state. All the innovators & entrepreneurs need the State to provide public goods, legal & policy frameworks, capital & protection to thrive & flourish @AUYouthProgram
7) All the groundbreaking innovations that we depend on heavily in our daily life were not supported by 'risk averting' venture capitalist but the state that took 'massive risk' for their success. The thinking mode both at the present & post-COVID period need to recognise
8) the indispensable role of the AFRICAN STATE. Unless the private sector, the innovators & entrepreneurs are actively supported by a capable African State, we will end up in the same problem that most Western countries found themselves during the 2008 financial crisis.
9) In 2008, when the economic crisis hit, all the wealth created before the crisis stayed the coffers of companies & corporations whilst the losses were distributed to the mass through austerity & bailing out a.k.a. 'socialisation of risks & privatisation of rewards/gains'
10) I ask the #YouthAffairsMinisters to take note of the above points and consider the following: a) to reframe the discourse of response & post-COVID19 strategies in a way that brings the African State at the forefront than just as an invisible actor @UNDPAfrica @AUYouthProgram
11) b) to challenge the mythical characterisation of a lone innovator/entrepreneur as a 'change agent' to solve the multilayered, systematic & structural challenges in Africa. Africa needs a coordinated & politically driven developmental approach. @ECA_OFFICIAL @auyouthenvoy_
12) Recognising the ingenuity of African young people should not offset the irreplaceable role of the African State.#BuildBackBetter @TamukaKagoro77 @ibsanusi #DGTrends @auyouthenvoy_ @AYCommission @AUC_DPA Building Back the capacity of the African State should be also a priority
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