Youth and Digital Transition: Provocations and Ways Forward
This article is the second of a two-part series drawing from ASToN’s recent public webinar on African Youth — Winners or Losers of the Digital Transition?. During this conversation we explored the effects of the digital transitions accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic on young people in ASToN cities and how to better enable them to be citizens of tomorrow.
With the youngest population globally and all the opportunities and challenges that presents, Africa is undergoing a digital transition.
At ASToN’s recent public webinar, speakers from the leadership teams of cities across Africa — elected members from Bamako (Mali), Niamey (Niger), Benguerir (Morocco), Kigali (Rwanda) — talked of their wins and losses, the major challenges and impact of the pandemic and their hopes for the future.
We heard about many of the challenges cities are facing including how to access people at the bottom of the pyramid, widening social and economic divides, inequalities, growing youth unemployment at 42%, and more. And we heard about opportunities stemming from the growth in population, from the resilience, energy and spirit of African youth, to increasing attraction to investments, more capacity for strategic and long-term thinking, and more rapid adaptation born from necessity.
We also heard from Emmanuel Adegboye [2021 Mo Ibrahim Foundation Academy Fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House], who has put together his top 5 insights from the event.
From the panel’s contributions and the discussion that followed, we heard stories of resilience, energy, creativity, adaptation and a spirit of solidarity. Their vision for their cities is one of a resilient, vibrant smart city. A place that is able to sense and respond to the needs of ALL of its citizens with the youth population as one of the most significant and engaged, as the authors of their own future.
The discussion prompted us to put together 7 provocations for the future:
- With the widening social and economic divides and the fast pace of change,what are the design principles we can apply that ensure we leave no-one behind? What happens if we design for the furthest and most rural, the bottom of the pyramid as one of our speakers described it — first as our default? How can we include young people’s voices, needs and dreams in every stage of the design?
- Exploring the best ways to support young people and enable them to fulfill opportunities, it’s about education, it’s about access [1] — we heard about initiatives like free wifi in public places and on transport in Benguerir — and it’s about addressing systemic barriers, the things that are much harder to see but can have such a significant impact. From planning and the layout of the city, to financial services, transport, governance and decision making, transparency… .How can cities review systemic barriers to boost young people’s access to opportunity? Are we making sure their voices are included in every stage of the design?
In 2017 Africa only used 1% of the world’s total bandwidth. What becomes possible when that grows?
- When we have a connected population that’s able to access the internet and digital services,what do we anticipate are the skills of tomorrow we need to invest in, so our digitally savvy workforce will be equipped to meet the need for entrepreneurship and economy. This isn’t just about how we use digital tools. Rather, it’s about softer, vital skills like critical thinking about information spread and fake news. We heard from Mr Mouctar from Niamey how much harm the fake news about the pandemic and the elections has caused in his city. What becomes possible when young people are equipped to contain and diffuse misinformation?
- With a solid base in place,how can we stimulate the ecosystem and the economy that builds on top of that solid base? From digital financial services to ecosystems that support digital entrepreneurship, there is a lot happening and a lot of opportunity here.
- And if we know that we need private sector investment to upgrade infrastructure (connectivity, IoT and data centres) then what legal and regulatory reforms do we need to encourage private investment?How can we write laws that favour democracy, transparency and access to information?
- We heard from our panellists about leveraging what’s already there and playing into the bright spots, the things that are already working well. We heard from Niamey about leveraging the youth and all their energy, activism, ideas, impatience, in the COVID crisis toWhat are the levers for change, the things that will have an outsized impact?
- We heard about responses to the COVID crisis, efforts to stabilise and recover. We heard about how the disruption accelerated change, like more mobile payments in Bamako (Mali) and access to services. We heard about the creativity and resilience of young people in every city, and I loved the example of the university at Benguerir, developing new ideas into digital solutions. Major disruptions we’ve never experienced before give us opportunities to do things differently, with a test and learn approach so we can learn what’s working.What are the partnerships you can build, to build test and learn together?
The overriding question we’re left with is, how do we create dividends for all, not widen the divide?
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the digital divide in your area or across Africa? How is your perspective shifting through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond? What excites you most about the future, and what major provocations have we missed?
Written by Abigail Freeman
