For its first season, centered around the theme "Spotlight on Africa's Global Voice," this podcast will consist of seven episodes. Released on August 12, International Youth Day, the first issue focused on Africa's role on the world stage. An initiative of the African Union Envoy on Youth, the United Nations Foundation, and The Elders in collaboration with the Global Dispatches Podcast, "Future of Africa" will feature several distinguished personalities, including Serigne Mbaye Thiam, Chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Minister of Education of Senegal; Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Chido Mpemba, former African Union Special Envoy on Youth and currently Advisor to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Women, Gender, and Youth; and many others. In an interview with Seneweb, Malick Mbengue Fall, program director at Open Society, discusses the merits of this project and the challenges facing African youth.

The Future of Africa podcast places youth at the center of global debates. As Program Manager at the Open Society Foundation, how do you view this growing role of young Africans in shaping global policies?

Young Africans now refuse to be confined to the role of mere beneficiaries of policies decided by others. They want to be actors and co-constructors of their daily lives, by inviting themselves and demanding a real place at the decision-making table. This paradigm shift is observable at the national and international levels. In 2024, the citizen protest movements in Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal reflect the desire of a generation to invent its own modes of expression, through digital mobilization, direct action, and pan-African solidarity. At the international level, African youth initiatives focus on the need to rethink the international financial system for fiscal justice, restructure public debt, support climate justice, and rethink the asymmetrical relationship with the Global North.

Youth are playing an increasingly important role due to their influence, dynamism, and demographic weight. Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with more than 60% of its population under the age of 25. These young people, connected through digital technologies, are now emerging as a collective force influencing international debates on climate, global governance, social justice, migration, peace, and security.

The growing role of young people helps to close the gap long left by the continent's marginalization in global affairs, by giving greater weight to those who represent the planet's demographic future. Ultimately, this growing role can be seen as a powerful lever for transforming global power relations.

One episode focuses on the future of education on the continent. What levers do you consider to be priorities for ensuring that African education systems truly meet the needs of a generation called upon to build the economy of tomorrow?

There are three important levers that need to be addressed, including access, quality, and employability in technological innovation. According to demographic projections, Africa's population will be 2.5 billion in 2050, with 1 billion children under 18 years old and a school population of 450 million. It is imperative to guarantee the right to education for all. According to UNESCO, infrastructure needs are 9 million classrooms and 9.5 million teachers by 2030. To close this gap, 400,000 new classrooms must be built per year over 20 years. These investment needs must be combined with strategies to keep students in school and combat territorial disparities. In 2025, students are still taking classes in temporary shelters or in the shade of trees. Crisis regions need special attention, particularly in the Sahel, Sudan, eastern DRC, etc.

There has been real progress in the quality of learning in several countries, but this progress remains uneven, with areas of stagnation or regression, particularly in rural areas, for the most vulnerable students, or in conflict zones. Many students finish primary school without knowing how to read a simple text or solve basic addition. It is imperative to work to improve quality by using levers of recruitment, training, and improving teacher salaries. We also need to rethink the use of local languages in learning and reform curricula.

Training offerings must be rethought to adapt them to the economic and social realities of countries. It is urgent to align them with current and future labor market needs, particularly in the digital economy, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, health, science, and innovation. The gap between theory and practice must be addressed by incorporating more internships, project-based learning, work-based training, support for entrepreneurship, and the development of soft skills.

By 2025, a Full Scale study indicates that there will be a critical talent gap in Artificial Intelligence (AI), with 4.2 million unfilled positions worldwide, while only 320,000 qualified developers are available. These are training opportunities in a promising field that will attract hundreds of billions of investments over the next 30 years. Africa has a card to play, but investments in infrastructure, training, and research are needed.

This program highlights trust in democratic institutions as one of its priorities. What role can education play in strengthening this trust and preparing citizens better equipped to face democratic challenges?

The 2024 Afrobarometer report presents a significant decline in citizens' trust in political institutions over the past decade. The reasons given are poor governance, disappointing economic, social, and security performance, a democratic deficit, and the emergence of competing countervailing powers.

It is important that education is not only seen as a process of acquiring knowledge, but also as a space for building sociability. It must be given back this role in building citizenship, living together, and building a collective identity beyond individual differences. School has its role to play in terms of civic education, developing critical thinking, debate, and analysis. The family and the community have their role to play in terms of building tolerance, commitment, and service to the community. Education and critical thinking remain the best means to combat disinformation and propaganda from anti-democratic forces.

Education is an important aspect in building citizens' trust in democratic institutions, but it alone cannot build a viable system. Democratic systems must be able to give citizens dignity by allowing them to live decently, to have access to services, to have their rights guaranteed, and to have their voices heard.

The podcast also addresses the link between climate, peace, and security. How do you think education and training can contribute to building sustainable solutions to these multidimensional challenges?

Africa is deeply affected by climate and security issues. It contributes between 3 and 4% of greenhouse gases but is bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change. It is the continent most affected by conflict, accounting for nearly half of the world's armed conflicts.

Education plays a crucial role in the fight for climate, peace, and security in Africa. Regarding climate change, we must protect ecosystems and rethink our production and consumption patterns. Environmental education has an important role to play, particularly through the integration of sustainable resource management, agroecology, renewable energy, and climate change adaptation into school curricula. It is also important to consider pathways to reach the millions of children and young people who are not in school. According to UNESCO, up to 60% of young people between the ages of 15 and 17 are not in school in Africa. This requires an innovative approach to identify and reach these targets. Vocational training must also be used to prepare generations of experts specialized in resilient agricultural practices, water management, and the protection of forests and marine ecosystems.

Education also has an important role to play in promoting peace and security. It must incorporate the values of tolerance, respect for diversity, dialogue, and non-violence. Educational programs must also equip young people to detect the propaganda and recruitment strategies of extremist groups.

Education must also integrate endogenous conflict resolution mechanisms. These are resources that are rarely mobilized but have already proven their worth. Without idealizing them, Rwanda's Gacaca courts enabled the country to achieve reconciliation and reintegration of its society after the 1994 genocide. Joking cousinage helps defuse tensions through humor and derision between ethnic groups or families. It serves as a conflict prevention valve. The palaver tree model is now used in justice centers in Senegal to resolve neighborhood disputes and relieve court congestion.

This initiative is based on intergenerational dialogue. Drawing on your experience, how do you see the balance between the experience of established decision-makers and the boldness of young leaders to bring Africa's voice to the international stage?

It must be recognized that the days when young people played the role of spectators in discussions about their destiny are over. They have given rise to new practices of direct engagement, often digital, horizontal, and more inclusive. They want to be immediate actors rather than spectators of their story. This approach challenges the traditional mediators who had a monopoly on representing the continent. However, it must be recognized that these civic innovations by young people have limits.

Movements are often ephemeral and lack solid structures to sustain long-term mobilization. They are headless, with weak structuring that often excludes them from negotiations. They take place online, with difficulty defining a platform of unified demands. And they are vulnerable to political co-optation.

Intergenerational dialogues can help build bridges for elders to share their experience of organizing, negotiating, and sustaining struggles. They can help young people institutionalize their demands and open doors to relevant institutions for change. Young people bring their creativity, speed, and digital mastery to elders. Intergenerational dialogues can help co-construct sustainable solutions based on the experience of elders and the rapid and innovative mobilization of young people. This will allow activism and citizen innovations to be part of a collective history rather than isolated mobilizations.