AfCFTA Youth Consultative Meeting

Africa has the world's youngest population, with over 400 million young people aged 15 to 35 years. To spur Africa's economic progress and advance SDGs, the critical mass of youth and women remains the main anchor of the AfCFTA, which is the "Agenda 2063," the continent's development blueprint. This massive single continental market is expected to increase intra-African trade by 52.3 per cent, deepen continental integration, increase productivity, create more jobs, and avail substantial gender-balanced

opportunities by including women and youth in Africa's trade liberalization. The World Bank estimates that the AfCFTA will increase Africa's income by $450 billion by 2035 and increase intra-African exports by more than 81 per cent. The AfCFTA will address the excessively high trade costs and steep tariff barriers in many countries that limit the potential of women and youth in the business sector, ultimately stifling economic growth and undermining the continent's overall development.

Beyond trade, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement explicitly seeks the development of Africa’s people. The preamble of the Agreement underscores the importance of gender equality for the development of international trade and economic cooperation in the region. Under article 3(e), one of the general objectives aims to “promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and structural transformation”. Article 27.2(d) of the Protocol on Trade in Services also makes explicit reference to improving the export capacity of formal and informal service suppliers, with particular attention to micro-, small- and medium-sized operators and “women and youth service suppliers”. These provisions clearly demonstrate the commitment of African countries to gender equality, women empowerment and youth development. As a result, the AfCFTA is expected to create new trading and entrepreneurial opportunities for women in the formal and informal economy across various sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors.

The benefits under the Agreement for women and youth are however not automatic, and there must be a better understanding of what is required at the national and regional levels to enhance economic Realizing the Promise of the AfCFTA for Women and Youth opportunities for women. Although trade can serve as a catalyst to promote greater gender equality, it is not gender neutral. Women and men are impacted differently due to differences in economic representation and various social inequalities. It has become more apparent that women and youth traders are less likely to be equipped with the appropriate skills, technology and resources that would enable them to benefit from trade and trade liberalization. They continue to suffer from invisibility, stigmatization, violence, harassment, poor working conditions and a lack of recognition for their economic contribution.3 The 2016 Africa Human Development Report highlights that gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa on average US$95 billion annually.4 Gender equality is therefore instrumental to achieving sustainable economic and social development and should be mainstreamed into Africa’s trade agenda to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Domestic resource mobilization has become a concern for economies in the global south because of the changing international financial architecture. The reducing overseas development assistance (ODA) exacerbated by the multiple crises, like COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, debt unsustainability, among other factors and the rising power of corporations have continued to necessitate governments in the global south to resort to domestic resource mobilization as a sustainable way to finance their development. The domestic resources have become fewer and fewer for most countries. The coming into force of the AfCFTA will see Tariffs on 90 percent of goods of State Parties reduced in equal annual installments until they are eliminated; 5 years for Non-least Developed Countries (NDCs) and 10 years for LDCs. Whereas this is expected to present short –term challenges for domestic resource mobilization management as countries will eliminate any duties on intra-African trade and adopt common external tariffs for intercontinental trade, several analysts have indicated that taxes on increased economic activity on the continent will more than make-up for lost trade taxes in the medium to long term. Studies have shown that by integrating African economies, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has the potential to unlock a market of 1.3 billion people across the African continent, which is an important step towards Africa’s economic transformation.