By 2050, one young person in three worldwide will live in Africa. President Macky Sall's candidacy for UN Secretary-General places that youth at the centre of the question of peace. The schools and jobs these generations find ahead of them, or fail to find, will decide part of the century's stability.
Two outcomes for the same demography. With the same numbers, the future of this generation depends on what states do with it. Trained and employed, it becomes an engine of growth for the continent and for its partners. When it is left without prospects, the same youth feeds distress migration and the recruitment of armed groups.
Train, then employ. Training is worth something only if a job waits at the end of it. Investment in education pays off where the economy creates openings at the same pace. President Macky Sall holds both ends of the chain: a qualified youth and an economy able to absorb it.
Migration is addressed at the source. A departure is best deterred by a prospect offered at home. The means spent holding migrants at borders would produce more stability invested in the economies they are leaving.
Giving a voice to those the decisions bind. Young people are the majority of the populations targeted by the Organization's mandates and a small share of the voices that write them. Bringing them into peace and development processes applies the principle of representation, under which a decision holds better when those it binds have taken part in it.
The experience behind these commitments to youth. These proposals rest on twelve years as head of state and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames them as obligations, in a text that conceives peace and security together with development.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The demographic projections of the United Nations are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net