The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) have reaffirmed their commitment to deepen cooperation aimed at expanding decent and productive employment opportunities for young people across the sub-region.
The renewed pledge comes amid concerns that rapid population growth in WAEMU member states continues to outpace job creation, intensifying unemployment and underemployment among young people.
According to a blog post published on the ILO’s website, the commitment followed a high-level meeting at the WAEMU Commission headquarters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The ILO delegation met with the President of the WAEMU Commission, Abdoulaye Diop, and other senior officials to discuss a joint youth employment programme covering 2026 to 2030, which is currently under development.
The ILO delegation was led by the Deputy Regional Director of the Regional Office for Africa, Coffi Dominique Agossou. Other members included Ndeye Coumba Diop, Director of the ILO Country Office for several West African states, as well as specialists in youth employment and skills development.
The proposed programme seeks to expand sustainable access to decent and productive work for young people aged 15 to 35 across WAEMU countries. It is built around key pillars, including stimulating job demand, boosting the productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises, improving employability, enhancing job quality and strengthening labour market governance.
Presenting the core objectives of the initiative, Agossou described the programme as a structured regional response to persistent youth employment challenges.
“This joint programme reflects a shared ambition to respond in a structured and regional manner to the persistent challenges of youth employment, combining political leadership, technical expertise and international labour standards,” he said.
Ndeye Diop emphasised the programme’s focus on delivering measurable outcomes, particularly for young women.
“The objective is to produce concrete results for young people, particularly young women, by strengthening the links between skills development, productive investment and decent job opportunities, in line with national and regional priorities of the WAEMU,” she noted.
Youth unemployment remains a pressing issue across Africa, where economic growth has struggled to absorb the continent’s rapidly expanding youth population. Estimates by the Africa Youth Employment Clock suggest that by 2025, about 121 million young people aged 15 to 35 will be unemployed or classified as not in education, employment or training, representing roughly 23 per cent of that age group. The figure is projected to increase without scaled-up interventions.
Additional data indicate that millions of young Africans face limited access to formal wage employment, with many engaged in low-productivity informal work or underemployment.
Welcoming the strengthened collaboration, WAEMU Commission President Abdoulaye Diop reaffirmed the union’s commitment to the successful implementation of the programme. He commended the quality of the partnership with the ILO and stressed the need for coordinated regional action to address unemployment and underemployment among young people.
He added that technical teams from both organisations would continue to refine the programme document and prepare for its formal launch as part of broader efforts to promote inclusive growth and decent job creation across West Africa.
