Session
Organizer 1: Linda Bonyo, Lawyers Hub
Organizer 2: Morgan Njoroge, Lawyers Hub Kenya
Organizer 3: Risper Onyango, Lawyers Hub Kenya
Organizer 4: Selina Onyando, Lawyers Hub
Speaker 1: Linda Bonyo, Private Sector, African Group
Speaker 2: Ali Hussein, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 3: Declan Magero, Private Sector, African Group
Selina Onyando, Civil Society, African Group
Linda Bonyo, Private Sector, African Group
Risper Onyango, Private Sector, African Group
Birds of a Feather - Auditorium - 60 Min
1. What has been the impact of digital transformation on employment and labor laws across the African continent?
2. Are the current systems of labor and employment policies and regulation adequate to handle the emerging trends (digital labour and the gig economy) in Africa?
3. What key policy avenues and strategies can be adopted to build African professionals and upskill African talent to match the global market?
Connection with previous Messages:
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
17. Partnerships for the Goals
Targets: The proposal links with the SDG targets selected in that digital and new technologies are profoundly changing our societies, daily lives and the ways of working. They are being used to provide education, services and jobs. Further, considering Africa's young population, the digital economy contains the prerequisite to equip young people with digital skills for the future opening up of new opportunities and jobs. Digital transformation holds great potential for boosting sustainable and inclusive economic growth, decent jobs and investments through modernizing traditional sectors and developing emerging businesses which goes a long way towards achieving the goals of decent work and economic growth as well as industry, innovation and infrastructure. Collaborating with different partners and the engagement with the speakers and different attendees representative of the various stakeholders will be crucial in promoting the goal of partnerships and collaboration building.
Description:
Technological shifts across various industries globally and in Africa are rapidly changing the requirements for jobs and skills thus causing a surging demand for digital talent.Over 230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030, resulting in almost 650 million training opportunities, including retraining, according to the IFC Digital Skills in sub-Saharan Africa study. This portrays the eminent gap in digital skills in Africa and further highlights the unpreparedness of Africa’s labour force for the future of work. Additionally, with approximately 11 million young people joining the African labour market each year and the continent generating only 3.7 million jobs annually, there is a glaring unemployment threat facing the 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. However, this problem can be solved with a strategic development of talent and jobs in the ICT and tech-related sectors in Africa.
This session will explore the challenges, policy gaps, opportunities and impact that lie within the digital labour market in Africa and globally. In light of inherent challenges facing the labor market in the digital age such as inadequate tech infrastructure, digital literacy gaps, cost and availability of digital training, the discussion will examine possible solutions to address these challenges and how to serve the evolving labour market. In relation to policy, the discussion will deduce the existing policy gaps in the digital labor market such as internet and tech infrastructure policies, investment in digital education policies and tech- enabled employment policies that are necessary create an enabling environment for developing a digitally skilled workforce and upskilling the existing workforce. Furthermore, the discussion will highlight the emerging technology trends in the labor market such as use of AI for hiring, smart contracts and robots employed in the production process. It will also be assessing the potential impact of the emerging technologies in the African and global labor market including privacy, data protection, risk and safety of the technologies adopted by firms in the various industries.
The session will build on the Lawyers Hub's work in Sub-Saharan Africa to increase the capacity of policymakers, lawyers and builders to engage in development of supporting policies for Africa Artificial Intelligence landscape and gig economy towards socio-economic growth. We will tap into new communities providing context to the existing policy environment and potential areas for reform. This engagement will allow for the curation of policy interventions on the emerging trends in digital labour and the gig economy in Africa
Hybrid Format: The Lawyers Hub will utilise its social media platforms: Instagram, the Verified Twitter account of the Lawyers Hub, Live Streaming on YouTube and to promote our session and increase participation during IGF. During the session, we plan to raise launch polls, take questions and encourage discussion via live engagement with online and onsite speakers and attendees, the chat sections on YouTube, and our Hashtags on Twitter.
The session will be so designed to allow for brief presentation by the speakers, which includes an opportunity to share powerpoint presentations for easy following by both onsite and online attendees, The session will also include an interactive session between speakers and all attendees through poll questions, Q&A and predetermined key issues for discussion by the speakers.
Usage of IGF Official Tool.