African Cities: What role for the youth?

Webinar

African Cities:
What role for the youth?

11 October
2022

Online

10AM | 12PM
GMT + 1

Session I:

Urban youth identity and participation
in democratization & development

3PM | 5PM
GMT + 1

Session II:

Challenges of the urban youth

Watch the replay

Overview

By 2050, 35% of the world population will be young and African, compared to 15% in 2000. The accelerated urbanisation that Africa has been experiencing in recent years goes along with an increase in the youngest part of its population, bringing new challenges to the cities.

Today, 60% of the African population is under the age of 24. This peculiarity of the continent is an essential fact to be taken into account in urban planning. Young people should have an important role in the development of African cities models. It is therefore legitimate to position them as actors and authors of the transformation of spaces and living environments that respond to the urban challenges facing the continent (sustainability, well-being, access to essential education services and inclusion.

In this webinar entitled "African cities: what place for young people?" experts will answer the questions of:

Youth engagement through different movements;
Gender and equity in urban areas;
Urban youth activities.

Urban youth identity and participation in democratization & development

Language:

French translated to English

Opening Statement

Speaker: Jérôme CHENAL

10.05 - 10.30 AM

Political identity and participation of urban youth

Speaker: David Goeury

Researcher in the laboratory "Médiations. Sciences des liens, sciences des lieux" of Sorbonne University. In charge of the "Identifications et sociabilités" axis.

10.30 - 10.55 AM

Is there an urban youth? A reflection in the Maghreb context

Speaker: Johannes Frische

Postdoctoral researcher from Leipzig University

10.55 - 11.20 AM

African youth movements and the test of citizenship, democracy and development

Speaker: Ibrahima Touré

Teacher-researcher at the Department of Sociology of the Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor (Senegal)

11.20 - 11.45 AM

The youth paradox: a challenge for public policy in Africa

Speaker: Francis Akindès

Beninese-Ivorian Professor of Sociology at Alassane Ouattara University (Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire)

QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

Moderator: Jawad Agdal

Challenges of the urban youth

Language:

English translated to French

3.00 - 3.25 PM

Challenging Cities: Young Men, Masculinity and Violence

Speaker: Deevia Bhana

DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality

3.25 - 3.50 PM

Tackling the challenges of the urban youth through music: the case of the hip hop movement

Speaker: Marc Sommers

Youth, peacebuilding, security, CVE and Africa specialist

3.50 - 4.15 PM

Urban youth unemployment

Speaker: Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski

Director of the North Africa Office at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

4.15 - 4.40 PM

Young sports African migrants: challenges and constraints of the 'unknown' career abroad

Speaker: Ernest Yeboah Acheampong

Senior Lecturer/Research Associate in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

Closing statement

Speaker: Jérôme CHENAL

Moderator: Seddik DARAI

Speakers

David Goeury

Researcher in the laboratory "Médiations. Sciences des liens, sciences des lieux" of Sorbonne University. In charge of the "Identifications et sociabilités" axis.

David Goeury

Researcher in the laboratory "Médiations. Sciences des liens, sciences des lieux" of Sorbonne University. In charge of the "Identifications et sociabilités" axis.

David Goeury has a doctoral degree in geography and is a teacher-researcher at the Espace Nature et Culture laboratory at the Paris-La Sorbonne. He also teaches a preparatory class for the Business prestigious universities at the Lycée Descartes in Rabat (Morocco). He is also an associate researcher at the Jacques Berque Centre in Rabat. He leads research on the margins and marginalities in low-income countries (India and Morocco). He is currently studying the transformation of oasis spaces through the action research program "Preservation of sacred and collective oasis sites". He is also co-sponsoring the ZERKA project (The blue spring and the urbanization of Mediterranean oases). He has also been involved in the study of political change in Morocco since 2011, first in the PROCELEC program (Electoral processes in North Africa, comparative research in electoral geography and sociology) and then in the TARICA program (Political and socio- institutional change in North Africa: competition of models and diversity of trajectories) directed by Alia Gana. Finally, he was the principal investigator of the ANRS 12 305 program (Income-generating activities and key populations infected, affected or threatened by HIV in Morocco) as part of a community-based research.

Johannes Frische

Postdoctoral researcher from Leipzig University

Ibrahima Touré

Teacher-researcher at the Department of Sociology of the Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor (Senegal)

Francis Akindès

Beninese-Ivorian Professor of Sociology at Alassane Ouattara University (Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire)

Deevia Bhana

DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality

Marc Sommers

Youth, peacebuilding, security, CVE and Africa specialist

Marc Sommers

Youth, peacebuilding, security, CVE and Africa specialist

Marc is an internationally recognized youth, peacebuilding, security, CVE and Africa specialist. He has provided strategic and technical advice, and expertise in training and conflict negotiation, including: • As a peacebuilder, designing and assessing programs for marginalized youth and coordinating discreet, high-level meetings on peace and stabilization. • As a diplomat, serving as a back-channel negotiator and peacebuilding strategist. • As a field researcher and evaluator, where he regularly uncovers vital issues that previously had been overlooked or unknown. His trust-based methods are detailed in a recent book. • As a violent extremism and CVE expert, revealing new insights in a seminal report on youth and CVE and leading a major research workshop for IGAD in Djibouti. • As a security and risk management analyst, applying expertise on non-state military actors, informal economic sectors and youth exclusion to pressing challenges. Marc has served as a senior advisor and officer in the U.S. Department of State. He is a former member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security and was a Fellow at The Wilson Center, U.S. Institute of Peace and The Bellagio Center. He taught for many years at The Fletcher School (Tufts University) and has consulted for 20+ NGOs, 5 UN agencies, 6 policy institutes, OSCE and the World Bank. Marc is the author of 9 books (on youth, war, development, education in emergencies, refugees, VE/CVE and coordination) and the recipient of 4 book awards. His next book is called "We the Young Fighters: Pop Culture, Terror & the War in Sierra Leone" (forthcoming, 2022).

Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski

Director of the North Africa Office at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Ernest Yeboah ACHEAMPONG

Senior Lecturer/Research Associate in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

Watch the replay

Overview

On the agenda

Session I

Session II

Language:

Language:

Speakers

David Goeury

Johannes Frische

Ibrahima Touré

Francis Akindès

Deevia Bhana

Marc Sommers

Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski

Ernest Yeboah ACHEAMPONG

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