COVID-19 has made the economic transformation and job creation much more urgent because of the severity of the economic downturn and the decline in fiscal resources. Yet, West and Central Africa have shown resilience. African firms have mostly adjusted employment by reducing hours and wages rather than firing workers. There has been progress in regional integration and accelerated digitization.
As the pandemic abates, with the virus becoming endemic, it would be critical for governments to return attention to long-standing reforms.
Creating more and better jobs is key to both the poverty reduction agenda and re-converging with the rest of the world, and the big problem is “missing jobs” and “quality jobs” rather than unemployable youth. Efforts to strengthen skills will have little impact if the bottlenecks that keep firms from growing and creating more and better jobs are not addressed.
This webinar discusses pressing priorities to create more and better jobs, build consensus, and support sustained efforts in Western and Central Africa.
Moderator: Naye Bathily, World Bank External Affairs Manager for Western and Central Africa
Speakers :
- Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa
- Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ghana
- Dare Okoudjou, Founder and CEO of MFS Africa
- Claude Borna, Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer, Sèmè City Development Agency, Benin
- Roger Tsafack Nanfosso, Rector of the University of Dschang, Cameroon
