Youth and social justice futures: identifying future skills, training needs and orientations in Africa

 

This project seeks to strengthen planning for future skills needs using different foresight methodologies to explore plausible, alternative futures and identify the challenges and opportunities for youth, and prospects for social justice, in East and Southern Africa. It will engage youth, decision-makers in government and the private sector, and the community. It will also strengthen the capacities of communities of researchers, educationalists and policymakers in the application of contextualized futures methodologies.

The project will take stock of current evidence, document experiences, learnings and emerging issues on the continent, and contextualize foresight strategies in the area of education and skills development in Africa, while focusing on building a resilient and agile workforce. It will also help to embed strategic foresight as part of how we at IDRC inform and design forward-looking policy, strategy and decision-making and, importantly, develop and deploy our internal assets and capabilities to undertake this approach with our partners and stakeholders in a consistent manner. A second phase is expected to focus on capacity strengthening/training on futures and foresight tools and methodologies as well as policy linkages.