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UN senior official will represent Annan at Africa-France summit

UN senior official will represent Annan at Africa-France summit

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari will attend the 23rd Summit of Heads of State and Government of Africa and France this weekend, focusing on harnessing the vitality, creativity and aspirations of African youth.

In Mali's capital, Bamako, Mr. Gambari will deliver the Secretary-General's message to the Conference, in a period when the UN Office in West Africa (UNOWA) in Dakar, Senegal, estimates that people under 30 years of age constitute three-quarters of Africa's population and face such obstacles to success as war, inadequate educational opportunities, high unemployment and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases.

On the eve of the Bamako Summit, UNOWA launched a report called "Youth Unemployment and Regional Insecurity in West Africa." It identifies priority issues such as the need to improve the business environment, combat corruption, increase the opportunities offered by investment in infrastructure and public works and take steps to increase private sector involvement, as well as apprenticeship and vocational training.

Special Representative of the Secretary General for West Africa and UNOWA head Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said: "As long as youths in the region regard their prospects for securing work in West Africa as unattainable, they will continue to try to escape from what seem lands of non-opportunity."

Disenchanted West African youth may increasingly find themselves with only "two alternatives: violence – or migration, which in turn represents a security risk for established, mature democracies," he said.

Young people often aspire to become self-employed and the report explores ways to broaden youth entrepreneurship and microfinance services. It also reviews post-conflict situations and the roles of disarmed ex-combatants.