The Malabo Montpellier Panel has urged governments across Africa to prioritise the transformation of agrifood systems as a strategy for generating employment opportunities for the continent’s rapidly growing youth population.
According to the panel, strengthening food systems across Africa will not only create jobs but also contribute significantly to food security, poverty reduction, climate resilience, industrial development and inclusive economic growth.
The recommendation was contained in the panel’s 2026 report released on Wednesday, which stated that modernised agrifood systems have the potential to provide the “productive jobs” required to accommodate Africa’s expanding youth demographic if the right policy measures are implemented to accelerate sectoral transformation.
The report, titled ‘Job Harvests: Policy Innovations for Inclusive Agrifood Employment in Africa’, emphasised that overcoming Africa’s unemployment challenge would depend on the adoption of coordinated policies, strong institutions, sustained financing and inclusive implementation mechanisms.
Drawing lessons from experiences in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda, the report estimated that approximately 70 million young Africans are currently employed, in school or participating in training programmes. It further warned that the continent would need to generate nearly two million jobs every month by 2040 to accommodate new entrants into the labour market.
Speaking on the findings, the Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel, Ousmane Badiane, said the major employment concern facing Africa extends beyond the number of jobs available to the quality of those jobs. He stressed that safer working environments and equitable opportunities are necessary to ensure that employment within agrifood systems translates into improved livelihoods.
Badiane further noted that tackling related challenges such as rapid population growth and climate change remains crucial to enabling agrifood systems to become a major driver of inclusive employment across the continent.
Another Co-Chair of the panel and representative of the Centre for Development Research at the University of Bonn, Joachim von Braun, called on governments to focus on improving agricultural productivity as a long-term strategy for employment generation.
Highlighting Nigeria’s experience, the panel observed that initiatives aimed at improving employment planning and job placement have contributed to better labour market coordination. It also noted that specialised agricultural universities and the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme have helped prepare young Nigerians with the skills required for emerging opportunities within modern agrifood value chains.
“Between 2015 and 2024, the Bank of Industry mobilised more than $7 billion in catalytic capital, financed more than 5.4 million enterprises and contributed to the creation of more than 15 million jobs,” the report said.
The report further urged policymakers and stakeholders across the continent to “prioritise agricultural productivity growth as the foundation for broader employment transformation,” while ensuring that skills development becomes demand-driven.
The panel urged African countries to “strengthen employment policies to advance decent work, productivity and inclusive labour markets, advance occupational safety and health systems to improve job quality, and expand and strengthen public works programmes while integrating them with social protection”.
“Strengthen one-stop business support institutions to lower barriers to enterprise growth, increase formal job creation, and expand digital labour and market information platforms to improve job matching and market access. Strengthen high-level institutional coordination to support integrated employment outcomes,” the report stated.
