Gender, Governance, Youth, and the Future of Inclusion

Africa is part of the conversation at the 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) taking place at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the next week.

There holds both promise and is a significant challenge.

Not every country on the continent has the same gender landscape.

It is shaped by political institutions, demographic realities, changes in technology, and new ways of thinking about development.

Three things need special attention: how to help women become political leaders; how artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more common on a continent where most people are young; and how boys and young men are showing signs of widening developmental gaps in some situations.

These themes are interconnected and are directly linked to Africa’s larger goals of social stability, sustainable development, and inclusive governance.

INSTITUTIONS MATTER

People have long thought of Namibia as a model for a stable democratic government and lasting institutions in the region.

It has one of the highest percentages of women in parliament in Africa because of its committment to gender equality in public life through party-level quotas, constitutional protections, and steady institutional growth.

The election of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as president was historic and made Namibia’s path toward structured inclusion within a stable constitutional framework stronger.

In contrast, reports of political unrest and violence around Tanzania’s recent elections have placed the country’s female leadership under scrutiny.

Even though Samia Suluhu Hassan is the president, the fact that the elections were marred by protests and deemed not free and fair shows that women’s leadership is not based on their gender.

Rather, it depends on the strength of democratic institutions, the rule of law and political culture.

Women’s leadership can grow and get stronger in places where constitutionalism, fair elections, and peaceful political competition are the norm.

In areas where elections are contentious or disrupted by violence, all leaders, irrespective of gender, must confront issues of legitimacy and stability.

Pointedly, this reality fits with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and other global efforts to get more women involved in politics.

Institutions’ honesty determines whether representation leads to good governance; gender representation alone is not enough.

DEMOGRAPHIC ADVANTAGES

Africa has the youngest population of any continent.
The median age is under 20 in many countries, which makes its population structure both an opportunity and a risk.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how the world works, how people learn, how governments hire people, and how they run.
For young people in Africa, AI can be both a bridge and a wall.

There are a lot of options.
AI-powered tools can help more people get an education, make learning more personal, help increase agricultural productivity, improve healthcare diagnostics, and make public services better.

African tech ecosystems are already coming up with new ideas in fintech, health tech, and civic technology.

This is happening in places like Lagos, Nairobi, and Kigali, among others.
But there are just as many risks.

There are still gaps in technology between cities and towns, private and public schools, and countries with strong infrastructure and those without.
Many young Africans are looking for work right now in jobs that don’t require a lot of skills.

Automation could take those jobs away.

Governance is hard because of false information, data privacy loopholes and algorithms that are biased.

The question is not whether Africa will use AI but how it will do so in a responsible way.

DIGITAL LITERACY

Investing in digital literacy, partnerships between the public and private sectors, regional AI governance frameworks, and policies that encourage young people to be creative are very important.
These efforts must be in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – quality education (4), decent work (8), and industry and innovation (9) to keep inequality from getting worse.

Namibia’s education and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors are growing so now is the time for changes to the curriculum that look to the future, more money resources for research, and digital strategies that include everyone so that rural areas are not left out of the technological revolution.

BOYS, YOUNG MEN ARE DOING WORSE

Efforts to promote gender equality in Africa have correctly focused on fixing the problems that women and girls have had in the past when it comes to education, political participation and economic access.

These accomplishments are still significant and incomplete.

At the same time, new information from a few African countries, Namibia included, shows that boys are doing worse than girls on some metrics, especially in high school.

There are still many reports about mental health problems, and the unemployment rate for young men remains high.
Recognising the challenges boys face does not diminish the importance of women’s empowerment.

Rather, it shows how important it is to have a gender policy that helps everyone and protects those at risk.

SDG 5 (gender equality) says men and women shouldn’t compete in a way that hurts both sides.

Evidence-based programmes that help boys who have trouble reading and writing, mentorship programmes, expanding vocational and technical education, and mental health support services can all work well with the ongoing investments in girls’ education.

Balanced gender-responsive policy makes the economy and society stronger.

LINKED REALITIES

Women in leadership, youth and AI, and the status of boys are all parts of the same conversation.
Institutions bring them together.

Stable governance lets women leaders do well, allows young people to come up with new ideas in a responsible way, and lets social policy deal with new inequalities.

However, weak institutions make inequality worse and limit chances.

As CSW70 gathering gets underway, the African voice needs to stress how important it is to hold institutions accountable, including people of all ages, and to ensure that technology is fair.

The continent’s priorities aren’t just ideas; they are based on real problems like making sure elections are fair, changing the population, and going digital.

Changes in gender roles in Africa will be more than just symbolic.

Also, how deep institutions are, how ready they are for new technology, and how open their social policies are all play a role.

Namibia’s stable democracy is an example of what structured inclusion can do.

The continent’s experience shows us that we need reliable institutions to protect progress.

In New York, the focus should change from representation to resilience.

We need to build systems that help people of all genders and ages become leaders, come up with new ideas, and have more opportunities.

The work ahead is hard, but it is based on facts, guided by continental political and economic commitments, and shaped by Africa’s greatest asset: her young people.

• Michael Conteh is a gender expert and consultant; linsobob@gmail.com

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