At TICAD7 in 2019, KEIZAI DOYUKAI1 and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a Memorandum of Understandings for cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through business in Africa. Following this agreement, in May 2022, as a pre-event of TICAD8, an online exchange meeting between women entrepreneurs who are working to solve social issues in Africa from Japan and Africa was held. At the event, access to funds and other challenges to women’s enterprises, especially in Africa were discussed.

At TICAD 8 in August 2022, the Tunis Declaration was adopted by Japan, representatives of African member states, and co-organizers, including UNDP, which emphasised the importance of enhancing the African business environment and supporting Africa’s priorities of economic transformation and diversification in “Realising structural transformation for sustainable economic growth and social development”, one of the pillars of the Declaration. In addition, start-ups and private companies, including youth and women entrepreneurship, were identified as driving forces in the transformation to resolve social challenges in Africa.

In synchronisation with this trend, UNDP has been supporting a multi-dimensional programme, “YouthConnect”, which aims at connecting youth to their role models, peers, resources, technologies, skills and economic opportunities by filling the gap between youth and opportunities for an economic empowering environment. Furthermore, UNDP advocates that youth play an essential role in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which must be expanded in the next few years, and is promoting support for youth entrepreneurs and collaboration with various programmes related to youth business support.

In Japan, public-private partnerships to support youth empowerment and business support initiatives are considered essential, and various programmes have been implemented to support the youth in Africa. Further acceleration of this effort is required to encourage the realisation of socioeconomic transformation by young people both in Africa and Japan.

With this backdrop, taking the opportunity of the 30th anniversary of the TICAD, the “Japan-Africa Youth Entrepreneurs Forum” is to be held in collaboration with KEIZAI DOYUKAI and UNDP. The forum will focus on building an environment where young entrepreneurs can excel in making sustainable transformations and leading to the formation of discussions at TICAD 9 in 2025.