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The employment situation in sub-Saharan Africa is deteriorating. It is unlikely that Africa’s economic growth alone will create the necessary jobs. The impending job crisis can no longer be resolved with traditional methods which have failed to live up to expectations.

This study analyses recent trends, debates and successful and unsuccessful attempts to address the increasingly difficult employment challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. It shows that there is a pressing need for a new endogenous economic policy in Africa. Employment opportunities must be improved through industrialisation, urban-rural linkages and by connecting foreign investment and local entrepreneurship.

Robert Kappel is professor emeritus from the Institute of African Studies and is also actively involved in the MBA programme Small Enterprise Promotion and Training (SEPT) at the University of Leipzig. From 2004 to 2011, he was professor at the University of Hamburg and president of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). His research activities focus on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as socio-economic development in globalisation, and politics and economics in Africa.

Download the publication: AFRICA’S EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGES. The Ever-Widening Gaps, by Robert Kappel (Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation 2021).