{"id":118939,"date":"2025-05-20T20:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=118939"},"modified":"2025-05-20T20:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T19:02:00","slug":"mombasa-declaration-2025-african-leaders-must-recognize-fund-informal-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/mombasa-declaration-2025-african-leaders-must-recognize-fund-informal-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"MOMBASA Declaration 2025: African Leaders Must Recognize, Fund Informal Sector\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Daniel Adaji<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Governments across Africa have been urged by the Mombasa Declaration 2025 to recognize the informal sector as basic to the region&#8217;s economic development.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The declaration also called on the governments to invest heavily in transforming traditional apprenticeships into quality systems.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The declaration, signed on May 16 by Secretary General of the Sub-Saharan Africa Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network (SASASNET), Ousman Sillah, capped the 2nd Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Conference on Quality Skills Development and Apprenticeship held in Mombasa, Kenya.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe call upon governments to recognize, engage and promote the informal sector as a critical entity in their economic development strategies. We call upon governments to prioritize funding and implementation of skills transformation strategies,\u201d the document stated.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The declaration noted that more than 80 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s workforce operates in the informal economy, yet most apprenticeship systems in the region remain undocumented, unsupported, and under-recognized.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It added that youth unemployment, skills mismatch, and limited access to modern training tools continue to worsen the crisis.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Themed \u201cTransforming Apprenticeship Systems in the Informal Economy for Youth Employability in Africa,\u201d the three-day conference gathered representatives from 24 countries, including government agencies, AU bodies, the UN, youth groups, development partners, and informal sector leaders.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Participants pledged their support to transitioning from informal to formal economies through new policies and programs.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe will develop regional and national strategies to facilitate the transition from the informal to the formal economy towards enhancing decent work,\u201d the declaration added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Central to the declaration was the call to upgrade informal apprenticeships into inclusive, responsive, and quality-assured systems.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cNo skill is wasted and no worker left behind,\u201d the document emphasized.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other key commitments included establishing a continental Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy framework, launching a SASASNET Youth Forum, aligning national qualifications with the African Continental Qualifications Framework, and developing an African Skills Passport.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The signatories further pledged to promote youth-friendly financial products and eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks that hinder small business development.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We will strengthen youth enterprises and access to finance,\u201d it noted.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The declaration also urged the African Union Commission to adopt the African Decade for Skills Development (2025\u20132034) and integrate the Mombasa Declaration into the agenda of the next Summit of the Heads of State and Government.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis Declaration represents our shared vision and collective will to transform apprenticeship systems across Africa, grounded in inclusion, relevance, dignity, and opportunity,\u201d the document noted.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe pledge to translate words into action\u2014within our governments, institutions, and communities\u2014to ensure that Africa\u2019s youth are equipped, empowered, and elevated to lead the continent\u2019s next chapter,\u201d it added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The conference was hosted by the Kenyan Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the Kenya Skills Community of Practice (KSCOP), and SASASNET, which now operates in 43 African countries.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Daniel Adaji Governments across Africa have been urged by the Mombasa Declaration 2025 to recognize the informal sector as basic to the region&#8217;s economic development. The declaration also called&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MOMBASA Declaration 2025: African Leaders Must Recognize, Fund Informal Sector\u00a0 - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/mombasa-declaration-2025-african-leaders-must-recognize-fund-informal-sector\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MOMBASA Declaration 2025: African Leaders Must Recognize, Fund Informal Sector\u00a0 - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Daniel Adaji Governments across Africa have been urged by the Mombasa Declaration 2025 to recognize the informal sector as basic to the region&#8217;s economic development. 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