Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection Alfred Mutua addresses job seekers at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre following a mass recruitment drive for Qatari companies.
Photo credit:
Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Each job lost is not just a statistic; it represents dreams deferred, financial insecurity, and a sense of purpose stripped away.
To unlock the unrealised capacity of Africa’s young population, it is essential to tackle these challenges head-on.
This week, the World Resources Institute unveiled its take on the biggest story to watch in 2025: climate finance - that is, money destined for climate action. This at its core is the promise of quality jobs. Quite frankly quality job creation must be a moral imperative — because it’s not just about providing work, but about creating opportunities that are meaningful, sustainable, and transformative. They empower individuals with dignity, stability, and the chance to grow. They strengthen communities by reducing poverty and building lasting resilience. These jobs hold the power to reshape the world as we know it.
In sharp contrast to this promise, in the first month of this year alone we are faced with the stories that are disrupting jobs globally in real-time — the escalating violence in North Kivu and its surroundings, displacing an estimated 400,000 people in Eastern DRC, and on the other side of the world the gutting of USAID, the world’s largest provider of international development assistance to name just two. So many lives and livelihoods, local and international, upended in unbearable ways. These events also serve as stark reminders of the interconnected challenges we face and the urgent need for bold, collective action to secure a just and sustainable future for all.
