Mr. Chair,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Ministers, Governors, and Partners,

On behalf of the AUC, I thank the World Bank Group, under the leadership of President Ajay Banga, for this timely report, at a time of high pressure on our continent and the world, and for bringing the critical issue of creating an enabling environment for more and better-paid jobs to the center of this Committee’s discussions.

For Africa, this is not an abstract policy question. It is an urgent development, economic, and stability imperative.

As the youngest continent in the world, Africa’s greatest asset is first and foremost its people. But this demographic strength will only translate into shared prosperity if we create the enabling conditions for more jobs, and crucially, for better-paid and more productive jobs, especially for youth and women.

The African Union, therefore, welcomes the report’s central message, that job creation does not happen by chance, but requires deliberate action to build the right enabling environment.

This means investing in infrastructure, including digital public infrastructure (DPIs), strengthening digital skills, human resources and expertise, reinforcing institutions, improving regulatory certainty, expanding access to finance, and supporting a private sector that can grow, innovate, and hire at scale.

At the same time, we must be candid. The multilateral system, in its current form, has not consistently provided the robust, sustainable, and predictable public goods needed to support this transformation. Too often, support remains fragmented, reactive, and insufficiently aligned with regional and continental development priorities and opportunities.

Yet this moment also presents a major opportunity.

Through Agenda 2063, the AfCFTA, and the commitment of its 55 Member States, Africa has demonstrated both political resolve and a growing institutional framework to address these challenges. Our Member States are undertaking difficult reforms, strengthening policy environments, and investing in the foundations for enterprise, competitiveness, and employment.

The AU–World Bank Group partnership has helped elevate this conversation by linking jobs more clearly to infrastructure, energy, trade, skills, industrialization, and financial inclusion.

What is now required is a paradigm shift in multilateral, regional, and continental cooperation: from fragmented initiatives to coordinated delivery, from short-term interventions to long-term transformation, and from dialogue to implementation at scale.

In closing, creating the enabling environment for more and better-paid jobs is not peripheral to Africa’s future. It is central to resilience, dignity, and shared prosperity.

I thank you for your kind attention.