From 7 to 9 September 2026, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), through its Subregional Office for West Africa, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is organizing in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, an operationalization workshop on the digital platform for monitoring the implementation of the African Union Roadmap on Harnessing the Demographic Dividend in Africa.

The workshop will bring together representatives from the eight  pilot countries in WestAfrica , namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, as well as experts from ECA and UNFPA. It forms part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of progress made by Member States in implementing the African Union Roadmap on the Demographic Dividend.

This meeting marks a key milestone in the finalization of the pilot phase of the digital monitoring platform, which has been developed to facilitate data collection, monitoring, analysis and visualization, as well as the production of reports and the sharing of experiences and best practices on progress achieved under the Roadmap’s priority areas: employment and entrepreneurship; education and skills development; health and well-being; and governance and youth empowerment. The impact of this initiative is informed decision-making, based on data and progress measure, to harness Demographic Dividend.

Objectives of the Workshop

• Strengthen the capacities of national focal points in the use and operationalization of the updated digital platform;
• Test the platform’s functionalities, particularly its ability to generate standardized country reports from the data entered;
• Identify the adjustments required to improve the platform;
• Validate the updatedversion of the platform in preparation for its wider deployment.