Addis Ababa, 23 April 2021, ECA –The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Africa Sports Unified (ASU) today launched the Programme of Work on Sport and Trade to leverage the ability for sport to support the inclusive implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by targeting youth, women and girls and persons with disabilities.
The programme aims to explore and leverage the linkage between the AfCFTA and sport through knowledge generation and stakeholder engagement. The programme will understand how building and growing an inclusive and sustainable sports ecosystem can promote regional cooperation, entrepreneurship, employability, innovation, manufacturing and ultimately inclusive intra-African trade.
It will also explore opportunities the AfCFTA brings to address the multidimensional challenges young people and women face in Africa to obtain quality jobs and decent wages by creating new opportunities for intra-African trade across manufacturing and services sectors in the African sports industry. It will address the limited access youth and women have to professional associations and to the resources that can support their participation in trade. At the same time, it will focus on the transfer of knowledge from leading research on entrepreneurship and innovation, including training and skills development.
Under the initiative, mentors will be paired with a mentee to work together towards achieving their mutually agreed objectives. The mentees have an opportunity to learn from an industry expert in various aspects of the sports and trade economy to help them identify career paths and opportunities or to advance an entrepreneurial idea.
Mentee applications open today 21 April and close on 17 May to young people aged 18 and above who have interest in pursuing a career in sports and trade. The programme commences on 14 June after a week-long induction course. Interested applicants can submit their application via this link.
As part of the programme, the ECA and ASU will convene a Sports & Trade Roundtable on 29 April from 16:00 to 18:00 (EAT) to explore the opportunities of leveraging the ability of sport to empower youth, women and people with disabilities with new employment opportunities, skills development and entrepreneurship facilitated by the AfCFTA.
This is an opportunity for dialogue amongst pioneers and thought leaders within African sports development to explore and identify collaborative solutions to the current challenges in developing the African sports ecosystem through the inclusive implementation of the AfCFTA.
Registration for the roundtable is currently open: bit.ly/2Oz4y3M
A podcast series on AfCFTA and Sport is also launched to support engagement of youth and women in the AfCFTA implementation. The podcast series features industry experts and organisations within the field of AfCFTA, sports, youth, trade, policy, technology and entrepreneurship.
Listen to the first podcast entitled “Advocating AfCFTA through Sports, Integrating the continent”
The AfCFTA holds a promise to accelerate inclusive and sustainable development in Africa through the creation of a single and liberalized market for goods and services which will increase intra-African trade and boost revenues and livelihoods.
With trading having commenced on 1 January this year, the AfCFTA presents an opportunity to address the challenges young people face in Africa in obtaining employment and decent wages by creating new opportunities for trading and entrepreneurial activities across various manufacturing and services sectors.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org