Buti Manamela
The G20 Leaders’ Summit concluded this weekend with the usual choreography of diplomacy, but behind the photo-ops and the carefully weighted communiqués lies a deeper shift that deserves attention, especially from those of us on the African continent.
For once, education did not appear as a footnote to economic policy; it emerged as a structural pillar of global development. With the adoption of the Leaders’ Declaration, the G20 has signalled that the future of higher education in Africa is no longer a regional concern. It is a global priority.
This new posture is long overdue. Africa’s population is young, dynamic and growing, and by 2050 one in every four young people entering the world’s labour markets will be African.
Whether viewed through the lens of economics, geopolitics or human development, this demographic shift represents the single most consequential trend of the 21st century. The G20 finally acknowledges this
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