Africa will struggle to meet all its development targets by 2030 unless it steps up investment in children and young people, Unicef Kenya Representative Shaheen Nilofer has warned.
Nilofer said the continent’s rapidly growing young population was creating an urgent need for greater investment in health, education, skills and jobs.
Nilofer on Thursday said Africa could struggle to achieve all the SDGs by the 2030 deadline unless development investments respond to the continent’s rapidly changing demographics.
“We probably won't be able to achieve all of those SDGs, but incrementally there has been progress on some of these SDGs,” Nilofer said on the sidelines of the conference on Advancing Global Development and Governance: China and Kenya Usher a New Chapter of a Shared Future in Naivasha.
She said Africa’s growing youth population made it critical to put children and young people at the centre of development planning and international partnerships.
“It’s very important that the voices of young people, the voice of the children, are very much in the centre and front,” she said.
Nilofer added that Africa should also move beyond being a recipient of development programmes and have a greater role in determining the priorities of interventions designed to address its challenges.
Her remarks come as Unicef expands cooperation with Chinese institutions on programmes targeting maternal and child health, education, water and sanitation, nutrition and skills development across Africa.
In 2025, Unicef signed agreements with Chinese institutions covering cooperation in maternal and child health, primary healthcare, education, water and sanitation, climate resilience and digitalisation. The partnerships include planned maternal and child health centres in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Mozambique.
Nilofer said such cooperation should be geared towards addressing the development gaps that directly affect Africa’s children and young people.
She cited maternal and newborn mortality as one area requiring continued investment, noting that Unicef is supporting counties in Kenya to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
Education and sanitation in schools are also part of the agenda, alongside technical and vocational education and training, which she said could help young people acquire skills needed in the labour market.
The jobs question, she said, was becoming increasingly urgent as more young Africans acquire education without finding sufficient employment opportunities.
“They are getting educated, but there are not enough jobs. Many therefore end up in informal spaces and the informal economy,” Nilofer said.
She called for greater private-sector involvement in creating employment and skills opportunities for young people, arguing that the benefits of investment extend beyond individual workers to their families and communities.
Nilofer pointed to Vertical Agro Group factory that the delegates visited during the programme as an example of how employment can have wider social benefits. She said the company had reported that about 10,000 people were directly benefiting from employment, while the wider economic impact reached about 35,000 people in households.
The benefits, she said, go beyond wages to include improved access to education, health services and nutrition for workers’ families.
Unicef’s Africa Strategy places children and young people at the centre of the organisation’s work on Africa’s development priorities, linking its programmes to the continent’s Agenda 2063, the Agenda for Children 2040 and the SDGs.
China has increasingly become part of that development agenda through its investments, development cooperation and partnerships with African countries.
Unicef has also been working with Chinese businesses on initiatives covering education, health, water and sanitation, digital skills and green jobs for African young people.
“We are therefore very grateful to the People's Republic of China for keeping Africa focused and for supporting initiatives that are aligned with Unicef's Africa strategy and with national development priorities across African countries,” Nilofer said.
She noted that the work that they do in support of children, with support from the Chinese development cooperation, focusses on addressing issues such as newborn mortality and maternal mortality, which remain very pressing challenges.
“In Kenya, for example, we are supporting counties to address these issues and ensure that we reach every woman and every child everywhere. This is in line with the broader commitment to achieving universal health coverage and ensuring that no one is left behind,” she said.
The Unicef boss further added they are discussing with the Chinese government issues such as the improvement of sanitation in schools and investment in technical and vocational education and training.
“This is about investing in the future of young people in this country”.
