NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 2 – James Mwangi, the CEO of Equity Group, has been appointed to the World Bank Group’s High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs. This council, which was announced at the 2024 World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., aims to provide valuable advice on how to create more job opportunities, especially for youth and women in emerging and developing countries.
The council, co-chaired by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the President of Singapore, and Michelle Bachelet, the former President of Chile, brings together a variety of leaders from different fields, including government, business, education, and civil society.
Their main goal is to come up with practical and scalable solutions to address a growing job crisis that could impact 1.2 billion people in developing nations over the next ten years. As countries, especially in Africa, see a rise in their working-age populations, it is estimated that around 800 million people may struggle to find jobs by 2034.
Mwangi has expressed his enthusiasm for the council’s mission, emphasizing its potential to significantly reduce poverty in Africa. He stated, “These global demographic changes provide a unique chance for Africa. By effectively utilizing our young and expanding workforce, we could potentially achieve up to 15% growth in GDP and cut poverty rates by 17% by 2030.”
He also highlighted that Equity’s Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan aims to create 50 million jobs by the year 2030. The council will hold meetings every two months for the next two years, working closely with senior management at the World Bank to put its recommendations into action.
Among the other members of the council are notable figures such as Guy Ryder, the UN Under Secretary General for Policy; Patrick Achi, former Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire; Sebastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO of Accor Group; and experts from well-respected institutions like the University of Chicago and Yale University.
