Water-related industry in Africa provides jobs and employment opportunities in many sectors, for example agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing and industry.
Water, jobs and the economy Africa has recently undergone its best decade (2005-2015) for economic growth since the post-independence period. The growth, however, has neither been inclusive or equitable. According to the World Bank, GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa averaged 4.5% in 2014, up from 4.2% in 2013, supported by continuing infrastructure investment, increased agricultural production and buoyant services. Africa's population surpassed the 1 billion mark in 2010 and is projected to double by 2050.
Demographically, it is expected to be the fastest growing region in the world with the growth varying, depending on sub-regions. Furthermore, the growth is skewed to the young and that component of the population that will need jobs is expected to increase rapidly and comprise 910 million out of the projected two billion total population by 2050. Most of the growth in workforce will be in Sub-Saharan Africa (about 90%). Hence, the demand for jobs will be a major policy issue across the continent, which is already experiencing high unemployment and underemployment; moreover, the latter is driving both migration within the region and emigration towards Europe and other regions. Job creation for this anticipated growth in population is set to be the major challenge for Africa's structural economic and social transformation. It is estimated that in 2015, 19 million young people will be joining the sluggish job market in Sub-Saharan Africa and four million in North Africa. The demand for jobs is expected to increase to 24.6 million annually in Sub-Saharan Africa and 4.3 million in North Africa by 2030, representing two thirds of global growth in demand for jobs. Youth unemployment has been the trigger for uprisings, notably in North Africa, and has led to social and security instability. The key water-dependent or related sectors with the potential for meeting part of the current and projected demand for jobs in Africa are social services, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, retail and hospitality, manufacturing, construction, natural resources exploitation (including mining) and energy production (including hydro, geothermal and expected fracking for oil and natural gas). All these sectors depend to a varying extent on the availability of, access to, and reliability of water resources. Irresponsible water use by some sectors can create short-term employment, but result in negative impacts on the availability of water resources and jeopardize future jobs in other water-dependent sectors. Climate change, water scarcity and variability have direct impact on the major sector outputs and thus ultimately on the overall economy of most African countries.
Jobs in water-dependent sectors Currently, the most important water-dependent sector in Africa is agriculture, which forms the bedrock of most economies of African states. Both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture are important job-providing sectors in all African countries.
Agriculture
The role of agriculture as the main source of employment is decreasing in many African countries as a sustained growth in many economies is leading to increasing standards of living, improved education and the occurrence of rapid rural-urban migration of educated youth in search of white collar jobs. However, for the foreseeable future agriculture will still be a major source of employment, especially in non-oil producing African states. There is a rising paradox of increasing unemployment in the rapidly urbanizing cities and towns of Africa: labour shortages in rural areas are leading to significant reduction in food production and increased dependence of many African countries on food imports. Based on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations statistics, agriculture was the source of employment for 49% of Africans by 2010 and is a reflection of a gradual decline from 2002 to 2010, which coincides with the period of sustained GDP growth in most African countries. In spite of this decline, agriculture is expected to create eight million stable jobs by 2020 based on the trends from the McKinsey Global Institute analysis. If the continent accelerates agricultural development by expanding large scale commercial farming on uncultivated land and shifts production from low-value grain production to more labour-intensive and higher value-added horticultural and bio fuel crops (a good example is Ethiopia), as many as six million additional jobs could be created continent-wide by 2020. However, such estimates do not take account of the potential displacement or disappearance of existing jobs. These would need to be carefully assessed in terms of social, economic and environmental impacts in the overall context of responsible agricultural investment.
Fisheries
The African fisheries and aquaculture sector employed 12.3 million people in 2014 and contributed US $24 billion or 1.26% of the GDP of all African countries, which improved food security and nutrition. About half of the workers in the sector were fishers and the rest were processors (mainly women) or aquaculturists. Fisheries and aquaculture contribution to GDP in Africa by sub-sector
Employment by subsector
Manufacturing and industry
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