Evaluation of the results of the Africa Commission: Realising the Potential of Africa's Youth

The Africa Commission was launched by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in 2008 “to help Africa benefit more from globalization”. The aim of the Commission was to present new and creative strategies to revitalise and strengthen the international cooperation with Africa. The Commission focused on ways to create employment for young people through private sector-led growth and improved competitiveness of African economies. This included discussions on decent jobs, entrepreneurship, and the provision of opportunities for young African women and men through education, skills development and access to finance. The Africa Commission launched its report “Realising the potential of Africa’s Youth” in May 2009. The report contained ten policy recommendations as well as five concrete initiatives aiming at strengthening private sector led growth and employment and promoting Africa’s participation in the globalisation.

The results of the Africa Commission’s work have now been evaluated. The evaluation documents a number of good results likely to be sustained in the future. In particular, the African Guarantee Fund providing guarantees to commercial banks’ lending to SMEs, and the Sustainable Energy Fund are innovative and hold great potential. The Africa Commission had a significant influence on the Danish debate on the role of international development assistance, and led to a greater focus on the private sector in development assistance. The Commission also aimed at influencing the wider international debate on the role of development assistance, but it is difficult for the evaluation to pinpoint this impact. The debate in the Commission was in congruence with the wider debate, not least because of the members of the Commission, who were all well linked to this debate.

• Download Evaluation Report (PDF)
• Download Summary in English (PDF)
• Download Summary in Danish (PDF)
• Download Management Response (PDF)

Download Annexes (PDF)

• Annex 1: Terms of Reference for an evaluation of the results of the Africa Commission: Realising the Potential of Africa's Youth
• Annex 2: List of those interviewed
• Annex 3: Timeline of milestones in international development before and after the Africa Commission Report
• Annex 4: Initiative 1: Benchmarking African competitiveness
• Annex 5: Initiative 2: Access to investment finance for SMEs
• Annex 6: Initiative 3: Unleashing African entrepreneurship
• Annex 7: Initiative 4: Access to sustainable energy
• Annex 8: Initiative 5a: Promoting post-primary education and research (Skills for Youth)
• Annex 9: Initiative 5b: Support to Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN)
• Annex 10: Members of the Africa Commission 2009