The G20 Social and Solidarity Economy Summit, an official G20 side event convened by Africa Forward and SAP, brought together government officials, policymakers, private sector leaders, social entrepreneurs, youth networks and partners to chart a new direction: enabling African youth to become job creators, not just seekers, and building the systems to sustain that change.
The participants unanimously agreed that social enterprises are central to Africa’s development. Solving community-rooted challenges while generating economic value allows these enterprises to demonstrate that impact and profit can be mutually reinforcing.
While youth employment is a burgeoning challenge globally, it is currently further exacerbated by millions of young people entering labour markets annually.
Recognising these challenges, the Summit identified entrepreneurship and social innovation as essential pathways to support job creation and inclusive growth.
Impact-led procurement, also known as social procurement, stood out as one of the continent’s most immediate levers for accelerating this transition.
Many companies, including SAP, make provision for a percentage of procurement to be undertaken through social entrepreneurs.
During the Summit, several corporates shared innovative emerging models which involve the training of young people, who are subsequently integrated into SME suppliers within major supply chains, effectively turning procurement decisions into engines of job creation.
With social procurement, each contract becomes a vehicle for capacity building, enterprise development and community resilience, thereby amplifying its extended impact on communities at scale.
Participants agreed that skills development is at the heart of enhancing the social and solidarity economy.
Notably, various stakeholders highlighted the perverse effect of importing skilled labour whilst millions of young Africans remain unemployed.
A possible solution to accelerate skills development in Africa could be to leverage the rapid advancements of emerging technologies, which are transforming the training and development landscape.
Examples include virtual-reality welding programmes certified to international standards, and digital platforms offering globally recognised credentials. The latter are pathways to equip youth with skills that translate directly into economic opportunity.
Furthermore, demand-led systems, co-designed with employers, were also widely recognised as critical to future readiness as these would ensure that invested training time, translated into meaningful jobs and/or entrepreneurial opportunities.
These insights were reinforced by new evidence with the launch of The State of Social Enterprise: Unlocking Inclusive Growth, Jobs and Development in Africa, during the Summit.
Produced by the Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum together with Africa Forward, the African Union Commission, the Motsepe Foundation, SAP and Genesis Analytics, the report estimates that social enterprises generate $96-billion in annual revenue and support 12-million jobs across the continent.
The study highlights the importance of the social and solidarity sector as a strategic economic lever with substantial global relevance.
Yogiavelli “Yogi” Nambiar, director of policy and ecosystem development at Africa Forward, stressed the need for long-term, coherent systems.
“Africa’s social economy is not emerging, it is already shaping markets, creating jobs and solving real challenges. The priority now is building ecosystems that match the ambition and creativity of our people, ensuring policy, capability and market access work in concert rather than in isolation.”
Sunil Geness, director of global government affairs and CSR Africa at SAP, highlighted the strategic importance of aligned, demand-led support. “I am thrilled with the level of participation of various stakeholders and the robust engagement undertaken during an exceptionally demanding period of South Africa’s G20 Presidency.
“At SAP, we believe that integrating social enterprises into supply chains strengthens competitiveness, innovation and community resilience. When combined with technology-enabled skills development and coordinated support, it creates a pathway for young people, particularly women, to participate more fully in Africa’s economy, thereby supporting inclusive growth.
“Our responsibility is to ensure that social entrepreneurs are adequately supported to keep pace with their potential.”
Across sectors, leaders aligned on the need to scale use cases and design skills programmes linked to verified demand.
In addition, it was unanimously agreed that expanding procurement pathways which intentionally include youth and women-led enterprises whilst adopting blended finance approaches suited to African contexts and long-term transformation, remain critical to the sustainability of the social and solidarity economy.
Africa’s competitive advantage is its people. With the world’s youngest population and rapidly expanding innovation ecosystems, the continent is transforming demographic momentum into economic power – not through incremental projects, but through catalytic, system-level action designed to multiply opportunity at scale.
Rather than waiting for global solutions, Africa is building its own, grounded in the ingenuity of its young people, the strength of its communities and the economic power of social enterprises. The opportunity now lies in ensuring that the systems surrounding this momentum are bold enough to unlock the continent’s full potential.