Trade unions demand a voice in Africa’s industrial future

Presidential panel

The annual meetings also gave neighbouring heads of state a platform for bilateral talks. Presidents Denis Sassou N’Guesso, Faustin-Archange Toudera and Brice Oligui Nguema, of the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon respectively, used the occasion to advance discussions on economic co-operation, renewable energy and regional integration.

A delegation comprising representatives, from IndustriALL Global Union Sub-Saharan Africa, the International Trade Union Confederation Africa (ITUC-Africa) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Trade Union Competence Centre for Sub-Saharan Africa, called on the AfDB to embed the ILO decent work agenda items like job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue into every project the bank finances.

They also demanded stronger enforcement of the bank’s existing labour safeguards, which already oblige borrowers to comply with ILO core labour standards, protect workers’ rights, maintain occupational health and safety protections and extend those obligations to subcontracted workers. On paper, the framework exists. In practice, unions argue, it is implemented inconsistently.

The delegation also backed formal integration of economic, social and governance (ESG) criteria into lending decisions, a position that aligns with AfDB president Sidi Ould Tah’s own strategy, which includes harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend as one of his four cardinal priorities. With the continent adding roughly 20 million young people to its labour force every year, the unions argued that the decent work agenda is not a distraction from these ambitions but a precondition for them. Africa’s youth bulge needs decent jobs to be created. An industrialization drive that generates precarious employment or suppresses collective bargaining will not create decent work.

Economics of resilience

The AfDB’s chief economist and vice president, Kevin Urama, presented the 2026 African Economic Outlook at the conference. The headline finding that African economies projected to grow at 4.2 per cent in 2026 before rebounding to 4.4 per cent in 2027 told a story of resilience against considerable adversity. At the same time, the broader economic narrative cannot be separated from the African Development Bank’s commitment to supporting decent work principles in member states.

Yet the meetings’ theme, Mobilizing Africa’s development financing at scale in a fragmented world, reflects a sharper external reality: financial resources are tight, official development assistance has declined and supply chains are less predictable. Against this backdrop, the union delegation’s push to embed social standards into the bank’s project pipeline is important. Indeed, driving African Development Bank decent work policies is a vital ingredient of financial resilience.

Unions’ demands on labour standards

One of the unions’ critical engagements was a meeting with Kevin Urama, focused on developing a formal dialogue framework around evidence-based approaches to industrialization. This will provide a mechanism for giving organized labour a voice in how the bank thinks about growth, not just how it implements projects. The importance of African Development Bank decent work initiatives was a central point in these conversations.

The unions were alert to being brought in only at the end of the pipeline. This reflects why African Development Bank decent work must be prioritized earlier in project planning phases.

“We don’t want to be called in through the Independent Review Mechanism of the AfDB when things have gone wrong. We want to be at the table when decisions are being made,”

emphasized Joel Odigie, ITUC-Africa general secretary.

As emphasized, a partnership between African Development Bank and decent work advocates can only strengthen outcomes.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for July in Abidjan to work through a more substantive engagement framework. The focus will remain on how African Development Bank decent work values can be embedded in ongoing labor dialogues.

Discussions also turned to Mission 300, the joint AfDB and World Bank initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. Unions questioned whether ambition will be matched by meaningful changes in delivery and raised concerns on privatization and job creation for the youth. Crucially, Mission 300 was framed within the context of African Development Bank decent work goals for job and social outcomes.

A meeting with Francisca Tatchouop Belobe, the African Union commissioner for economic development, trade, tourism, industry and minerals, underscored the strategic importance of beneficiation of critical energy transition minerals and the need for trade unions to engage actively with the African Minerals Development Centre. The green economy’s mineral backbone which includes lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite is concentrated in Africa and processing those resources locally rather than exporting them raw is one of the most direct routes to creating the quality industrial jobs that young Africans need, argued unions. Equally, African Development Bank decent work priorities support resource beneficiation for local employment.

In parallel civil society meetings the union delegation argued that Just Transition, anchored in the ILO’s Just Transition Guidelines, carries specific obligations: skills retraining, social dialogue, community consultation and equitable distribution of gains from the green economy. For a continent where the median age is under 20, those retraining and skilling provisions are not a safety net for workers being displaced; they are the foundation for a generation entering work for the first time. African Development Bank decent work principles can help ensure this future is equitable and inclusive for all youth.

“The AfDB is Africa’s most powerful development finance catalyst. Decent work must be its compass. This is why we are asking for a formal labour forum,”

said Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary.

The AfDB was founded in 1964 with 81 member countries and has grown its capital from US$94 billion in 2014 to US$318 billion in 2024.