Unlocking West Africa’s Vision 2030: The role of young talent in shaping the future of resilience
This article explores Vision 2030 through the lens of the Western Africa Chapter, examining the challenges and opportunities presented by the region's young population for its growing resilience industry.
Africa's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2030 aim to reshape the continent’s future by implementing strategic measures to boost its growth and address challenges such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace, and justice. In the West African region, the young demographic of its population possess both a great challenge and a unique advantage for its future development.
A significant proportion of Western Africa’s population falls into the Generation X and millennial categories. This young demographic is set to shape the future workforce of the region, not least in the field of resilience which is increasingly threatened by risks including the rising occurrence of natural disasters due to climate change and increasing cyber security threats. Chapter Leader Tunde Dada said: “It is no underestimation to say that the security of organisations, and that of Western Africa, is in the hands of the younger cohort. Without their expertise in areas such as cyber and technology fields, the resilience industry will struggle to hold back adverse events.”
Boosting resilience: How Western Africa’s resilience community is approaching 2030
Tunde views the behaviour patterns of different generational groups as the region's greatest challenge for Vision 2030. He believes that Generation X and millennials possess stronger technological skills and exhibit greater collaboration, which is reflected in the rise of innovative business ventures across Western Africa. He said “The future of resilience and business continuity rests on attracting its youthful population to the industry. Vision 2030 presents us with the opportunity to ensure the right type of skillsets, such as cyber skills, that will guarantee the smooth running of the organizations are attracted as needed.”
Digitalisation resilience is in its early stages in Western Africa, and attracting the tech savvy youthful generation to the resilience industry is not plain sailing. Tunde believes that one of the biggest hurdles is limited resilience practitioner representation at board level. Many regional business continuity practitioners do not have a board seat to promote the benefits of a resilient organization. Instead, a CIO or CMO may represent business continuity interests on the board, and while these representatives advocate for resilience, their efforts lack the depth and focus that dedicated business continuity professionals could provide. As a result, funding for BC and resilience is often limited, hindering progress and keeping the profession out of the spotlight.
Tunde said: “Funding for resilience is often taken by the board as “extra spending” that can easily be struck off during budget cuts in the business. This means that resilience measures frequently do not see the light of the day due to board level restrictions”.
In effect, many young professionals are discouraged from entering the resilience industry due to a lack of career advancement. However, this focus on funding can be used to a resilience practitioner’s advantage. Tunde recommends two strategies whereby resilience practitioners can ensure their workstream attract interest and funding.
- Showing the “monetary impact” of any breach or downtime. Tunde said: “In West Africa, businesses pay more attention to monetary impact than to reputation damage. For any practitioner within the region this strategy has shown to be quite effective”.
- Another effective strategy Tunde suggests is focusing on regulatory requirements that concern the industry and highlight the financial implications of non-adherence to the business.
Securing the interest of the younger generation in Western Africa’s resilience is vital to ensure the region becomes more resilient by 2030. With organizations under increasing threats, attempts to attract the younger generation are essential. Tunde believes the current strategies are working and states that their continued use looks positive. He believes that Vision 2030’s aims in Western Africa can address its generational nuances, overcoming board-level challenges, and adopting innovative technology to ensure a resilient and prosperous future for organizations in the region.
References
UNODC Strategic Vision for Africa 2030
Population of Western Africa 1950-2024 & Future Projections
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About the author
Tunde Dada
Group Head IT/BCM
Tunde Dada (Mr) is a an experienced technology and business consultant with extensive experiences in Shipping and Logistics, Telecoms, Information Technology and Technology consulting. Tunde Dada has extensive experience spanning over 17 years in the development and deployment of Business Continuity Management (BCM) system for the enterprise and using it to provide strategic management direction to senior management. A business continuity professional with more than 17 years strategic and operational experience in Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity, Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery planning. As a management consultant he has extensive experience working with multinational enterprises across the world and has successfully helped upcoming proffessionals through his experience in staff development across various enterprise. As an experienced consultant, he has helped develop and coordinate all aspects of Business Continuity Management (BCM) including preparing the business BIA and putting structures in places to mitigate all risks in various enterprises spread across various industry segments.
