Africa is often recognized for its abundant natural resources; however, one of the most critical drivers for the continent's future development will be its human capital. By 2050, Africa's population is expected to reach approximately 2.5 billion, accounting for a quarter of the world's population, with an average age of 25[1]. Today, the importance of this youthful demographic is greater than ever before. 

A pivotal case in point is the need to foster and capitalize on the potential of youth, which is emphasized as one of the seven aspirations in "Agenda 2063." This necessity was recognized at the 30th Anniversary of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) and will be a focus at the TICAD Ministerial Meeting to be organized in August 2024.

In pursuit of nurturing youth innovators and embracing their entrepreneurial journeys, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently launched the University Innovation Pods (UniPod), as part of "timbuktoo,” a pan-African start-up ecosystem building initiative. Active in 13 African countries, UniPod fosters innovation and design thinking among university students and supports scalable entrepreneurship through a partner network. For example, Sally Mwayi Changaya and Sonia Kachale from Malawi, with the support of UniPod, developed the Flow Assist Intravenous (IV) drip monitor and controller to improve healthcare delivery in low-resource settings, transforming medical care.

In 2019, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Nagaoka University of Technology launched the "KOSEN Open Innovation" program. It engages technical college teams from across Japan and conducts field trials with African counterparts. The network between African and Japanese youth has emerged through this initiative, leading to projects like a waste management and livestock feed distribution machine created by Nagaoka College and a Kenyan start-up.

With attention to Multi-disciplinary Research, which seeks to solve problems from cross-disciplinary fields of knowledge, these initiatives have emerged to address commonly identified challenges which university and college students with innovative business ideas to solve social issues with Multi-disciplinary Research face, such as ones attributed to low investment in R&D. In fact, Africa's R&D investment is only a quarter of the global average, which limits access to advanced technologies, new processes, and innovative products for African entrepreneurs, thereby hindering their ability to compete globally and locally.

For example, due to a lack of R&D funding, many talented researchers and innovators leave Africa in search of better opportunities abroad with more resources. This "brain drain" hampers Africa's socio-economic development, leading to an annual loss of approximately US$2 billion and impacting research, innovation, and healthcare. Additionally, entrepreneurs face challenges due to insufficient funding and venture capital for high-risk projects.

Against this background, these initiatives play a genuine role in fostering an entrepreneurial mindset and bridging the technological gap among the young generation, including university and college students, in Africa and Japan. Leading to TICAD9 to be hosted in Yokohama in August 2025, the session examines impact and lessons learnt from these pioneering initiatives and identifies a way-forward through accelerated co-creation of innovative solutions between Africa and Japan, closing a gap between research, development, and product creation/proto-type development.