In 2024, 25.1 million Africans were living in other countries on the continent. Labour migration has long been a defining feature of Africa’s economic landscape.
Migrant workers on the continent are concentrated in certain sectors: agricultural and manufacturing together absorb roughly a fifth of migrant labour. Most migrants hold medium-skilled jobs alongside high and low skilled occupations.
This sectoral concentration matters for the global skill partnership debate.
Global skill partnerships are agreements that link skills creation and skills mobility in a mutually beneficial way. Workers in countries of origin are trained in the skills that origin and destination countries need and are helped to go and work there legally. Destination countries fill labour shortages, origin countries gain skills and investment, and migrants get access to safer, more predictable pathways.
Yet, in practice, most of the partnerships involving destination countries outside the continent and African countries remain limited in scope and poorly attuned to the realities of mobility on the continent.
