Sixty-one years ago, The Gambia raised its flag as an independent nation. Today it stands at a demographic turning point: more than four in ten Gambians are between 15 and 35, and well over three-quarters are young enough that their labour, ideas, and ambition have yet to be fully absorbed into the economy. The task ahead is a hopeful one: to match that potential with opportunity.

The number most often used to describe this challenge, youth unemployment at 8.3 percent, understates it. It misses the young Gambian working far fewer hours than they need, the graduate underemployed in work below their skills, and those who have simply stopped looking. A fuller measure of youth labour underutilization, adding underemployment and discouraged workers to the jobless, is a more honest gauge of how much youthful energy currently goes to waste, and it is this fuller picture that should guide policy.

The Gambia 2025 Human Development Report offers an honest, constructive account of where the country stands. Education enrolment at the basic level is now near-universal, life expectancy has climbed from 56.9 to 62.9 years, and the 2025 Voluntary National Review notes real gains in health, gender equality, and decent work. These are the foundations for the next chapter.

That next chapter means turning access into achievement: walking young people through secondary school, technical and vocational training, and into meaningful work, while closing the gap between schooling and completion. Among 15-to-30-year-olds who ever attended school, only 26.4 percent complete their level, 29.8 percent of males against 23.1 percent of females, and secondary enrolment reached only about 50 percent in 2022, against a national target of 70 percent. Opportunity must reach every region, not only Greater Banjul, and every young Gambian, including young women in rural areas, where completion rates fall below one in ten.  Closing that gap is not a side issue to youth employment; it is central to it.

There is real economic momentum to build on. Tourism receipts nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023, proof of what the country's natural advantages can deliver with the right investment. Agriculture remains the backbone of employment, and sectors like agro-processing, ICT-enabled services, logistics, and biotechnology are the kind of "Industries Without Smokestacks" that can create durable jobs at scale, in line with the National Employment Policy's target of 150,000 new jobs. But the number of jobs will matter less than their quality. Roughly eight in ten employed Gambians work in the informal economy, and small enterprises make up the great majority of the country's businesses. The goal is to help them flourish and grow, and to offer the pay, security, and progression that turn a job into a livelihood.

Short-term, project-based job schemes have taught valuable lessons: lasting impact requires programmes built to outlive their funding. The school re-entry programme, which has supported an estimated 6,000 girls and young women back into education, and the reintegration of return migrants are second-chance models worth scaling further. Migration deserves the same clear-eyed treatment: for many young Gambians, leaving, whether regionally or along riskier routes, reflects not seeing a future at home. The answer is to build that future here, while recognising that Gambians abroad, through remittances, skills, and investment, are already one of the country's most valuable resources.

That future at home is also being reshaped by how work itself is changing, through automation, artificial intelligence, and the green transition. The Gambia can meet this moment if it prepares deliberately. That means treating digital literacy and digital skills as basic preparation for the next decade's jobs. It also means expanding the connectivity and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education that make those skills possible. Young Gambians are already showing their talent and adaptability, at home and abroad. The challenge is to ensure more of that talent finds room to flourish right here.

The path forward outlined in the 2025 Report is clear: invest in the sectors with the greatest promise—tourism, agriculture, ICT and logistics—while putting in place the enabling reforms that allow young people to benefit from that growth. This means improving education quality, expanding technical and vocational education and training (TVET); strengthening labour market information systems; nurturing those soft skills that equip young people with the ability to adapt to a rapidly changing job market; widening access to entrepreneurship finance; deepening private sector engagement, and reinforcing social protection. Together, these measures can bridge the gap between education and employment and turn the youth bulge from a perceived challenge into a national dividend.

As The Gambia strides past its Diamond Jubilee, the most fitting tribute to that legacy is an honest, hopeful commitment to the next sixty: a Gambia where every young person, in every region, has a genuine pathway from the classroom to a livelihood worthy of their ambition. The foundation has been laid. The generation is ready. Now is the moment.

Honorable Seedy K.M. Keita, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia
Ms. Mandisa Mashologu - Resident Representative, UNDP The Gambia