Equity Group Managing Director and CEO Dr James Mwangi has been picked to join the World Bank Group’s newly established High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs.

World Bank formed the council of global eminent persons to offer thought leadership and actionable, scalable policy and program recommendations for it to explore, test and scale.

World Bank, under its work on poverty, launched the High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs during the World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meeting in October 2024 in Washington, DC.

Dr Mwangi joins 13 other global leaders at the World Bank Group High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs, recognizing his dedication and contributions to society extending beyond the banking sector.

“Over the next decade the world is expected to experience significant demographic shift with one in four people on the planet being African, and more than a third of the world's young people residing in Africa. These global demographic shifts are the result of progress on the African continent including life expectancy, per capita income, health, education and improving nutritional levels,” said Dr Mwangi.

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He added: “An outcome of these developments has been rapid population growth. Effectively leveraging the demographic dividend in Africa could account for up to 15 per cent of GDP growth and a 17 per cent reduction in poverty by 2030.”

The Council will meet every two months for an initial period of up to two years and interact directly with World Bank Group senior management to ensure its ideas are acted upon.

“I'm honored to have been asked to serve on the World Bank Global Jobs Council, in order to support the creation of jobs for the young people of Africa; young people are our future and the key to sustainable development for the continent,” stated Dr Mwangi.

He added: “Equity's Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan seeks to create 50 million jobs in the region by 2030 and my intention is to utilize the learnings of the council to maximize this initiative.”

World Bank noted that creating jobs plays a key role in tackling poverty, growing prosperity, and boosting dignity but remains elusive in most countries specially for the youth and women.

The Bank has heightened its focus on job creation through the council as it is estimated that unmatched 1.2 billion people in the Global South will become working age adults over the next 10 years.

During that particular period, there will only be about 420 million jobs available for these same young people – leaving approximately 800 million without a clear path to prosperity.

The Council will focus on youth and female job opportunities in emerging and developing economies to help nations turn the challenge into an opportunity that powers the future.

“Because this issue is so fundamental to our collective future, the established High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs will be co-chaired by an international panel of experienced practitioners who have demonstrated job creation in their own countries,” said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga.

President of Singapore and Former Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and Former President of Chile and Head of Government for two terms Michelle Bachelet will co-chair the advisory council.

“The panel brings together the experience and knowledge of fourteen leading policymakers, business leaders, academics, and civil society pioneers,” added Banga.

“We would be immensely grateful to benefit from your deep expertise, experience and unique perspectives as a member of the Council,” indicated Therman, Michelle and Ajay in Dr Mwangi’s appointment letter.

Other members of the council include, UN Under Secretary General for Policy Guy Ryder; former Cote d'Ivoire Prime Minister Patrick Achi; Accor Group Chairman and CEO Sebastien Bazin; Standard Bank Group Chairman Nonkululeko Nyembezi; Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited Executive Vice President Preetha Reddy; OCP Group Chairman and CEO Mostafa Terrab; and University of Chicago Booth School of Business Distinguished Professor of Economics Marianne Bertrand.

Others are Pratham co-founder and President Madhav Chavan; Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, Professor of Economics Marcela Eslava; National Think Tank at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Chief Expert Fang Cai; Head of Yellowoods Group Nicola Galombik; University of Buenos Aires Institute of Economics researcher and professor Roxana Maurizio; Amazon projects angel investor Denis Minev; and the Henry j. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Yale University Economic Growth Center Director Rohini Pande.