Today, these foundations are being eroded by governance failures and policy choices that prioritise austerity, extraction, and elite accumulation over people-centred development.
Across the continent, insecurity has become normalised. Conflict, political violence, terrorism, and militarisation continue to displace communities and destroy livelihoods, shrinking democratic space and silencing workers’ voices.
At the same time, inequality has reached destabilising extremes. Vast concentrations of wealth coexist with deepening poverty, and this inequality is deeply gendered—women still dominate low-paid, informal, and precarious work, burdened by unpaid care, wage gaps, and unsafe workplaces.

Young people carry an especially heavy burden. Africa has the youngest population in the world, yet millions face unemployment, underemployment, and informalisation. Education no longer guarantees work, and work no longer guarantees dignity or security. This reflects a profound breaking of the social contract.

As opportunities vanish, frustration and despair take root. Many young people are turning to drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms, eroding productivity and quietly auctioning off their futures, while others become vulnerable to recruitment into violent extremism in search of belonging, income, and purpose denied by failing labour markets and weak social protection.

Austerity policies, debt-driven fiscal restraint, and chronic underinvestment have hollowed out public services and weakened social protection systems.
Migrant workers, informal workers, and those in precarious employment bear the sharpest consequences, while new forms of work continue to shift risk onto workers and weaken collective protections.
At the core of these crises lies a failure of governance and accountability. Illicit Financial Flows drain billions from African economies each year, while regressive tax systems shield extreme wealth and starve states of resources.
When governments cannot finance dignity, human rights exist only on paper.

Trade unions are therefore calling on governments to rethink austerity, end Illicit Financial Flows, and implement progressive taxation, including taxing High Net-Worth Individuals, to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation.
These resources must be used to finance universal social protection, quality public services, and decent work—particularly for young people.
In partnership with the African Union and the ILO, governments must also scale up youth empowerment initiatives such as the AU–ILO Youth Employment and Empowerment (YES) programme to create real pathways from education to decent work.
Crucially, governments must ensure that democracy delivers for the people.

Democratic systems cannot endure where citizens experience permanent insecurity, exclusion, and indignity.
Democracy must produce tangible social and economic benefits that restore dignity, rebuild trust, and empower people to meet their everyday essentials with security and self-respect.
Trade unions will continue to advance these demands through collective bargaining, mobilisation, education, and social dialogue—defending workers’ rights, strengthening democratic accountability, and rebuilding the social contract.
On this Human Rights Day, ITUC-Africa reaffirms that our everyday essentials are not privileges or charity—they are rights. Defending them is a responsibility workers cannot relinquish, and a task governments can no longer postpone.
Signed in Lomé, Togo, on 10 December 2025
Akhator Joel Odigie
General Secretary, ITUC-Africa