Tap the potential of budding arbitrators

Arbitration has earned a reputation for being flexible, efficient, and responsive to commercial needs.

However, to remain relevant in a fast-changing world, it must do more than rely on tradition. The system should actively include and empower young professionals who bring fresh skills, innovative thinking, and the energy to lead in the digital age. However, despite their potential, young arbitrators face structural and cultural barriers to meaningful participation.

Many remain locked out of appointments due to party preferences for seasoned professionals.

Institutional inertia and closed professional networks also limit their visibility and deny them the opportunity to build a record of decisions. The prevailing perception that experience is synonymous with age reinforces this exclusion and perpetuates the dominance of a narrow demographic.

Without purposeful efforts to include young practitioners, arbitration risks becoming stagnant, elitist, and disconnected from the dynamic commercial realities it seeks to regulate.

The global youth population offers a massive opportunity. According to the United Nations, more than 1.2 billion people aged 15 to 24, are about 16 percent of the world's population. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 70 percent of the population is under 30, according to the African Union.

These figures highlight a critical imperative for arbitration and other dispute resolution mechanisms--that they must reflect the demographic reality by involving young professionals who can meet today's demands and shape tomorrow's systems.

The need to empower young arbitrators is even more compelling for Africa as a continent where arbitration is increasingly being localised to serve regional economic integration and infrastructure development.

The African Continental Free Trade Area and the Africanisation of arbitral institutions demand a corresponding growth in local, youthful arbitral expertise. Failure to invest in this demographic risks external dependency and the erosion of confidence in homegrown solutions.

Young people have already started showing strong aptitude in applying digital tools and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) at work.

The Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum confirms this trajectory, revealing that 86 percent of employers expect AI and information-processing technologies to transform their businesses by 2030. As arbitration adopts these tools, young arbitrators are well-placed to lead this transformation.

Their comfort with innovation allows them to navigate these new digital tools while upholding procedural integrity and fairness.

Recognising these, several arbitration institutions have taken commendable steps to promote the growth of young arbitrators. Institutions such as the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Young Members Group, Africa Arbitration Association, Young Members Group, International Chamber of Commerce Young Arbitration and ADR Forum, among others, have created spaces for youth networking, mentoring, and training. However, more must be done to translate capacity-building into actual appointments and authority within the field.

The arbitration community must actively create space for young professionals by mentoring emerging talent and embedding inclusive appointment policies into institutional frameworks. Doing so will not only democratise access to arbitral authority but also future-proof arbitration against irrelevance.

Wachilonga Namasaka is a Trainee advocate at the Kenya School of Law