DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Few “Positions Vacant” for the Young

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Sep 18 2006 (IPS) - A billion young people aged 15 to 24 unemployed, 85 percent of them in developing countries – with several hundred million more expected to enter the job market by the end of the decade: grim statistics indeed. However, a recent conference offered some ideas as to how they could be addressed.

Held under the theme ‘Creating Markets…Unleashing Entrepreneurship’, the latest Youth Employment Summit (YES Kenya 2006) was held Sep. 13-16 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi – and attended by about 2,000 delegates from around the world.

YES Kenya 2006 forms part of the YES campaign, an initiative launched in 2002 with former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak as co-chairs. The campaign spans a decade, and aims to give young people a role in spearheading job creation that also focuses on development needs.

While reducing unemployment through encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs is doubtless a welcome idea to some, others question how the youth can compete in the market when so many lack necessary skills.

In Kenya alone, government statistics indicate that 90 percent of unemployed young people lack skills. Some two million youths are unemployed, accounting for 61 percent of joblessness in this East African country.

Matters are worsened by the fact that certain polytechnics are still using an outdated syllabus dating back to 1974, and may also be staffed by untrained personnel.

“But now…government is going to hire trained instructors to impart market-driven skills,” Mohammed Abdi Kuti, the Minister of State for Youth Affairs, told IPS on the sidelines of the summit.

“These skills will be both entrepreneurial and technical, and will enable the youth to access government funds for capital, so that they can create employment not only for themselves but for others as well.”

In a budget announced in June, government took the historic step of setting aside 13 million dollars to fund youth entrepreneurship.

Ugandan Minister of State for Youth and Child Affairs Jimmy Kinobe cautioned, however, that government assistance for budding entrepreneurs must be accompanied by campaigns detailing its proper use.

“Awareness must have been created to prepare the youth to use it only for business, not for buying goodies. The money should be on a loan basis, not grants, with affordable interest rates,” he said in an interview with IPS.

Only a third of the 390,000 youths aged 15 to 29 who enter Uganda’s labour market every year find work, Kinobe added.

Uganda is also looking to micro-finance to help solve the problem of youth unemployment: the finance ministry is engaged in an initiative to provide small loans specifically to young people.

Others fear that graft may undermine the effectiveness of funds allocated to assist the youth.

“Given the widespread corruption in government, we need a system in place to monitor if truly the money is being used for the purpose it was intended for,” Alemu John Esinyen, a young Kenyan who has been unemployed for five years, told IPS at the summit.

“Most importantly, the public must demand accountability from the government as it disburses such funds. They must make sure the funds reach to the village level.”

In addition to making money available for youth entrepreneurship, says YES Kenya country coordinator Gatheca Kamau, potential markets that young people can take advantage of need to be identified.

He sees the renewable energy sector as an especially promising source of such markets. Another is the water and sanitation sector, which offers young people the opportunity of providing more people in developing countries with access to water. More than 2.5 million people in these states lack access to clean water and sanitation, according to the United Nations.

While efforts to provide the youth with jobs may face difficulties, the alternative seems far worse: a jobless population at risk of turning to crime.

According to Kuti, 60 percent of Kenya’s prison population is already made up of people between the ages of 16 and 24.