Youth Unemployment in Africa
Experts on youth and employment from Ghana, Kenya, Mali, and Colombia met on Saturday as the Spring Meetings got underway to discuss the growing problem of youth unemployment in Africa. The high-level panel, chaired by Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice president for the Africa Region, agreed that there are no easy solutions to the problem.
“Youth in urban areas are looking for jobs alongside thousands of others from the same schools, while rural youth are flooding into the cities looking for work,” said Sanoussi Toure, the Minister of Finance of Mali. “This is a tragedy. Our policies favor investment in education and training, but this investment has not led to job creation.”
Key points that came out of the meeting included:
- There are no easy solutions to the problem of youth unemployment.
- Youth employment has to be part of the growth strategy of every African country.
- Employment policies need to favor investment in education and training.
The panel also included Mauricio Cárdenas, former Colombian Minister of Transport and Economic Planning. Cárdenas talked about the outcomes of two youth programs Colombia put in place during his country's economic crisis in the late 1990s, when external shocks drove unemployment from 10 to 20 percent, and youth unemployment to 30 percent.
It is clear that youth unemployment in Africa needs to be addressed from many entry points, Ezekwesili said in her concluding remarks.
“The profile of unemployed youth has to enter the way we think, just as gender has. Youth need to be effectively targeted in everything we do, so that they will have a stake in the future,” Ezekwesili said.
Story: Youth Unemployment a Major Challenge for African Countries
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Comments
Participatory Development Approaches
Implementing policies is the best way to help solve this problem. Many a times are policy papers produced and not implemented. There should be a better way in which the governments bring in their citizens to the table in such salient discussions. The World Bank PRSPs were a great point in that direction.
Education is important
Investment in human capital in Africa is critical for supplying adequately skilled workers. The low level of education of young people is a significant factor in the longer unemployment spells they face. Unemployment fuels conflict and crime, both of which then in turn increase unemployment still further by their effects on economic performance.
Some Key points that were not
Some Key points that were not mentioned in this article. Youth unemployment in Africa also has a geographical dimension: it is generally higher in urban areas than in rural ones. However, the lower youth unemployment figures in rural areas are likely to mask a significant amount of underemployment in low productivity smallholding agriculture. In fact, countries with a large formal agricultural wage sector, such as Kenya and São Tomé and Principe, have high youth unemployment in rural areas.
Several factors account for the high youth unemployment rate in Africa, most notably low economic growth, which is manifested in low economic activity and low investment. Low economic activity entails low overall job creation. Given the sustained population growth rates, labour markets are not able to absorb all the newcomers, resulting in scarcity of jobs,which leads to more selection by education and experience; precisely the assets that young people are struggling to acquire.
Lower enrollment rates, coupled with low completion rates, low quality of education and a failure to orient curricula with the needs of the private sector have contributed to the mismatch of skills of youth labour markets in Africa. Limited formal work experience and a lack of general and job-related skills also put young Africans at the end of the hiring list.The situation further deteriorated in the 1990s when downsizing meant that the public sector ceased absorbing qualified labour. Consequently, a rapidly growing informal sector has become the “sponge” that provides job avenues to all categories of youth labour,including skilled workers.
The health status of young people affects their employment situation. Young people who are HIV-positive eventually become ill with HIV-related diseases, which can increase their absence from work, reduce their productivity and lower their chances of being employed.If left untreated, people are ultimately unable to work.
Unemployment has social as well as economic consequences for young people. Unemployed young people are forced to find alternatives to generate income, including activities in the survival-type informal sector and, in extreme cases, criminal activity. Urban youth unemployment is further exacerbated by rural-urban migration. Rural migrants believe that more jobs and social opportunities are available in urban areas, but once in the cities they find themselves without a job and with limited social networks.
Johnny B
African Social Worker
Owner, American Smoke Juice Company
Blog Grande! Avez-vous des
Blog Grande! Avez-vous des suggestions pour les écrivains en herbe? Je suis l'espoir de commencer mon propre site web dès mais je suis un peu perdu sur tout. Voulez-vous recommandons de commencer avec une plate-forme libre comme Wordpress ou aller pour une option payante?
Thanks!
I hope that this problem will be fixed as soon as possible. There are many people in Africa who are suffering of hunger. By giving job to the youth would also basically mean that hunger will be reduced and lots of youth and families will be given a chance to live a better tomorrow.
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