Harnessing the untapped youth divident
Each year in Zambia, 240, 000 young people enter
the job market and join the thousands already in search of employment. The
youth in Zambia have been waiting for a future that seems consistently
illusive. Despite Zambia recording over the past decade an economic growth rate
averaging 7% this growth has not resulted in improvements in the socio-economic
conditions of Zambians. The youth crisis is more real now than at any other
time in history and it can only get worse if we do not introduce radical
measures. Zambia is a youthful country, with approximately 74 percent of its 14
million total population under the age of 30 (28 percent are 15 to 29
years-old). Annual population growth rate estimates range from 2.4 to 3
percent, and projections indicate a population of 24.5 million by 2030
according to the 2013 Human Development Report
At a launch meeting for a youth sectoral analysis report last week, USAID Mission Director Dr Susan K. Brems, introduced a catch phrase, “youth dividend”. Youth dividend refers to the approach were youth are viewed as a source of innovation and dynamism and not as a growing problem that needs fixing. She acknowledges however that Zambia needs to double the pace of job creation for the youth and promote sustainable sectors like ICTs and agriculture as solutions to the growing problem of youth unemployment.
Government officials never forget to state that the youth are the future or tomorrow’s leaders without defining when that future will start.
In Zambia the culture of recycling political leadership continues with most of the current leadership elites having served through all the three republics from 1964. Despite the country having a highly youthful population with young people below the age of 15 accounting for up to 60 percent of the total population, the youth remain underrepresented in decision making processes and rarely consulted it the development of public policy.
As I write this article the national assembly convenes this very day with less than 2 percent representation of the youth in the national assembly.
The International Youth Foundation Youth Map Report on Zambia summarises the key problems facing Zambian youth as poor quality of education and educational opportunities, limited civic engagement opportunities, high HIV prevalence rates, teenage pregnancy, and early marriage.
Youths in Zambia generally feel excluded from the political process, as many political leaders are over 50 years old. Even those who are seen to “represent” young people are over 40— leaving leaders out of touch with youth issues and disinterested in authentically engaging youth.
Political parties need to engage youths in a genuine and sincere manner and not just use them as a horse to ride on to get into power and as tools for violence. The Zambian experience with political party youth wings hasn’t been a good one with most of them lacking their own programmes later on resources to push for wider youth participation on the political front, A recent survey established that over 50% of youth particularly women are not interested in politics and civic engagement because of the culture of our politics which is highly commercialised and full of slander.
The frustration among the youth has worsened under the leadership of the Patriotic Front and their feelings of marginalization have deepened. Young people were critical to the outcome of the 2011 general election and three years down the line their lot is not improving. Youths turned out in mass and most new first time voters and young voters in general were at the forefront of ushering in of the new government led by Patriotic Front Leader Michael Sata and analysts say the youth vote will be even more decisive in future elections.
The PF government must quickly translate its promises and strategies into actions that will actually begin to have a positive bearing on the lives of young people. The government has not been sitting completely idle, they have written some well worded documents that have suggestions of what they intend to do to carry forward the issue of youth empowerment. The Zambian Government has outlined key priorities in the National Youth Policy, which includes measures to reduce youth unemployment and improve the coordination of national youth programs. However, a lack of resources has severely constrained implementation of this policy.
The biggest problem according to government is that the education and training provided to Zambian youth does not match the needs of industry and reforms aimed at addressing this are now getting underway such as the review of the curriculum. A key outcome should be to make entrepreneurship a career option for young people and not something they pursue when they fail to get formal employment or as a hobby.
The government has announced its development of the National Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment and a National Industrialisation and Job Creation Strategy. In a bid to provide impetus to the implementation f the National Youth Policy, the government has produced another document called the National Youth Mainstreaming Strategy and has developed another strategy document aimed at creating 3,000 jobs for the rural youth in the remaining two years of the first term of the PF government.
The policy and legislative environment governing the management of youth development and empowerment programmes needs to improve if targeted programmes are to succeed. The National Youth Development Council Act needs to be repealed and replaced with a new progressive Act that will mirror the aspirations of the African Youth Charter A new law on youth development must take a human rights centred approach and provide compelling measures for both public and private sector development with incentives to industry for the employment of youths. The new Act must clearly exclude youth organisations that register under the NYDC Act from registration under the NGO Act. In its current form the NYDC is not providing any service to young people and is failing in its envisioned role of providing policy guidance to government on matters of youth development. The institution has only become a dumping ground for political cadres to collect allowances on the board and in some instances implementers of its projects thereby not focussing on its business of policy advice and nation youth programme coordination.
The role of civil society organisations in holding government accountable to the people and in providing checks and balances cannot be over emphasised. The growth and development of the NGO sector is also a job creation factor as so many young people are employed by NGOs and many receive vital skills and work experience through internship opportunities provided by local and international NGOs.
The PF government must begin to embrace a culture of coexistence with NGOs and put an end to the culture of antagonism that has characterised their relationship in recent times.
Our country’s biggest resource is its people and time to invest in youth is now!
At a launch meeting for a youth sectoral analysis report last week, USAID Mission Director Dr Susan K. Brems, introduced a catch phrase, “youth dividend”. Youth dividend refers to the approach were youth are viewed as a source of innovation and dynamism and not as a growing problem that needs fixing. She acknowledges however that Zambia needs to double the pace of job creation for the youth and promote sustainable sectors like ICTs and agriculture as solutions to the growing problem of youth unemployment.
Government officials never forget to state that the youth are the future or tomorrow’s leaders without defining when that future will start.
In Zambia the culture of recycling political leadership continues with most of the current leadership elites having served through all the three republics from 1964. Despite the country having a highly youthful population with young people below the age of 15 accounting for up to 60 percent of the total population, the youth remain underrepresented in decision making processes and rarely consulted it the development of public policy.
As I write this article the national assembly convenes this very day with less than 2 percent representation of the youth in the national assembly.
The International Youth Foundation Youth Map Report on Zambia summarises the key problems facing Zambian youth as poor quality of education and educational opportunities, limited civic engagement opportunities, high HIV prevalence rates, teenage pregnancy, and early marriage.
Youths in Zambia generally feel excluded from the political process, as many political leaders are over 50 years old. Even those who are seen to “represent” young people are over 40— leaving leaders out of touch with youth issues and disinterested in authentically engaging youth.
Political parties need to engage youths in a genuine and sincere manner and not just use them as a horse to ride on to get into power and as tools for violence. The Zambian experience with political party youth wings hasn’t been a good one with most of them lacking their own programmes later on resources to push for wider youth participation on the political front, A recent survey established that over 50% of youth particularly women are not interested in politics and civic engagement because of the culture of our politics which is highly commercialised and full of slander.
The frustration among the youth has worsened under the leadership of the Patriotic Front and their feelings of marginalization have deepened. Young people were critical to the outcome of the 2011 general election and three years down the line their lot is not improving. Youths turned out in mass and most new first time voters and young voters in general were at the forefront of ushering in of the new government led by Patriotic Front Leader Michael Sata and analysts say the youth vote will be even more decisive in future elections.
The PF government must quickly translate its promises and strategies into actions that will actually begin to have a positive bearing on the lives of young people. The government has not been sitting completely idle, they have written some well worded documents that have suggestions of what they intend to do to carry forward the issue of youth empowerment. The Zambian Government has outlined key priorities in the National Youth Policy, which includes measures to reduce youth unemployment and improve the coordination of national youth programs. However, a lack of resources has severely constrained implementation of this policy.
The biggest problem according to government is that the education and training provided to Zambian youth does not match the needs of industry and reforms aimed at addressing this are now getting underway such as the review of the curriculum. A key outcome should be to make entrepreneurship a career option for young people and not something they pursue when they fail to get formal employment or as a hobby.
The government has announced its development of the National Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment and a National Industrialisation and Job Creation Strategy. In a bid to provide impetus to the implementation f the National Youth Policy, the government has produced another document called the National Youth Mainstreaming Strategy and has developed another strategy document aimed at creating 3,000 jobs for the rural youth in the remaining two years of the first term of the PF government.
The policy and legislative environment governing the management of youth development and empowerment programmes needs to improve if targeted programmes are to succeed. The National Youth Development Council Act needs to be repealed and replaced with a new progressive Act that will mirror the aspirations of the African Youth Charter A new law on youth development must take a human rights centred approach and provide compelling measures for both public and private sector development with incentives to industry for the employment of youths. The new Act must clearly exclude youth organisations that register under the NYDC Act from registration under the NGO Act. In its current form the NYDC is not providing any service to young people and is failing in its envisioned role of providing policy guidance to government on matters of youth development. The institution has only become a dumping ground for political cadres to collect allowances on the board and in some instances implementers of its projects thereby not focussing on its business of policy advice and nation youth programme coordination.
The role of civil society organisations in holding government accountable to the people and in providing checks and balances cannot be over emphasised. The growth and development of the NGO sector is also a job creation factor as so many young people are employed by NGOs and many receive vital skills and work experience through internship opportunities provided by local and international NGOs.
The PF government must begin to embrace a culture of coexistence with NGOs and put an end to the culture of antagonism that has characterised their relationship in recent times.
Our country’s biggest resource is its people and time to invest in youth is now!
This is a well researched observation mr Chooma, I wish we had ears to hear as govt. The mistake we make is we have believed that youths are leaders of tomorrow when infact we are leaders of today,we put our youths in the pending tray and put old fosil recycled politicians like one of the provincial min in the urgent trays, big mistake. Some day we will wake up as youths and fight for what is right with this advocacy you put up , we will get there soon enough.
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ReplyDeleteIndeed we must continue to knock on their doors and perhaps one day they may see the need to change their ways
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