The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) for Africa’s Regional Director Charles Dan acknowledges that “the world is facing a global youth unemployment crisis. The structural nature of the global jobs crisis is such that there is a call for more definite push for growth and job-oriented strategies”.
The regional director also notes that given the variety and diversity of interventions throughout the continent, “there is no-one-size fits all solutions to challenges African countries are currently facing in creating employment opportunities for their youthful population. The problems are complex as youth are non-homogeneous”.
A 2012 Youth Employment Interventions in Africa report compiled by ILO Regional Office for Africa reckons that Africa has a youthful population made up of enthusiastic and energetic young people who, “were sufficient supportive policies and programmes in place, could drive the social and economic prosperity of the continent”.
According to the report, decades-long efforts, the challenges of youth development – and hence, employment – are still rife in Africa. The reports also notes that across the world, young men and women face real increasing difficulties finding decent work. Youth aspirations for jobs, freedom, and social justice, their deep alienation from the system that led to the economic and social exclusion of a whole generation of young people, generating extreme inequalities of wealth and income, have triggered the surge in youth-led protests against economic injustice across the world.
The report found that “whilst there is evidence of progress in designing and implementing policies and programmes at various levels, a number of major weaknesses and deficiencies still persist. This is particularly evident with regard to the sub-regional distribution of interventions and the quasi-total absence of post-implementation and mid-term evaluation mechanisms”.
The report concluded that since African nations are not homogeneous, the policy response to youth unemployment should also depend on the particular characteristics of each country, with an integrated framework incorporating all other sectors of the economy.
“One of the many essential elements of policy to overcome the specific challenges of youth on the labour market is to invest more in good quality education, vocational-training, higher education, and initial work experience.
“Policies and national programmes that provide incentives to enterprises to hire young people, promote youth entrepreneurship, and facilitate access finance and to the other targeted active labour market measures, can also help countries improve upon decent work prospects for their youthful populations”, the report advises.
A number of interventions varying from small, local community interventions to continental and regional interventions that can make an impact upon the whole of Africa have been initiated.
In the past, implementation may or may not have been subject to evaluations and revisions in accordance with the outcomes of those evaluations, and based on the lessons learned.
The report further concluded that “skills development and the primary thematic areas for many of the interventions in the mapping. This generally increases young people’s relevance making them more ‘demand-driven’ and better able to cope with the demands of the labour market. This is because a skills mismatch has often been identified as one of the factors contributing to the high rate of youth unemployment in Africa”.
The report also advises that “future endeavours in the design and implementation of youth employment need to include the impact evaluation as the core component of their implementation activity”.
The mapping also revealed that strategies adopted by organizations for sustainability of their interventions is very weak. Implementing short-term programmes will not guarantee a sustainable decrease in labour market challenges to youth unemployment.
With a few exceptions, interventions do not have a clearly outlined exit strategy. International development organizations need to work on designing proper phasing-out strategies to ensure the continuity of benefits accruing from the interventions.
This can be achieved through engaging the government in programme implementation and ensuring that capacity and institution building components are in the forefront o0f youth employment to guarantee sustainability and lasting impact.
The report also describes how young people are employed predominantly in the agriculture sector and the informal economy – both of which are characterized by the prevalence of under-employment.
Reasons given for these high rates of youth unemployment are that young people tend to seek more employment opportunities in agriculture and the informal sector as there are no opportunities in the formal sector.
Slow rates of economic growth and the limited relevance of education and training systems have been identified in many African countries as key issues for explaining youth unemployment. As a result, policies and programmes target these areas when addressing the youth employment situation in the affected countries.
The report notes that Africa is the youngest continent with children and youth aged below 30 of the continent’s entire population according to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). By 2050, according to predictions, 29 percent of the total world youth population will reside in Africa.
“These young and energetic people of Africa, however, have the potential, ability, creativity, enthusiasm, and energy for achieving Africa’s renaissance, as articulated by the continental leadership. Investments in their education and transition to employment, health and social well-being are critical for the continent and Africa’s global repositioning agenda”, states the report.
The report further reckons that youth will also be the driving force behind economic prosperity in future decades, but only if “policies and programmes are in place to enhance their opportunities and encourage smaller families”.
According to the report, in the absence of proper infrastructure and public commitment, “thus huge potential could turn into a dreadful momentum as population continues to grow. Most importantly, providing basic services such as health and education, and decent jobs for young people, are pivotal for economic growth, regional peace, stability, and security. As the ranks of the unemployed youth swell, “the problem becomes increasingly dire”.
The development of the Plan of Action for the Decade of African Youth Development – dedicated to enhancing the ability of the African youth to pursue sustainable livelihoods and contribute to the progress of the African continent – is a critical activity.
It involves other related domains and targets related skills development and capacity building for sustainable livelihoods. It will lead to a long-term and clear programme of action involving the main clusters related to the African youth development agenda, non-formal education, and life-long learning.
“The current challenge is the absence of comprehensive, accessible, and aggregate information relating to youth development and hence, employment projects and programmes. This makes it very difficult for diverse stakeholders to shape the direction of their youth employment policy and programming”, states the report.
By presenting ongoing youth development efforts in general, and employment in particular, in an aggregated manner, it is easier to focus on the impact of youth effective public awareness, thereby drawing greater attention to African youth issues on the continental agenda.
Thus, mapping youth employment programmes lends numerous contributions to advancing youth employment across the continent. It also provides diverse stakeholders with adequate information on the status of youth employment projects and programmes.