YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
IN AFRICA and IHAV
The challenge of youth unemployment has
become a long standing song the world is singing. Simply put, the number of
available jobs does not suffice the hands ready to work.
The challenge of unemployment is even
more widespread in Africa. The continent is said to have about 60% of its youth
ranging from 15 to 24 years as unemployed.
Despite robust economic growth of about
4.9% as predicted by the World Bank, they are yet to translate into job
creation.
Many interventions have been
implemented in various countries in an attempt to reducing youth unemployment.
Notable among these are the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and the
Local Enterprises and Skills Development Program (LESDEP); both interventions
put in place by the government of Ghana, a country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, one key sector that the
continent has failed to take full advantage of is agriculture. In a speech
delivered via video conferencing by Mr.Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s Chief
Economist for Africa, he is quoted to have said, “To reduce poverty and make
sure these growth numbers reflect in the livelihoods of the people, governments
need to invest more in agriculture.” He further said, “Much of the region’s
growth has been led by high commodity prices, resilient domestic demand, and
increase in foreign direct investments and not in agriculture and the informal
sector.”
This therefore goes without saying that
agriculture, which is reported by the World Bank to employ about 65 per cent of
Africa’s labour force and accounting for about 32 per cent of Gross Domestic
Product has been left unattended to.
A rigorous attempt at reducing youth
unemployment and creating wealth in the continent requires extensive
investments in agriculture.
WHAT iHAV SEEKS TO DO
iHAV Foundation is a registered
non-profit organisation that has been established to support youth development
through capacity building and employment generation.
This year (2013), iHAV will be
organising its first project conference from the 24th to 27th
of July under the theme: “The African Youth, Agriculture, and Entrepreneurship.”
We hope to assemble 100 carefully selected youth and speakers across the
continent to address the issue of youth unemployment, and how entrepreneurship
and agriculture will contribute to this menace. The conference will be held for
4 days and nights.
WHAT WE WILL DO DIFFERENTLY
Several of such conferences and
seminars are organised on a regular basis across the continent. Most of these
seminars have ended without any action to bring ideas into fruition. But what
we’ll do differently however is to implement three outstanding proposals
delivered by the participants. The selection process will be done by a jury of
judges who are well vested in the fields under consideration.We’ll also monitor
the implementation of these proposal to the letter.
iHAV is Africa’s hope of contributing
to employment and wealth creation. And it seeks to achieve these feats under
the visionary leadership of its Founder and CEO, Christabel Ofori; a Ghanaian
and chemical engineer by profession whose key interest is to helping the
under-privileged of society.
Article written for iHav by Jonathan Adzokpe
Picture source - www.google.com/unemployementinafrica/images
