Hopewell Radebe
5 December 2008
Johannesburg — THE World Bank has called on African countries to focus their job creation initiatives on reducing youth unemployment levels.
According to the African Development Indicators for 2008-09 released in Midrand yesterday, the youth employment challenge confronts all African countries, regardless of their stage of socioeconomic development, although this contributed to the nature and extent of the problem.
The report said three in five of the total number of unemployed people were young people and on average 72% of the youth lived on less than $2 a day. Furthermore, about 70% of this sector was concentrated in rural areas.
Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice-president for Africa, said finding productive employment for the 200-million Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 would surely be one of the continent's greatest challenges.
She said the average African youth was a poor woman living in a rural area with little education and even fewer job opportunities .
Apart from demographics and high reproduction rates, young women faced factors such as a lack of work experience, difficulty accessing education and training and a lack of organisation and representation . To ensure their needs were addressed, the report recommended governments set up appropriate policies and programmes that would help them overcome the barriers that prevented young women from entering the workforce.
The document also said young people were a valuable resource to their countries. It pointed out that helping them gain access to employment would go a long way in eradicating poverty and creating sustainable development projects .
The report said that in countries emerging from conflicts, helping young people to realise their full potential by gaining access to employment should "form a key component of any peace-building process".
In countries that have been spared violent conflict, it said youth employment should be a precondition for poverty eradication, sustainable development and lasting peace.
Young people make up 18% of the world's population , or 1,2-billion in absolute terms. Of these, 87% live in developing countries.
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