Tizita Kebede
5 December 2008
Addis Abeba — The World Bank said on Thursday it will initiate a multi-sectoral approach in an effort to boost the creation of jobs for African youth.
In its African Development Indicator (ADI) 2008-09 Report launched yesterday, the World Bank said the new appraoch will help ease the increasing greater challenges the African "job-seeking youth" will likely face in securing employment on the continent.
Arguing for a multi-sectoral approach, the report, tit1ed "Youth and Employment in Africa-The Potential, the problem, the Promise"-suggests several key areas to begin tackling the employment issue, including expanding job and education alternatives in the rural areas; encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship; improving the access and quality of skills formation; and addressing demographic issues.
Citing examples of interventions designed to integrate young people in the labor market, the study reinforced the point that comprehensive and integrated approaches tend to do better than fragmented ones.
Given the challenges faced by the youth in labor markets, success in pursuing employment for young people will require long term, concerted actions, spanning a wide range of policies and programs, the Bank's Ethiopia office said in a media statement at launching of the report.
The statement noted that, due to an increase in youth population, as well as the still very high fertility rate that characterizes the region, African countries will likely face an increase in job creation pressure for the youth over the coming decades.
The definition of youth is a person between the ages of 15 to 24 years, the statement added.
Finding productive employment for the 200 million Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 is surely one of the continent's greatest challenges, according to the bank.
"The findings from this essay, especially with regards to the median African youth who is a poor female living in the rural area with little education and even less job opportunity has important implications for policy design," Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region. said in the report.
Following the official launch of the document, concerned stakeholders and the media carried out a South Africa-based videoconference session during which various concerns were raised and discussed up on with clarifications from World Bank representatives in the Africa region.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Daily Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
