Jobs pillars that Africa must build to employ the youth

Speaking at the Youth Employment Forum (YEF) early this month in Abuja, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) director general Guy Rider noted that often in his discussions with ministers of labour, 9 out of 10 times they say that generating work for young people is a top priority and challenge.

For young people the priority is attaining a quality education and getting a chance for a decent job.

This would perhaps explain why among the ILO’s first international labour standards adopted after its founding in 1919, two of them were on protection of young workers (minimum wage and night work).

This has been followed by several global initiatives that seek to empower and support young people in the world of work. In 2012 at the backdrop of the impact of the global financial crisis, the ILO adopted its Call to action on Youth Employment, which is the framework against which the recent YEF in Abuja was held.

Since then, the UN, NGOs, CSOs and private sector have joined the efforts on youth employment. In 2016, the UN launched the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, set up to scale up action on youth employment under the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The UN Youth Strategy of 2018 is implemented through steps like the Generation Unlimited, of which Kenya is a part and President Uhuru Kenyatta a global champion, established as a global multi-sector partnership to meet the urgent need for expanded education, training and employment opportunities for young people, aged 10-24 years.

The global partnership is developing a powerful approach to bridge education and training to employment and entrepreneurship on a massive scale and has a strong country-based approach. Closer home, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has recently adopted the Jobs for Youth in Africa strategy that aims to support countries to scale up responses to youth unemployment and underemployment on the continent.

It is important to look at some key information that has led many, including the AfDB to address youth employment.

The youth in Africa constitute more than 37 percent of the total labour force yet make up to 60 percent of the total unemployed, according to the OECD.

This is against the backdrop of 70 percent of the African population being under 25 years, making the continent the planet’s youngest. The ILO estimates that up to 133 million young people accounting for 50 percent of youth population in Africa are uneducated with many lacking relevant skills while those that have exhibit skills that are at odds with demands of the labour market.

This has made many African countries to experience a phenomenon of “educated unemployed” resulting from mass higher education. More than seven million graduates are produced annually with many displaying low employment capacities when they enter the labour market.

With limited skills, little or no work experience and limited access to networks, most African youth engage in low quality jobs mostly in the informal sector which accounts for up to 81 percent of jobs created on the continent according to the World Bank.

Working poverty is higher among the youth compared to adult workers in most African countries with skills and labour market mismatch widening income inequalities and with the potential to fuel social tensions.

Young people find themselves at the centre of a vicious cycle of poverty, inadequate education and training as well as low productive jobs in the informal economy, leading to inter-generational poverty.

In this regard, the 2012 ILO Call to Action set out five areas that need focusing on as the dust settles on the International Youth Day celebrations and underpin many a global, regional and national efforts at creating decent work for youth.

First, the adoption of pro-employment macroeconomic policies that enable job creation. These policies should be inclusive, cross-referenced and actioned beyond the ministries of labour or youth affairs and include ministries of planning/treasury/ agriculture, manufacturing/industry, thus adopting a government-wide approach.

National development blueprints that are intentionally pro-employment have a higher chance of realising employment outcomes for the youth. This would include measurement of results that indicate opportunities created across sectors and strengthening of labour market institutions.

Investment in education and skills is the second policy area; and, nowhere are discussions on this more alive than Kenya. Efforts include education reform that is shaping up in the form of competence based curriculum (CBC) to the investment and reforms in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to provide relevant and market-driven skills.

Having industry participate in shaping training in a sustainable and institutionalised manner is key, coupled with access to lifelong learning that contributes to up-skilling but also ensuring people remain relevant in a changing future of work.

Active labour market policies is the third focus area, which, unfortunately remain weak in most of the African continent.

This includes employment service provision, wage subsidies, employment intensive investments that can ease transition of young people from education into employment and their integration into the labour market.

Public employment services need to adopt technologies that make them relevant for young jobseekers but also responsive to employer’s needs as this ultimately determines how effective they are. Providing much more than just job matching services to include tips on preparation of resumes, soft skills is the value add that employment services can have for the youth.

With the large infrastructure investments happening on the continent, tapping into the capacities and energies of young people to deliver and maintain community assets from roads, markets provides employment even though only temporal and also supports acquisition of new skills.

Engaging contractors on methodologies that result in substantial public employment so that they become a norm than exception mainstreams employment into delivery of infrastructure.

Youth entrepreneurship and self-employment, the fourth policy, action should be promoted for those that may have the talent and desire for it. As many have acknowledged, it should not be seen as a panacea for all as not every young person can be or wants to be an entrepreneur.

Access to business development services, including soft skills, mentorship, finance to start and grow enterprises and tools for remaining resilient in the face of shocks are ingredients for sustainable enterprises for young people that choose that path.

Crowning the call to action is upholding the rights of young people as workers. This will be achieved through continued social dialogue by government, workers and employers, ensuring that work created is decent and carried out in conditions of safety. Ultimately getting young people into decent work is a task for all segments of society and one that will continue to occupy us all.

Njukiis the chief technical adviser, Inclusive Jobs and Education, at the International Labour Organisation.