As an overwhelming majority of the Ethiopian population, the youth have deservedly been granted more attention these days by the government. Accordingly, there have been recognizable steps taken to organize the youth and make them small business owners. Despite these positive measures, a lot more young people are still left unemployed, hopeless and frustrated.
It has been a while since road side cafeteria accompanied by public toilets run by a group of youngsters began to crop up in Addis Ababa. The sky blue and white establishments have slowly become a noticeable feature of the city. As these places are run by youngsters, their customers tend to be local youth working in the vicinity. Introducing inventive ways to draw customers could help sustain and expand these facilities for the long term.
However, public toilets serve passersby and that domain is wide ranging. Considering the chronic problem of public toilets in Addis Ababa, the youth employment scheme also contributes a lot to the city. It is easy to see that the scheme also augments cleanliness and beautification efforts in the city as it helps reduce stinky corners. By doing so, it helps combat one of the health hazards in the city. The fact that residents can access this service better these days is also a big step up in the city’s suitability to live.
Another youth scheme we see flourish in the city is that of car washes. Organized youth groups establish these car washes that almost always have at least a car to wash. Even in places where the services are closely located, such as the Jomo 1 to Jomo 3 road, each of them has a burgeoning business. The rapidly inflating number of cars in the city might have helped with the availability of ample customers for all.
Yet another youth scheme is the provision of sheds. Small plots of space are distributed as part of a bigger market area under this scheme. The plots are then used for the sale of different commodities depending on the interest of the person who has been assigned the place. The presence of a wide range of commodities makes it easy for communities in the neighborhood to avoid journeys to distant markets.
Although the above stated schemes are the most noticeable of the activities that we see in our daily lives recently, cobble stone, wood and metal work also make up other forms of business ownership strategies used by the government. Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) also constitute a different scheme of employment for the youth. Reports indicate that last year alone, SMEs generated over 2 million jobs in Ethiopia.
In general, considerable strides have been taken towards alleviating the problems of youth unemployment in the country through various schemes. In the face of a large migration of rural youth to urban centers, the economy has managed to generate millions of jobs.
However, the youth make up 70% of the 100 million population size of the country. That translates to 70 million young people. The growth of this section of society is so crucial in realizing the development of the country. Some sources indicate that urban unemployment grows 4.4% annually. The surge in unemployment levels is a result of the large number of rural unemployed youth migrating to cities and the shifting demographic reality that leaves new youngsters seeking for employment.
As much as the efforts to raise the employment rate of the youth, due attention needs to be given to keeping the hopes of unemployed youngsters. Despite being unemployed, the youth need to believe that the system is going to generate the jobs needed and that it is a matter of time before that happens.
Currently, that seems to be a long way off the mark. This week, a group of youngsters in my neighborhood received calls from people who conducted house-to-house registration of unemployed educated youth in the locality and got invited to a nearby meeting hall. The youngsters told me that the people claimed to be employed by a NGO that sought to provide educated unemployed youth with employment. Therefore, they were very excited to have been called to the meeting. They talked about their expectations and the various things that could be said in the meeting.
On the day of the meeting, however, they found out that the people were from the Kebele (the lowest tier of local government). They actually learned quite a lot even before the meeting started as they mingled with others who received the call. They said that their hopes of getting a place to work from and a sizable loan sounded stupid when they set foot at the meeting hall despite the people explaining to them that that would be the case.
During the meeting, the youngsters went on to say, the kebele officials spoke at length about the need to keep peaceful conditions instead of explaining about how practical the scheme they are proposing is. The youngsters said that this prompted a harsh criticism from the attendees. They said that some of the attendees were registered from 10 months to 2 years ago and some of them received training in poultry, sand block production, cobble stone, hair dressing and other skill sets. However, they all claimed to have accessed none of the working lots and loans promised by the scheme.
Giving wrong information about the project and raising expectations just to push up the number of people registered kills the belief in the whole scheme from the onset. Raising expectations and suddenly crushing them also piles up the frustrations of the demographic groups and renders them hopeless. That pushes them towards violence and unrest in the long term. Although reminding the youth about the importance of peace is a timely issue, making it a major agenda in a meeting called to address the issue of unemployment gives the wrong impression to attendees.
With the long journey towards youth employment still ahead of us, it is important to show that the proposed schemes are working and participation is not a rare case. It is vital that the youth believe in what is being done and their hopes to change their lives are high. Therefore, the government needs to check how its programs are being communicated to the people.