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Assistance abounds; let it benefit youths
2007-05-02 09:42:46
By Editor
Job creation has always taken centre stage at local and international functions, and few will be wondering why.
The just-ended 11th Africa Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organisation, held in Addis Ababa, noted that one of the major challenges facing Africa was achieving sustained social and economic development able to create job opportunities decent enough to retain professionals.
The consensus among delegates was that only by appropriately addressing the challenge would the continent pull itself out of poverty and promote economic growth through private sector investments.
Interestingly, both employers and workers` representatives attending the meeting concurred that public sector investment had an invaluable role to play in boosting investment by the private sector.
As expected, the meeting cited factors commonly known to make Africa lag behind in terms of development - among them low levels of productivity and competitiveness, limited access to credit, finance, inputs and markets of industrial economies, and deficiencies in workers` education and skill levels.
Meanwhile, President Jakaya Kikwete on Monday asked the ILO to continue helping the government in transforming the needy, including youths, from people languishing in misery and squalor into decent and economically stable individuals.
Again interestingly, the UN agency`s Director for the Area Office based in Dar es Salaam underscored the need for the government, workers` organisations and employers not to appreciate the importance of jointly discussing the most effective modalities of enhancing workers` rights and implementing employment strategies and social security programmes.
It is also reported on authority that the implementation of a housing programme jointly agreed on by UN-Habitat and Azania Bancorp, a local bank, will give priority to youths and women in Tanzania.
Perhaps even more inspiring is news that the ILO and Tanzania`s Small Industries Development Organisation have launched a 160m/- training programme meant to support youths engaged in an array of occupations.
The Addis Ababa meeting was of the view that Africa has found job creation especially difficult partly because governments often fail to formulate workable business-friendly policies and because employers’ and workers` organisations are inherently weak.
But UN-Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka thinks differently. She said in Nairobi last week that Africans had shown ``such great political will to eradicate poverty irrespective of the social, economic and political problems some countries face`` that her agency`s supreme council had been influenced into treating the continent as a priority.
UN-Habitat says Tanzania is one of the few developing countries with workable plans to combat the problem of rapid urbanisation.
No surprise in this because among the country`s fully fledged government ministries are those for Labour, Employment and Youth Development; Education and Vocational Training; Community Development, Gender and Children; and Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development.
If these were to swing into action, make full use of assistance from the likes of the two UN agencies and enlist maximum participation from wananchi, programmes meant to make youths lead better lives would be much easier to implement. And this is what ought to be done.
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