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Youth development policy is unveiled
2008-04-23 09:09:55
By Theo Mushi
A National Youth Development Policy has been unveiled. It is intended to provide direction to youths, partners and other stakeholders on youth development issues.
The global social, economic and political environment has influenced the youth status in Tanzania and also determined their welfare and well being.
Since youth development is a cross-cutting issue, various macro-sectoral policies have contributed to the existing status.
According to 2002 population and housing census, the population of Tanzania mainland was 35.58 million people. The total number of youths was around 11 million of the population.
Among them 5.5 million are boys and 6.2 million are girls or 52.83 per cent. Tanzania labour force has been growing steadily since early 1960s at an annual average of between 2.8 and 3.8 per cent.
According to 2001/1 Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS), the labour force was estimated to be 17.9 million people of whom about 65 per cent were young between aged of 13 and 35 years.
Survey results have shown that youths were more vulnerable to the unemployment problem.
The problem of unemployment is the highest among the youth population.
As a result of insufficient labour market services and differences in regional development, most vividly seen in rural-urban migrations, the unemployment problem has increased.
The migration of people from rural to urban areas increases the burden of urban public services delivery including social infrastructure.
The trend has resulted into imbalances in the allocation of labour and hence rapid growth of the urban informal sector and increasing incidences of hazardous employment for the youths.
It is revealed in the policy that the government is supporting private investment and that job creation strategy progress report says that in the year 2002, Tanzania Investment Centre approved 1,130, of which 311 were private sector investment projects in the manufacturing sector which had a potential of employing 33,152 people.
It is stated that employment creation is promoted through entrepreneurship skills training, empowerment of youth, education programs and environment sustainability programs.
The pattern of employment, under-employment and unemployment in Tanzania suggests that there is a need to have an integrated employment strategy by focusing on key areas of agriculture and urban employment, information, labour intensive works.
Other priority sectors for employment creation are small scale mining, resources and tourism infrastructure development as well as education and training and investment in services.
There is a need to conduct research to find out integration of traditional farming system and modern methods.
Fortunately, legal framework for mortgage lending has been set up recently and analysts hope it will be providing equipment to farming sector, up to this time being held as the cornerstone of the economy.
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