Africare and Africa’s Youth
Key sources:
Youth in Development USAID (2013)
Enhancing youth employability. What, how and why-ILO (2013)
Africa at work: Job Creation and Inclusive Growth-Mckinsey (2012)
Youth employment in sub-Saharan Africa-World Bank (2014)
The role of sports as a development tool-USAID
Sport as a development tool for peace-United Nations
Africare and Africa’s Youth
Background-the problem
Challenges and opportunities
Summary of relevant learning in the space
Africare history with youth
Mapping to key donor approaches and
learnings
• Africare approach discussion
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The Problem
•
Africa’s Youth Bulge – 40% of the population is under 15, 50% is under 25 and
70 % is under 30.
•
Although youth constitute about 37 percent of Africa’s labor force, they account
for about 60 percent of total unemployment in Africa.
If these youth can be fully employed in productive activities, they represent a
dividend to society. If they cannot find employment, this youth bulge becomes a
demographic bomb. -World Bank
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Challenges
• Macroeconomic conditions, political stability,
access to finance
• Lack of technical skills, soft skills
• Low investments in education (vocational
training and refocusing on tertiary
education)
• Demand for jobs exceeds supply
Opportunities
• The worlds goods and services cannot be
produced without working age labor
• Agriculture is projected to create 8 million
jobs by 2020, manufacturing-same but may
double, retail and hospitaility-9 million
• Construction, transport and communication
are the next tier
Summary of key learnings
Educational attainment shapes employment opportunities
Summary of key learnings
• Skills for the world of work are:
– Basic/foundation
– Vocational/technical
– Professional/Personal
– Core work skills
• Learning to learn
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem Solving
• Formal education/Secondary school is an important channel
for skills acquisition
• Alternative delivery modalities are needed for out of school
youth
• Sports and recreational activities are a skill development
platform
• Technology, ICT and social media are viable tactics for skills
development programs in youth
• Raising the productivity of small holder farmers is important
• Research in the agricultural sector indicates that “farmers
with primary schooling tend to have higher profits than
those without.”
Africare work with youth
• Few standalone youth empowerment projects. Usually
mixed in with larger health projects in health, Agriculture,
WASH etc.
• Two youth and sports projects in the past (Nigeria and
Burkina)
• Currently have 5 total standalone youth projects in Nigeria,
Tanzania and Senegal (2-sports,1-girl peer network, 1livelihoods and 1-agriculture)
• Mostly private sector funded
• Programs all aimed at skills building and/or improving
educational outcomes. Sweet spot?
USAID Youth Approach
USAID
Objective `1
and 2
Strengthen youth
programming,
participation and
partnership
Africare
?
Integration
Objective 1
How?
Support
Africare’s health, Agriculture and wash programming
supported by youth skills building programming
Objective 1
How?
Protect
Africare’s health, Agriculture and wash programming
supported by youth skills building programming
Objective 1
How?
Prepare
Africare’s youth skills building programming
supported by health, Agriculture and wash
interventions.
Objective 1
How?
Engage
Africare’s youth skills building programming
supported by health, Agriculture and wash
interventions.
Objective 2-Integration
• Africare should provide support and
protection services to youth in our
standalone youth skills building projects while
preparing and engaging them
• Africare’s support and protection programs
should have skills building components
What does all this mean?
• Skill building plays an important role in making
African youth more employable for large growth
sectors
• There is opportunity to augment weak in school
and out of school education systems (at all
levels) in Africa to prepare youth for future in
formal and informal sectors
• Africare has opportunity for integrated value
add programming across sectors
• How do we go beyond employment to
engagement and real productivity?
Building Youth Capacity
• Lenses through which to view the youth development policy
discussion:
i. Opportunity: By providing youth with basic skills and access
to secondary and tertiary education
ii.
Capability: Making youth capable of making informed
decisions which could be achieved through access to better
information.
iii. Second chance opportunities: Giving at-risk youth who have
dropped out of school an opportunity to acquire basic
knowledge and competencies of the labor market (UNESCO
2012)
Importance of Holistic Education that
Extends Beyond the Classroom
One of the major drivers of youth unemployment is a lack of
both technical skills as well as core skills.
A. Technical Skills = Coursework related
B. Core Skills = Teamwork, Communication, Problem-Solving,
Creativity
“…general education should be supplemented by additional
training to bring youth’s skills closer to those required by the
labor market.”
2013 World Development Report
Value of a Holistic Education
Technical
Skills
Youth
Employability
Core
Skills
Education Benefits Apply Across
Sectors
• Education benefits are not limited to just bluecollar jobs. Research in the agricultural sector
indicates that “farmers with primary schooling
tend to have higher profits than those
without.”
Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Education allows individuals to better adapt to
environments undergoing rapid technological
change.
Support for Africare’s Approach
Intervention Strategy
Organizations with that incorporate
these into their Youth Development
Programs
Teaching Life skills
USAID, International Youth
Foundation, AusAid, African
Development Bank,
Gender Balance
Utilizing Existing Structures
Sports as a Convener
Local NGOs
Academic Empowerment