Government committed to empower the youth
Gemechu Tussa
The Ethiopian government has launched numerous packages in its Second Growth and Transformation Plan to benefit the youth in social and economic aspects. For instance, different capacity building training on job creation and entrepreneurship had been offered to more than 2.7 million youths in both urban and rural areas. Besides, in the urban areas of the country various workshops and retailing spots had given to more than 128 hundred thousand youths.
Training and workshops are one aspect of building the capacity of the youths. This has to be accompanied with opening job opportunities and creating market links. At the same time the number of youngsters who were supported by the government to engage in agricultural activities is remarkable. There are also other supports made to the youth including the current fund allowed to them.
However, these promising achievements are not enough to empower the 70 per cent young demographic base of the nation. That is why the government in collaboration with other concerned bodies need to address the challenges the youth has been facing.
The youth is a great asset to the country. The country’s future will depend on the youth. They have to be skilled enough to carry out their ideas, ambitions and dreams in to practice. The dreams of the youth matter and can transform Ethiopia, and may even change the world. However, a larger segment of members of this age group are unemployed.
In fact, studies indicate that the youth are highly vulnerable to a number of socio-economic problems ranging from unemployment to health complications. The government has looked into the inherent causes and concluded that youth unemployment proves the major one. The Ethiopian government has started to show its commitment to address the challenges of the youth. It understood that alleviating the problems of the youth would be a viable mechanism to sustain the double digit economic growth of the country.
The government has drafted youth development strategic plan, which has placed special focus on accountability in addition to the new engagement mechanisms of the youth in urban, rural and pastoral communities. Youth development strategic plan has an objective of modifying any youth misconceptions and increasing political participation, which guaranteed their economic benefits. It will enable the youth to integrate with every government plan and programme. Their active involvement for agricultural productivity and mega projects is vital.
It is a public knowledge that engaging in various activities to improve their livelihood. One major performance in this regard is the attention given to education. The Policies encourage the expansion of science and technology that brought a big difference in inspiring the young generation to involve in science, technology and innovation.
In the past twenty five years a remarkable number of youths have improved their livelihoods and created job opportunities for others. However, there are still a greater number of unemployed youths throughout the country. The expansion of schools and the job created have no equivalent mismatch.
Another basic area where the youth should participate could be agricultural sector. This has to be properly exploited by carefully involving the youth in the course of production. Involvement of the youth in the government decisions making process and equipping them with skills has a significant contribution for the overall economic progress of the nation.
Now it is a decisive period youths become potent task forces to contribute to the nation’s economy. As productive forces, if representatives of youths are taken aboard the task of policy making and their contributions are recognized, youths will be invaluable human assets.
In order to curb the deep-rooted, multifaceted and long-accumulated problems they are facing, youths have to be organized under vibrant associations and clubs as per the rights the constitution entitles them.
Exploiting this opportunity and getting organized some are trouble shooting their common problems and seeing to the realization of their aspirations. In the absence of a democratic order, as it is hard to actualize development, youth associations and clubs must imbue the youth with the development, peace and democratic policies and strategies of the nation.
There are also problems in well organizing youth associations, involving them to stand up for their rights in a peaceful manner. As focus was not placed on basic interest of the youth, youths were a bit suspicious on the capacity of the associations to solve their problems. In deepening democracy the role of youths and their associations have to be vibrant. They could help youths to ask for wants in a democratic and civilized manner and thereby draw attention.
The presence of trigger-happy youths that quickly join to dos without reflections is indication enough the associations’ lack of vibrancy. The task of outreaching youths and keeping them aloof from destruction is mandatory.
The government is working towards sensitizing the youth about wisely using the opportunity to properly using the fund to change their levels at home. It is providing awareness raising trainings for youth across the country in order to identify effective jobs for youth and resolve problems encountered during the process of engagement of the youth with new jobs.
The youth participating in the awareness raising trainings across the country are now discussing the issues that help to reach on consensus of the new national youth growth packages and strategies.
Since the youth are traveling to these countries illegally almost all of them face many unbearable sufferings starting from the risky and dangerous journey up to arriving to the destination. Due to their illegal status also they are not likely to enjoy humane treatment like human beings, they don’t get paid properly or even they are not allowed to live like human.
Similarly those who have not yet fallen victims of human traffickers are likely to be manipulated by anti-peace groups who always attempt to destabilize the country. Past experiences witnessed that some youth were misled by these groups to plunge in to violent actions against the government exchange for their false promises of better future.
But before entering to both dangerous acts the youth should understand the entire situation of their country and the world.
It is advisable to understand questions like “What does the world look like at present? What opportunities are available at home that could encourage the youth?” The youth should also realize the retarding attitudes that have been challenging the forward movement of the country.
The attitudinal changes in connection with job creation have been showing improvements from time to time. This responsibility of changing the attitudes of the youth towards job creation should be done continuously so as to avoid misunderstandings.
The youth have to understand what causes the problems and work in collaboration to the government so as to alleviate major obstacles retarding the beneficiaries of the youth from the socio-economic developments. The efforts made in the past twenty five years to alleviate poverty enhance democracy and ensure sustainable developments have benefited a remarkable number of youth.
Depending on young people’s interests and skills, youth influence on organizations can occur at various levels, ranging from involvement through consultation. Utilizing meaningful youth participation can contribute to structuring programs, policies and services that affect young people’s lives to adequately address their needs and interests.
The government is committed to empower the use economically. If the youth is meaningfully engaged, they would gain the desired skills and they would be enough empowered. Empowering the use both economically and knowledge wise could make a healthy connection with the society that the youth could be a positive role model.