Presentation @ African - Europe youth platform seminar on youth (un)employment: by Adikwu Michael

1. Seminar on ‘Decent work and Youth Unemployment’
at the first Africa-Europe Youth Platform Meeting in
Addis Ababa,
4 – 8 November 2012
A reflection presented by Adikwu Michael
Network of International Youth Organizations in Africa
(NIYOA)

2. The story of the
fisherman and the
professor in a
canoe

3. While there is no singular definition of
employability, a review of literatures
suggests that employability is about work
and the ability to be employed. It is the
capacity and capability of gaining and
maintaining productive work over the period
of one's working life.

4. To understand the impact of governance on youth
employment, I will like us to reflect on few questions:
Was the Arab Spring the result of youth unemployment
or the result of a governance structure that failed to give
enough attention to tackling youth unemployment?
Education: does our education system promote actual
learning over paper qualification? How has ICT been
incorporated into learning in our institutions?

5.  Politicalstructures: does the ostensible living of
our politicians encourage youths to be creative
and work with their hands or does it encourage
cheating to get a top political office?
 BilateralCooperation: Has Aids really worked? Is
it true that NGOs and Foreign donors buildings
(housing) occupy the more arable and productive
lands that could have been used for agriculture?

6.  Civil
Service: how regular is retraining and
promotion exercises in the civil service?
 Immigration:does our immigration laws favour
cheap labour but promote poor working conditions
for immigrants?

7.  National Youth Service schemes
 Strengthened partnership and increased Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI)
 Increased internship and volunteer works
 Virtual learning system (training courses such as the
global education online course)
 Increased attention and expansion in the informal
sector
 Increased Public – private partnership (PPP)
 Access to micro-finance and support for SMEs
 The universities on youth and development (Cape
Verde, Mollina, Uruguay, etc)

8.  Continue and improve on the above measures already
taken
 Promote social inclusion. Think and provide for the
minority groups and differently abled people
 De-emphasize the so much attention that is placed on
paper qualification rather than actual learning and
competence
 Provide decent part-time jobs
 Shift focus from Aids effectiveness to development
effectiveness

9.  Fight corruption. It’s a two way traffic; there are
givers and receivers (unfortunately some are in
form of foreign partnership)
 Reduce military spending and invest the funds
into development work
 Encourage agriculture and access to market for
agricultural produce
 Promote research work.
 Reduce the bottlenecks that prevent access to
funds for SMEs or youth empowerment actions

10. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION
ON THE ABOVE
SUGGESTIONS AND WHAT
DO YOU SUGGEST
SHOULD BE DONE TO
MAKE YOUNG PEOPLE
EMPLOYABLE?

11. THANK YOU