International Year of Youth: SADC Youth Forum Addresses Rise in Youth Unemployment

August 12, 2010 – In December 2009, the United Nations (UN) declared this day forth (August 12th) the beginning of the ‘International Year of Youth’. According to the UN, this initiative is an effort to harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world’s youth in overcoming the challenges facing humankind, from enhancing peace to boosting economic development.

The theme for the year will be ‘Dialogue and Mutual Understanding’ as youth bodies encourage all sectors of society to work in partnership with youth and youth organizations to better understand their needs and concerns as well as to recognize the contributions that they can make to society.

The International Year of Youth also comes at a time when global youth unemployment rate is at an all time high. According to a new report recently published by the International Labour Organization (ILO), of the 620 million economically active youth between the ages of 15 and 24, 81 million were out of work at the end of 2009. There was a noticeable increase of over 2% from the 2007 figures of 11.9%, therefore making this the highest rate ever. With economies worldwide still recovering from the last 2 year economic slump, the ILO predicts there will be huge numbers of unemployed youths adding to this number.

In developed countries the ramifications of high numbers of youth unemployment means societies losing their investment in the education of young people, while governments receive fewer contributions to social security systems and must boost spending on remedial services, according to the ILO report. Closer to home in Africa where developing countries account for almost 90% of the world’s youths, the ramifications are much worse, with a serious threat of social disruption. Individually, figures of youth population may more than double by 2050 according to Carl Haub, senior demographer at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and co-author of the 2009 World Population Data Sheet published a year ago today.

Young people are the drivers of economic development […] Forgoing this potential is an economic waste and can undermine social stability stressed Mr. Juan Somavia, ILO’s Director General.

Far from being the drivers of economic development, with such high numbers of youth population, youths are undoubtedly the building blocks for most developing countries development process.

Read the full International Year of Youth Article HERE or view it below.

International Year of Youth: SADC Youth Forum Addresses Rise in Youth Unemployment

View more Presentations from Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA).

Africa Day 2010: Promoting Peace through Sport

Harare, May 25, 2010 – Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) today joins the rest of Africa and all its people across the globe in commemorating the coming together of nations, a race of people, who came out in defiance with a common goal, to take charge of their destiny not only as a united, but free people. The journey of a thousand miles commences with a single step one says, well for Africa and it’s populace that day began on May 25, 1963. It is a journey that we continue to walk today and has undoubtedly been fraught with both internal and external impediments.

It is perhaps in a distant past that Africa and its people ever found reason to celebrate and reignite that dormant sense of pride on two consecutive occasions. This year’s Africa Day theme, ‘Promoting Peace through Sport’, couldn’t perhaps be more meaningful. In just over two weeks, Africa hosts for the first time one of the biggest event in sports calendar, the FIFA World Cup. Many from across the globe will throng to recently built and re-developed stadia in some of the most remarkable cities of South Africa. For the continent it is a dream come true, after all most of the talent gracing the best leagues in Europe are from Africa. However for most of its people, this will merely shift from a dream at a continental level to a personal one, for most will get neither the opportunity to see their local sports idols at such a prestigious football stage in person, nor will they get the slightest glimpse of it except in print. To sum it up for many as one writer put it,

It’s a party in my back yard...I just can’t afford...

Download and read full CIYDA Africa Day article HERE

What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. Through current globalization trends and dispersion of Zimbabwean youths, CIYDA currently has a network connection of approximately 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.

South Africa is full of ideological hypocrites

August 14, 2009 - South Africa is full of ideological hypocrites.
The storm surrounding ANC Youth League President Julius Malema's criticism of President Jacob Zuma's appointment of "minorities" to strategic economic positions, personifies this kind of hypocrisy and dishonesty.

Malema commented last week that all the security cluster ministers in President Jacob Zuma's cabinet were black while the economics cluster ministers were appointed from minority groups. And all hell broke loose.

Ministers Nathi Mthethwa, Jeff Radebe and Siyabonga Cwele are in charge of police, justice and state security respectively while Pravin Gordhan, Rob Davies and Ebrahim Patel are the ministers of finance trade and industry and economic development.

Read full text of what Julius Malema’s article HERE.

CIYDA Says: South Africa has long been cited as a ticking time bomb on many issues embedded in one common aspect, that of ‘race’. Post Zimbabwe land redistribution exercise there were stories in various respected media highlighting South Africa’s need for land redistribution as the poor black majority seemed marginalised and not party to the utilisation of the vast natural resources in South Africa. On the issue of land redistribution ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe was quoted in the Daily News as having said, “Equating land redistribution to "food insecurity" amounts to blackmail, and the land question will become a time bomb if not addressed”.

Despite its undoubted peace, tranquillity and economic growth there however remains an issue of the positive role indigenous blacks can play in South African society and its economic development and shaping its overall destiny as argued by Mr Julius Malema.

It is important to note at this stage that Zimbabwe in the past had minorities in what were arguable key ministries at the time as well as today, amongst them Dr Timothy Stamps who was the Minister of Health & Child Welfare from 1986 to 2002, Ms Fay Chung who was the Minister of Education from 1988 to 1993 and David Coltart who today is the Minister of Education in the Unity Government lead by President Robert Mugabe. Although express circumstances leading to the appointment of the above mentioned individuals are not known by CIYDA, we would like to think their credentials and record of delivery in these respective departments spoke for themselves. Furthermore being that Zimbabwe is a multi-race country a representative government was appropriate, something we are inclined to point out to Mr Malema in response to his comments on South Africa.

However in support of Mr Malema’s words on the need to build confidence in the markets that Africans are also capable of handling strategic positions in the economic sector [to banish the idea amongst] black youths not believing that one day they could work in the strategic economic positions. CIYDA says yes we need to encourage an environment that gives young indigenous African youths both black and white a platform that gives them positive aspirations to work towards the development of their countries. However we also need to educate the young people from an early age that being African is not synonymous with being black only, there is more to being African. It’s only through misinformation that young people can only be swayed by Mr Malema’s comments and actually believe that to be African you have to be black and to be seen to be an effective member of society you have to be white.

Black or white young Africans we can play a positive role in the development of our respective countries and Africa as a whole given a positive environment conducive to that agenda.

Disclamer: - Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein from other websites, CIYDA cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions transferred from other websites and expressed herein are those of the author of the ORIGINAL article and do not necessarily represent the views of CIYDA, it's Executive Director and the CIYDA Team.

What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is an non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. CIYDA currently has a network connection of over 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.

Idle minds, social time bomb

August 4, 2009 - In her m&g.com article on idle youths in South Africa Primarashni Gower pointed out nearly three million of the 6,7-million young South Africans in the 18-to-24-year age group were unemployed or not receiving education and training in 2007 -- and they pose a threat of “serious social disruption”.

The research funded by the Ford Foundation and undertaken by the Cape-based Centre for Higher Education Transformation and the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Further Education and Training Institute found that the Reasons for young people not being in education or jobs include:

1.Lack of a diverse post-school public or private college sector;

2.Reduction in educational opportunities because of institutional mergers;

3.Failure of the sector education and training authorities to provide ?adequate learnerships;

4.Less labour market absorption because the government is not meeting the Asgisa target of 6% annual economic growth; and

5.The uncontrolled introduction of more than two million relatively well-educated foreign workers into the labour market.

Read full article HERE.

CIYDA Says: Being that South Africans are our neighbours it's easy to see how this problem would easily mirror what is happening or has been happening in Zimbabwe for a long time. In 2002 unemployment in Zimbabwe amongst those 18-24 year old stood at 25%. From the 5 reasons cited above, two are of great significant to the situation in Zimbabwe, these are number 3 and 5.

With regards to point number 3 the same is true for Zimbabwe. Internship and apprenticeship opportunities have not been forthcoming for young people of lately. Without these most have seen themselves being swallowed into informal trade that gives them no adequate key skills for future employment prospects or any form of reference point in their young lives. Yes it's true most companies have not been willing to take on interns or apprentices due to the harsh economic situation but that is an invalid excuse. Internships and apprenticeships don't have to be costly for companies as most of these young people will work just for expenses as long as they attain the key skills and experience. This is where the government can come in and work with these companies and give them tax breaks or subsidise the cost of hiring an intern or apprentice. This staves the youth idleness and guarantees a ready and fully equipped populace of youths to place into work when the opportunities arise.

It is fair to say point number five has become a problem to South Africans thanks mainly to the educated and hard working Zimbabwean youths crossing into South Africa to obtain employment. There is however both sides to this coin, on the one hand as the government has avoided social time bomb of the same magnitude as that predicted here through this outlet valve of youths puring into South Africa it's nothing to be proud of. We have a serious problem on our hands as this massive brain drain will be difficult to stem in the near future unless something drastic is done. Again by creating beneficial apprenticeships and internships this could be the first step in trying to plug this leak. However more can be done in trying to nature our own entrepreneurs through business start-up support thereby creating not only a source of income for both the individuals and the country but creating jobs. If investing in one youth's project will mean indirectly stopping 5 youths from leaving to seek opportunities in South Africa then that's a positive start. This can only become a reality if the government takes it's role in youth development beyond it's current state and seek to work with the private sector and other visionary organisations like CIYDA.

Disclamer: - Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein from other websites, CIYDA cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions transferred from other websites and expressed herein are those of the author of the ORIGINAL article and do not necessarily represent the views of CIYDA, it's Executive Director and the CIYDA Team.

What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is an non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. CIYDA currently has a network connection of over 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.

Mandela Day Inspires People to Aid the Needy

This is welcome news from South Africa as they continue to set a trend in initiatives that the rest of Africa as well as the world can emulate.

However it shouldn't take the birthday or the death of a prominent figure in society to jolt people into action in working for their communities. Amongst us there are always vulnerable members of society and those in need of our time either phsyically or just communicating our knowledge from a distance. As a continent, Africa needs to be proactive and working to develop our youths and use them as effective tools in such initiatives. After all it starts by influencing and changing behavious at grass roots level to get effective outcomes in the long run.

At CIYDA this is something we are working to implement, and thanks to new media and information technology one does not need to be physically present to make a difference.

Read full article on Mandela Day HERE.