A section of the kayayei
The world’s youth population is at an all-time high, at 1.8 billion people aged 15 to 29, the Global Youth Development Index shows.
The report shows many countries are experiencing a ‘youth bulge’ with adolescents and young adults making up a third of the population.
Although this offers hope of a “demographic dividend” as young people contribute towards economic growth and well-being, the potential for ‘Generation Hope’ to contribute to a happy, healthy and prosperous future for all could be dashed by widespread joblessness, unequal access to health and education and lack of political influence.
Youth unemployment is a phenomenon that looms as threateningly in developed countries as in the developing world, with youth, at least, twice as likely as adults to be jobless.
Young women are also much less likely to enjoy access to education, health services, financial services and digital technology than young men, according to the report.
Thus the index, published a year after world leaders at the United Nations agreed to a set of 17 new global goals for sustainable development, is a “call to action” for governments to increase investment, empower and engage young people, as without the active support of youth leaders it may be impossible to deliver the sustainable development goals by their target date of 2030.
UN Youth Envoy
The United Nations Secretary-General, identifying working with and for young people as one of the organization’s top priorities, established the office of the Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth in January 17, 2013.
The Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth has since served as a global advocate for addressing the needs and rights of young people, as well as for bringing the United Nations closer to them.
The office also promotes the empowerment and foster the leadership of youth at the national, regional and global levels, including through exploring and encourages mechanisms for young people’s participation in the work of the United Nations and in political and economic processes with a special focus on the most marginalized and vulnerable youth.
Jayathma Wickramanayake, the current UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, who succeeded Ahmed Alhendawi, says the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development depends on empowering young people as rights holders, agents of change and torchbearers.
She indicates it is in line with this assertion that the United Nations (UN) has placed a high priority on advocacy, participation, partnership and harmonization of activities for the youth as a key indicator for the SDGs’ success.
Empowering Young Women
Young women form the most vulnerable group often left behind in development agenda due to circumstances they find themselves. It is, therefore, important to leverage support for vulnerable young girls and women, especially those in rural parts of developing countries.
Ghana not being an exception, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Ghana office and partners have been working to support innovative interventions to empower young women and girls.
The ‘kayayei’ (head porters) Youth Association located at the Agbogloshie market, one of the largest slums in Ghana, has created the platform for livelihood development for these girls.
Through the programme the facility runs, the girls do not only receive skills training in soap production, beads and handicrafts making, but also learn about their rights.
“Through this programme, we have increased our knowledge about our human rights, how to prevent sexual and gender-based violence and harmful traditional practices and the institutions we should contact when our rights are violated,” Jennifer Mumuni, one of the beneficiaries of the programme, said.
She says they have been empowered to be advocates against early and forced marriages and are now able to make informed decisions about sexual and reproductive health through the life planning skills session.
“Our enrollment has empowered us economically as well. Today, some ‘kayayei’ who acquired livelihood development skills are no longer carrying load. Some of us have been able to mobilize funds through the sale of our products to go back to school, including the university,” she states with joy.
The young girls, through their association, have also established a pre-school with the support of UNFPA and other partners.
The school which is free ensures their children are well catered for and receive an education while they are at work carrying load or marketing their products.
The UNFPA Country Representative, Niyi Ojuolape, says the UNFPA’s state of the World Population Report 2013, entitled ‘Motherhood In Childhood’ is what emboldens the organization to ensure that the children of the girl-mothers receive education.
He expresses the hope that the initiative will solidify the literacy foundation the children need to move on to the next level in their lives.
Mr Ojuolape believes that vulnerable groups, including adolescent girls, need special attention as Ghana stands to lose future leaders and innovators if any of the young people are left out due to current inequalities in national development.
What the Youth Wants
During her one day visit to Ghana as part of her maiden multi-nation visit in Africa, Ms Wickramanayake went to the Agbogbloshie market to interact with the ‘kayayei’.
Encouraged by the work of the UNFPA, Ms Wickramanayake says putting young people first is the sure way of securing the future of the country.
Stressing her slogan, ‘Put Young People First’, Ms Wickramanayake says the move will ensure the positive use of youthful energies for the realisation of the major set of objectives, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
She states that girls need to be greatly empowered and given the needed skills to be able to develop their full potentials and to contribute meaningfully to national development and global discourse.
She adds that her commitment to project these issues at the higher levels at the UN to ensure that strategies are adopted to resolve them has been heightened by her visit to Agbogbloshie.
The UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth also shared a platform with youth leaders on issues concerning health, education, governance and environment where the Ghanaian youth articulated what they wanted.
The youth representatives want government to consider the revision of the educational curriculum to orient the youth on “job creation, rather than job seeking”, reduce cost of business registration for starters, embrace home-grown solutions to problems and encourage the private sector to flourish.
Their call was also for government to align both vocational and technical training, so as to help close the current wide skills gap and opportunities in the job market.
Mr Emmanuel Asigri, Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority, admits that there is a myriad of challenges confronting young people, but said the government had made youth development a key national agenda, and was pursuing pragmatic measures to address these problems.
He says the recently unveiling of the online and digital marketing and entrepreneurship training programme, a 12-week course to be held in 10 regions, is one of the ways government is using to build a body of qualified human resource that will produce quality technology-driven products to meet the needs of the technology market through the use of the internet.
Way Forward
Ms Wickramanayake, expressing her thoughts on youth empowerment, says entrepreneurship is only one solution to Ghana’s youth unemployment problem.
She explains that a greater part of the responsibility lies on government to remedy the situation by creating the enabling environment for the private sector, including SMEs, to thrive in the country in order to help create jobs for the youth.
Ms Wickramanayake says, “I think the government also has a strong role to play if there’s no mechanism to create jobs.
“It is not about giving government jobs to young people but allowing the private sector to come into the country, allowing SMEs to grow so that there can be more opportunities at the local level, community level, at the villages, cities and to the young people in their own country.”
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri