Today September 24, 2015, the world
marks transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs will be declared during United Nations
General Assemblies (UNGA) between 25th and 27th September
by presidents following a consultative people owned process.
Even with the revamping of MDGs into SDGs, the
conditions of young people in Africa, and Kenya in particular, have not been
improved as was envisioned. It is the expectation of young people that there is
a fundamental shift from just another ‘global political declaration’ to a new
transformative and ambitious development framework that will provide national
governments with a road map on measures to meaningfully improve young people’s
quality of life ( and lead to fulfillment of their rights).
In Kenya, the most pressing issue among
youth is unemployment. The Kenya constitution defines youth as persons between
the ages of 18 and 35. In country, youth constitute 35% of the population. The
youth population almost tripled from 4.94 million in 1979 to 13.67 in 2009. In
2009, Kenya’s population was projected to be 46.33 million in 2015 and 69.93
million by 2030. This implies that youth population is 35.35% this year and
will be 35.18% in 2030. According to 2009 Census the youth population expressed
as a percentage of adult was 66.6%.
Consequently, with these staggering
numbers, also described as “youth bulge”, the Kenyan youth are afflicted by
many challenges. Key among them is unemployment. The youth cohort is
experiencing much higher unemployment rates at 67% than the rest of the Kenyan
population at 34%. For young people of this country, there exists a small
formal sector alongside a large informal sector. As such majority of youth are
involved in the informal sector.
Every year, there are more young
entrants in the job market than actual jobs created. For instance, there are
200,000 youth without primary education; 300,000 primary school drop-outs;
250,000 KCPE certificate but fail to join secondary school; 180,000 secondary
school drop-outs; 250,000 KCSE certificates but fail to join tertiary
institutions; 45,000 tertiary institutions drop outs, and 155,000 graduates.
These figures imply that 1.2 million youth enter job market every year whereas
not more than 500,000 jobs are created annually. For instance, the target for
total job creation in 2009 was 425,000 but the actual jobs created were 467,300
of which 433,500 were in the informal sector, 33,700 were wage employees and
100 were self employed.
Previous studies
have revealed that youth unemployment is costly for any country. These studies have established a positive
relationship between employment rates and countries economic development. In
this regard, youth unemployment rate has negative impact to country’s GDP. For instance, a study in Turkey in 2012,
noted that when the economic activity is healthy and developing, youth
employment will be better. However, economic crises affect general employment
negatively.
On the same note, youth employment result into
increased aggregate demand as well as increase in capital formation. Further on
this, International Labour Organization argues that youth are likely to spend a
higher percentage of their income on goods and services, which boost the
countries’ aggregate demand. Again, youth who receive higher salaries make
savings and invest or deposit them in banks resulting in increased pool of
capital which can be used to finance SME and start small businesses thereby
boosting a counties economic development. It is also commonplace knowledge that
young people have a marginal propensity to consume more than adults. Therefore,
unemployment rate in young people negatively affects consumption and total
investment.
In another twist, youth employment
reduces social costs within the societies by decrease in violence, criminal
activities, drug addiction and prostitution. The “youth bulge” and attending challenges of
unemployment result in increase social evils and political violence (rioting,
civil war and terrorism) if left to accumulate over a period of time.
It is commendable that young
people and other stakeholders, both state and non-state actors, are doing many
things to improve youth conditions. The British High Commission Chevening
Scholars, Young African Leadership Initiative, Youth Enterprise Development
Fund, Office of the President, Young Achievers Association, Organization of
African Youth, Africa Youth Trust, Action 2015, Council of Governors and many
others actors are ameliorating the conditions of young people in Kenya.
However, while young people
laud both previous Grand Coalition and current Julibee administrations for
youth targeted preferential interventions, a lot more needs to be done to curb
accumulated youth unemployment backlog for the prosperity of this country.
Lastly, we hope that UNGA and
all governments represented have learnt crucial lessons from implementation of
MDGs and making amends for complete success of SDGs for the benefit of young
people worldwide.
Shem Sam is a researcher and an expert in youth and
governance: Email: shem.sam@gmail.com
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