Fear of Monday Morning: A Structural Perspective of Youth Un/employment in Africa and How to be Future-ready
Fear of Monday Morning: A Structural Perspective of Youth Un/employment in Africa and How to be Future-ready
Katindi Sivi | 2020
Abstract
Africa’s bulging youth population and the unprecedented levels of unemployment have been of significant concern. The corresponding youth programs are designed to fix the problem quickly, sometimes temporarily without addressing the structural factors that got the continent to this situation in the first place. As a result, the numerous ad hoc interventions enable Sub-Saharan Africa to register low unemployment rates, which grossly mask the unacceptable levels of unpaid labor, underemployment, vulnerable employment, and precarious informal work. The fundamental argument in this book is that goals and strategies that commit to sustained, inclusive, productive employment, and decent work for SSA’s young people cannot be achieved without fixing the foundational concerns of youth unemployment because the end result will still be solutions that are predicated on a fundamentally broken system.
The book in the first section takes a historical analysis, including the various socio-economic patterns over time, to establish some of the forces driving the problem. The second section explores various responses to youth unemployment and their effectiveness. The third section unpacks what it would take to get unstuck and become future-ready. The first strategic idea is to bridge thelocalizedandglocalized‘aspirational gap’ among youth by inculcating human, social, physical, financial, and identity capitals among them. The other idea is to implore development actors to move away from tragic neoliberal to inclusive development models. These models advocate for: (i) increased infrastructural development, (ii) a widening of the economic base by diversifying the mix of sectoral choices that if considered would catapult youths occupational choices and in turn help with increased labor absorption, and increased wage employment, (iii) the institution of social welfare programs to protect the most vulnerable in society, and (iv) empower everyone to participate meaningfully in economic development through human capital development. This book is written for the consideration of all development actors that exert their policy preferences on Africa. It is a call to the actors to reconsider their model of operation for the true realization of young people’s welfare.