Priority for Youth as Engines of Development

Lakachew Atnafu

Youth are a very essential sections of every society. Having more youth as part of ones society is like being blessed with a very invaluable volume of fortune. Especially if the youth are given due attention to be healthy, active, educated and committed it means a lot for the rapid and sustainable development of a country.

No matter how a country is rich in natural resources like valuable minerals, industry the number and situation of its youth is going to affects its overall development, peace and stability. Ethiopia in this regard is also endowed with this priceless and highly decisive form of wealth, which is a considerable proportion of young population which roughly accounts for more than half of the total.  

The question at the moment is making sure that youth are given the right care like education, health, and other socio economic supports that can empower them as strong pillars of the nation’s social, economic, and political development.

The government of Ethiopia has carried out many commendable works in empowering the youth. The government’s efforts start from devising youth policy.

Given that effective works have been done in bringing all school aged children to school, the next step is to avail the necessary facilities for their higher education. Accordingly the government has been taking fruitful measures in increasing the intake capacity of Universities as well as opening new ones. For example currently 31 Universities are educating 100 thousands of youth throughout the country. Furthermore the government has started construction of 11 additional Universities in various parts of the country which is a vital step in widening higher educational opportunities for the rapidly growing number of youth.

Those who couldn’t make it to the higher educational institutions for whatever reasons, still have many options at their disposal. One of such opportunities is creating their own jobs either individually or through organizing in micro and small enterprises.

The job creation schemes include inductive short term trainings, access and support to saving and credit, provision of working places, showrooms and market linkages as well as follow up and support services. The Micro and Small Enterprises development offices as well as the trade and industry offices established with hierarchical structure up to woreda levels so as to provide close support and follow up services to the youth. Credit and saving agencies also operate up to woreda levels throughout the country to operate closely to the youth.

In spite of some drawbacks many youth throughout the country have succeeded not only in creating job for themselves or fellow compatriots, but have graduated to medium level industries setting good examples for the entire community.

Apart from addressing the economic needs of youth, the government is working strenuously towards nurturing the social, psychological and aesthetic needs of the youth. Typically, the youth centers established in almost all woredas across the nation can be mentioned in this regard.

The youth centers mainly accommodate facilities like library, internet café, conference room, gymnasium and other sport facilities. These facilities can be used by the local youth as means of income generation apart from being used for building up themselves in knowledge skills and entertainment. They also serve as ideal places where the future leaders, entrepreneurs, artists and high profile people are cultivated.

All these concerted efforts of the government have manifested their impact in the consecutive and rapid economic development of the country. It should not be forgotten that the youth are the integral components that contributed significantly for the development that the country achieved. This is because in addition to the various investment incentives of the government  and pull factors like infrastructure, many of the investments both from home and abroad consider the massive and affordable work force in the country.

Youth still continue to be the indispensable hope for the future development of the country in all sectors. They are the foremost considerations in any future plan of economic, political or social development. This brings to the attention of every one that they should be mainstreamed and given due attention in all the necessary development activities.

For this end just as youth are the determinants of every ones future the government and all stakeholders should note that, they have to live up to their commitments to address their needs and problems. 

The government has actually noticed that the rapid urbanization in the country has brought more youth to cities and consequently more youth today than in the past need the speedy and effective execution of its policies and packages. It is crystal clear that the burning needs and problems of the youth are not easy matters that should be vulnerable to the arbitrary treatments of bureaucratic and governance related shortcomings that aggravated the recent chaos that flared up in various parts of the country.

The government’s plan to promote efforts of creating job opportunities by allocating about 10 billion birr is a remarkable pledge to address the timely issues of the youth. If executed with utmost commitment, by replicating lessons learnt in the past and addressing the governance and bureaucratic bottlenecks the plan seems to contribute significantly in cultivating strong and capable young entrepreneurs, leaders and work force.

It should also be noted that the plan doesn’t only address the economic problems of the youth, but also prevents them from falling victims to the manipulative machinations of radical and destructive elements who strive to implement their own agenda at the cost of the life and future of the youth.

The youth have a right both to have access to economic support as well as protection from such selfish manipulators propaganda that plunge the well being of both the youth as well as the nation. By way of empowering the youth economically the government can achieve another fundamental issue which is eliminating the fertile ground for anti peace and anti development forces and lay a firm foundation for peace lovers and developmental forces. And more importantly it nurtures the future development engines of the country, the youth.