Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8441193.stm

By Jenny Cuffe , BBC World Service. Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Excerpts:

.....men like 20-year-old Abdi find themselves back on the street with no employment and no hope for the future. He describes himself as a trained soldier and says he would be open to an offer from al-Shabab.

"I'll go and fight for them because what I'm looking for is money," he says. Al-Shabab, an Islamist group accused of links to al-Qaeda, is offering $600 (£374) a month. ....In October last year, 300 young men were recruited to fight for al-Shabab's enemy - Somalia's UN-backed transitional government.

Read more and your comments are most welcomed:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8441193.stm

Employment is, indeed, a central topic in the world today and for tomorrow and your starting contribution was indeed excellent and triggered a very good debate. It is not my  specific area,  as you know, I am sociologist involved in futures studies since 1970 and also  now honorary member of the Club of Rome.

I wish just to mention one reflection I have not seen in any contribution: the mention of women's unemployment and the reasons for it being higher in all countries than that of men.  At the same time in the area of the European Union migration of women is filling the needs of the countries for jobs generated by the aging population. The structure of  the population and its long term affecting changes are crucial for the future of all countries (as has also been discussed in GEC) and strongly related to growing immigration, for example in all  Western European  countries.

It would be interesting to have this  looked at  specially  in the new topic on youth and unemployment in Africa which I think is  very future oriented. The relation of this phenomenon to the decrease of tourism in Africa, as has been said by a participant, is very interesting. In my  not recent experience in Africa, also the increase in educational level and hence the unwillingness of the younger educated generation to go back to their agricultural  environment or return to their countries when migrated to other counties  outside of Africa , has a great impact in  various ways  in African countries. The issue of women is  also very  serious in relation to employment in Africa, reasons  are : education of girls is less important than men's as they have to  help  their families and they are the ones usually also working in  the agricultural  areas. Are they any members of WAAS from Africa? 

Hello Participants

I am pleased to note that several visitors/Non-Fellows visited GEC-3 but I also noted that none have enrolled.

Please remember to enroll using the form at http://www.worldacademy.org/node/add/gec3africa so that you get a user account and notification by email whenever there is a new message.

The e-forum is moderated and so there is no fear of being overwhelmed with messages. 

If you have any questions on participation or any difficulties in using the WAAS e-forum platform, please use the "comment" form that is at the end of this message.

+++jf

Listen to the interview with Shantayanan Devarajan--the Chief Economist of the World Bank's Africa Region  

Dr. Shantayanan Devarajan says that the root causes of the crisis have nothing to do with Africa but with the “overall macro economics in developed countries". 

One impact of the crisis has been on African tourist industry where many countries are dependent on it. In some countries, earnings from tourism account for the highest proportion of total foreign exchange earnings. As tourist traffic to Africa falls, e.g. to Kenya and after the post-election violence in 2008, many businesses had hoped that 2009 would be better. This has not happened. 

Q: How has this affected youth and employment in African countries ?

Welcome to GEC-3 

GEC Session 3 will bring people together to

• Discuss the World Bank Report in the context of your own understanding on youth and employment in Africa
• Create greater awareness of the unemployment situation and its global impacts
• Call upon participants and employers to share your ideas and experiences on how to help tackle the employment problems
• Identify participants who will present/facilitate e-seminars in the future on special topics related to youth and employment

This forum topic welcomes your comments  on The World Bank's report “Youth and Employment in Africa - The Potential, The Problem, The Promise” 

quote:

".......Today’s world population counts an estimated 1.2 billion people at the ages of 15 to 24 years, an increase of 17% compared to 1995 or 18% of the world population. About 87% of these young people live in countries with developing economies. In Africa, 200 million people are in this age range, comprising more than 20% of the population (United Nations 2007). In 2005, 62% of Africa’s overall population fell below the age of 25. .....

Worldwide, and in Africa as well, the ratio of the youth-to-adult unemployment rate equals three (ILO 2006), which clearly points out the substantial difficulties of youth participation in the labor market. Yet, the youth employment elasticity to GDP growth is low and only a fifth of that observed for all workers (Kapsos 2005). As a consequence, youth made up 43.7% of the total unemployed people in the world despite accounting for only 25% of the working population. More than one third of the youth in the world is either seeking but unable to find work, has given up on the job search entirely, or is working but still living below the $2 a day poverty line. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 3 in 5 of the total unemployed are youth (ILO 2006) and on average 72% of the youth population live with less than $2 a day."......

Q: what is the situation in your country in Africa ?

Q: Are there national programs to help youths .... tell us more about it.

+++++jf