Youth are an asset, not a liability

By The Standard and Newsday | Feb. 4, 2022 | 6 Min read

Link youth farmers with contractors in the farming sector and ensure a certain percentage of contracts are allocated to youth farmers

By Vince Musewe THE youth all over the world have been acknowledged as an important human resource with the potential to contribute significantly to national development and, therefore, must be accorded such recognition and be involved in national development by government and all other stakeholders.

Youth are an asset and not a liability. Perceiving young people as a resource allows us to focus on long-term solutions, identifying needs and developing policies in order to let young people realise their full potential as citizens and let society benefit the most from their intellectual capital which unfortunately lies idle and marginalised especially in Africa.

For the avoidance of doubt, youth is defined as a male or female person aged between 15 and 35 years, in line with African Youth Charter.

In Zimbabwe, about 60% of the population are youths. In order to harness their skills, energy, creativity, ambitions and aspirations, it is critical that a new policy framework is developed in partnership with the youths themselves.

Such a policy framework needs to consider how we can deliberately put in place an environment in all sectors of our economy which creates broad access to new opportunities and possibilities for our youths.

Any sustainable youth policy needs to focus on three pillars; economic empowerment of youth through education and skills development, employment creation and entrepreneurship development;

Education and skills development are the bedrock of a better future for our youths. Under this, it is important that we:

Promote informal and skills training and development at local level including basic life skills
Advocate for increased access to school infrastructure, especially in rural areas
Establish sector-based youth incubators and create broad access for youths
Provide scholarships and bursaries for youth to further their education
Establish youth exchange programmes
Undertake youth leadership training and development programmes in each province
Address issues that may be preventing youth from accessing basic education
Intensify internships in specific sectors as developmental tools for youth
Ensure that our education curriculum prepares youth for a future driven by digitalisation
Employment creation remains a major challenge given lack of long-term investment to increase the productive capacity of our economy and thereby offer youth decent jobs and incomes. It is, therefore, critical that we:
Facilitate the certification of skills gained outside the formal skills training sector
Establish national apprenticeship and internship programmes to prepare youth for employment
Develop a comprehensive and accessible database of labour market information.
Incentivise employers to engage more youths
Engage investors to fund youth projects or companies
Entrepreneurship development has become central to economic survival due to the informalisation of our economy. A majority of Zimbabweans now survive through self-employment and to empower our youths we must :
Promote entrepreneurial education and skills training at all levels of education.
Facilitate the transition of informal enterprises into the formal economy.
Promote the use of ICT for improved productivity, creativity and innovation in youth enterprises. Enhance financial literacy programmes targeting the youth.
Promote the participation of youth entrepreneurs in national and international business linkage programmes and industrial clusters.
Establish and support business and technological hub/incubators
Advocate for youth preferential procurement both in public and private sectors
Engage the private sector on initiatives and linkages to promote youth enterprise development
Facilitate youth access to land for enterprise development
Engage local leadership to support youth participation in local economic development

In my opinion, these should be the fundamental cornerstones of youth development initiatives which must be applied in all sectors of our economy, the key sectors being agriculture, mining, energy, ICT, tourism, industry, trade, infrastructure, arts and entertainment.

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I want to address issues around the participation of youth in agriculture.

Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector has long been vital to its economic stability and growth.

Not only does it form the basis of the direct and indirect livelihoods of almost 70% of the population, but overall economic growth, including that of all the other sectors, is also directly linked to the performance of this sector.

Agriculture must, therefore, remain a priority sector given its potential exponential impact on the rest of the economy.

Around 11 million hectares of arable land, is currently under the control of the government and this has to be distributed fairly and include youths.

The participation of youths in agriculture value chains is key to economic growth and can provide massive employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for them.

Key principles Productive economic opportunities in the agricultural sector need various components. These include;

Capacity development adapted to the youth’s levels of understanding
Facilitation and mentorship in adequately accessing land,
Access to credit and markets while also enhancing the opportunities for youth inclusion in policy and strategic debates in the agricultural sector.

key issues

For young people to be fully vested in society, they must be given the resources to be empowered for productivity
Youth must begin to see agriculture employment as attractive. Attracting youth to and retaining them in the agricultural sector remain a global challenge.
Agriculture mechanisation is key for success
Access to finance is a critical factor in developing self-employment opportunities
Access to markets can be a major constraint
Access to suitable and well developed land is critical

Key action required

Facilitate the access of youth to government loan/input facilities in agriculture
Establish “youth in agriculture” forums or clubs in each province focusing on crops that are grown in that province
Establish model farms/incubators where youth can receive training and exposure in partnership with the Agriculture ministry
Establish a youth agricultural finance mechanism which funds youth who have graduated from incubators
Create linkages for youth farmers with contractors in the farming sector
Identify unemployed agricultural graduates and create employment opportunities in the sector
Provide agriculture product/export markets information

How do we achieve the above?

Get organised:

Establish a youth national body with provincial chapters or clubs

These will be used for dissemination of information, training and development initiatives including accessing opportunities
Must be established and run by youths themselves
Facilitate the access of youth to government loan/input facilities in agriculture;
Partner with government and service providers to create access and mediate for youth to access command agriculture facilities, and
Monitor and assist in the effective implementation of youth projects under government credit or input facilities.
Model farms/incubators
Scope agricultural projects with a minimum size of five hectares per individual
The infrastructure will then be upgraded and the farms subdivided.
Farming equipment will be shared
Farms will be in every region so that we can spread development.
Youth must apply to participate and they will be allocated a five hectare unit.
50% of participating youth must be female.
Allocate an experienced mentor to each group.
Each youth must have a viable business proposition for thefive hectares.
Each unit will be allocated a minimum seed capital
Finance
Encourage agriculture financiers to allocate funds to youth
Ensure the youth Empowerment Bank prioritises agriculture as a key sector for youth participation

Contract farming Link youth farmers with contractors in the farming sector and ensure a certain percentage of contracts are allocated to youth farmers

Initiate specific contract growing projects targeting only youths

Unemployed agriculture graduates

Create a national and up-to-date youth agriculture skills base which can be accessed online
Establish youth agriculture graduate placement agency which links youths to opportunities in that sector

Provide agricultural products/export markets information

Create an accessible agricultural product/export market database to be accessed by youths in all provinces.

Establish a commodities exchange platform for youths

In my opinion, if each of our provinces does the above under the devolution initiative, we will begin to see youths who are included in national development and are provided with the necessary tools and support.