National Job Summit And the Unemployment Crisis?????

1
http://www.spyghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Haruna-IddrisuMinister-of-Employment-and-Labour-Relations-left-launching-the-national-job-summit-3.jpg
http://www.spyghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Haruna-IddrisuMinister-of-Employment-and-Labour-Relations-left-launching-the-national-job-summit-3.jpg
http://www.spyghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Haruna-IddrisuMinister-of-Employment-and-Labour-Relations-left-launching-the-national-job-summit-3.jpg
Haruna-IddrisuMinister-of-Employment-and-Labour-Relations-left-launching-the-national-job-summit-3.jpg

Is National Job Summit An End To Ghana?s Unemployment Crisis???????

Africa’s unemployment statistics exclude those in vulnerable employment and those who are underemployed in informal sectors reports the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy organization.

More than 70 per cent of the youth in the ‘Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda are either self-employed or contributing to family work,’ adds the report.

Developing countries, like Ghana, face major challenges regarding the quality of work available to her young people. In Ghana majority of the teeming youth between the ages of 19-35 are unemployed or underemployed.

Over the past forty years, the number of youth in the total population of Ghana has increased from 1.1 million in 1960 to 2.3 million in 1984 and to 3.5 million in 2000. The latter constitutes about 22.6 percent of the economically active population. Recent statistics will prove that there has been a marginal increase in the figures above and this is becoming scary by the day.

Again, statistics shows that about 300,000 young people enter the labour market every year. The formal sector is only able to engage less than 6000 (3%), leaving about 98 per cent to survive in the informal sector or out rightly, unemployed.

The saddest part of this situation is that many of these youth have had access to secondary and tertiary education, it is obvious that the expanded access to education has not correspondingly given rise to job opportunities and job creation in the country leaving these youths poor and frustrated by the day. Hence, the formation of all kinds of youth associations including the infamous the Ghana Graduate Unemployment Association.

The yawning gap between the country?s economic growth and number of decent jobs created within the same period lives much to be desire. According to the African Economic Outlook, on average, more than 70 per cent of Africa’s youth live on less than US$2 per day, the internationally defined poverty threshold.

Government after government always tells us that they have created thousands of jobs yet no one can pin-point or trace where these jobs are located and those working in such institutions. I remember somewhere in 2001the Kuffour led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government registered the ever growing unemployed youth of this country with a promise of giving them decent jobs but only God knows what happened after that hectic registration exercise.

Thought there has been some attempt by past and present governments to create some employment avenue for the youth of this country like the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) which was introduced in early 2006 by the NPP led government and later metamorphosis into the Ghana Youth Enterprienun Development Agency (GYEDA) in 2013, the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA)? ?had little or no solution to the country?s unemployment crisis.

It is undeniable fact that the economic and social cost of unemployment, long-term unemployment and widespread low quality jobs for the youth continue to rise day-in day-out. Skills mismatch on youth labour market has become a persistent and growing trend.

The few young people, who find work, do not find it in places that pay good wages, develop skills or provide a measure of job security. It is not surprising that first degree, and diploma holders, are seen doing all sorts of menial jobs from cleaning floors in hotels, sell recharge [mobile telephone calling] cards, sell dog chains, drive taxi and ?some even work in factories as labourers.

No doubt the nation is losing their valuable skills and forfeiting stronger productivity growth that would have been achieved had these young people been employed at the appropriate level of qualification.

SECURITY THREAT?

Research has shown that youth joblessness is one of the main issues that threaten security of most countries especially developing nations. Many young unemployed youth troop to the voting stations to press for a change of government. For example, the then Senegalese opposition politicians denounced the country’s high unemployment rate to mobilize youth against former President Abdoulaye Wade in the country’s 2012 presidential election.

In Ghana, today, the opposition parties are using the high youth unemployment, economic hardship and it attendance social vices to woo the youth to their advantage. We witness countless number of demonstrations in a space of two months.

The lesson of Senegal’s election violence as well as the events in North Africa [the Arab Spring] have shown, lack of employment opportunities can undermine social cohesion, political stability and civil unrest. A World Bank survey in 2011 showed that about 40 per cent of those who join rebel movements say they are motivated by lack of jobs.

UPCOMING NATIONAL JOB SUMMIT

Personally, I was happy when I heard the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, announced about a fourth night ago that, his outfit will hold a two day National Job Summit from 3rd to 4th September, 2014 at the Accra International Conference Center to address the country?s youth unemployment on the theme: ?Inclusive growth through the creation of Productive Employment and Decent Work for all Ghanaians.?

The importance of the summit cannot be under-estimated due to the ever increasing need for the country to create sustainable employment opportunities for the teeming youth couple with the emerging issues of globalization, advancement in technology and mobility of workforce.

The Minister reiterated that his ministry is determined to create more and expand existing job opportunities for job seeks to get decent jobs, hence their policies and initiatives being geared towards facilitating sustainable employment generation, which will in turn, facilitate economic growth.

We are told that the summit will focus on two core areas for creation of productive and remunerative employment. These include: Productive sectors (agriculture, industry, services, education/skills development training and governance and Direct Intervention.

These are areas when well analysed and properly structured by the right people (those with the technical knowhow coupled with practical experience) can solve half of the unemployment problem we face as people.

WHAT THE SUMMIT SEEK TO ACHIEVE

The first ever National Job Summit is intended to:

  • Serve as a platform for interaction among all stakeholders in the employment sector and also help in devising good strategies for job creation in the country to help achieve the ministry?s goal of reaching full employment by 2030.
  • Identify and engage relevant stakeholders, think-tanks and social partners on avenues for job creation in all sectors of the economy as well as sharing knowledge and best practices on job creation at the regional, national and international levels.
  • Focus attention on the problem of unemployment, under-employment, poverty and increasing inequality and its potential to undermine national security and stability.
  • Identify the challenges of translating higher growth rates into jobs and high levels of income.
  • Promote decent and green jobs through sustainable development
  • Bring together experts in various industries and also give opportunity to some key businesses to exhibit their sustainable business ideas in job creation.
  • Last but not the least agree on action plans and targeted sector projections with time line between now and 2030 based on the analysis and conclusions from technical papers commissioned for the summit and outcomes of the discussions.

NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICY

For decades the country has been without a National Employment Policy (NEP) to guard successive governments as to how to create and maintain existing job avenues, thus it come as a relief to many potential Ghanaian job seekers when it was announced by the Employment and Labour Relations Minister that a national employment policy will be launch during the job summit by H. E. J. D. Mahama.

We believe the NEP will give specific and strategic direction for job creation and also spells out the sectoral linkages for effective and efficient coordination of job opportunities for all Ghanaians. Again the propanders of this document should ensure that the NEP receives all the necessary legal backing to make it banding on both present and future governments.

We do not want a situation where tax payers? money is spent on projects and policies by one government only to be abounded half way by another government. We?ve seen it happening any time there is a change in government. It even happens in the ministries, departments and agencies when there is a change in leadership (ministers or directors) like what happened at the Ministry of Health concerning the sacked Chief Executive Officer of Kore-Bu saga.

CONCLUSION

I believe strongly that by now the handles of the affairs of the country have identified most of our problems especially in the area of job creation and will proved us with practical solution at the end of the two day National Job Summit.

I only hope and pray that this summit would not turn out to be like the many other summits and workshops which only end up being ?mere Talk shop?.

By. Franklin Asare-Donkoh, Freelance Journalist.

Email: [email protected]

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here