Malawi govt committed in creating decent employment for youth – Minister Kasaila

Government said it is committed to creating decent and sustainable jobs for youth of poor and marginalized communities as a way to the poverty alleviation efforts in the country.

Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development, Francis Kasaila made remarks Wednesday during discussion on employment promotion in Malawi breakfast meeting at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

He said the project is response to the global jobs crisis in supporting young men and women in jobs creation and enterprise development.

“The principles of decent work, sustainable livelihoods and community participation guide the project to assist local communities in selected districts of rural and urban areas, in collaboration with the government, employers’ and workers’ organisations, to create one thousand decent jobs in the countries,” the Minister pointed out.

Kasaila added that the project supports entrepreneurship development through vocational skills and business training, offers technical and financial support to local job creation schemes, and strengthens small enterprises and cooperatives.

United Nations Resident Coordinator, Maria Jose Torres said over the past decade, Malawi’s economic growth has been fairly robust with the exception of few crisis years due to financial shocks or adverse weather growth has consistently ranked above five percent.

“This growth has hardly translated into a reduction in poverty, with poverty rates remaining stubbornly high regardless of the chosen poverty metric in rural areas,” said Torres.

She said it is clear that systematic and concerted employment promotion is urgently needed, especially for more vulnerable labour market participants, such as women and the youth.

The government in partnership with United Nations Malawi and International Labour Organisation (ILO) with an aim to help communities and youth groups to come up with solutions to poverty alleviation with 50 percent of its target group being young women.

Finding pragmatic and action-oriented ways in which to operationalize and implement the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III and the NELP will be crucial steps in order to move from ‘good intentions’ to results and impact.

Government launched MGDS III and National Employment and Labour Policy. The latter articulates very clearly a range of policy areas and priorities for employment promotion.

Employment Specialist in Decent Work Team for Southern Eastern Africa, Bernd Mueller said the UN has the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework in general, which clearly articulates the imperative to “leave no one behind”.

“We includes eighth SDG on inclusive growth and decent work for all and fourth SDG on inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all,” he said.

In partnership with another ILO project, COOP Africa, YES-JUMP has developed a Youth Fund which works through a competitive call for proposals and provides increased access to financial services for young people along with business development services.

The project strategy is to create a broader partnership between local stakeholders to implement priority projects for youth at the community level with their skills.

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