Youth unemployment: Government, UN agencies, groping in the dark

Various government agencies and policy makers up to cabinet level have been scratching their heads on what to do to resolve the problem of youth unemployment especially for graduates, seemingly to no real solution.
One formula concerning the issue is the usual method applied for poverty alleviation strategies as a whole, of conducting surveys to establish the size of the problem, which basically empowers non-governmental organizations and ministerial agencies to an extent, in seeking resources or organizing specific activities or efforts tied to managing the unemployment problem. It seems this aspect of things is too riddled with weaknesses to inspire confidence.

Speaking about the issue in an interview lately, the Labour and Employment minister Gaudentia Kabaka affirmed that unemployment in the country stood at about 11.7 per cent, which tallied with statistics provided by the United Nations agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) via its country office.

It gives statistics for unemployment in other East African Community partner states as 40 per cent unemployment level for Kenya, 30 per cent for Rwanda, 35 per cent for Burundi and 4.6 per cent for Uganda.

These figures suggest that the various countries are managed or governed in quite different ways and perhaps have profoundly different socioeconomic structures, so that Uganda can virtually solve unemployment as a problem while Kenya has nearly half the working population unemployed, etc.

For one thing, UN agencies tend to be too close to official government agencies to be able to sort out what is poor and what is properly worked upon in the sort of data they get from such agencies.

Government agencies have a habit of requiring auxiliary payment for any sort of activity that is done outside office premises, and notoriously lacks follow-up and precision on follow-up concerning the provision of various goods of services, because of a culture of gaining from emergencies.

Once there is a great need for data or provision of some other services tied to that wasn’t done earlier or it was poorly executed, chances are that the government would unblock new funds or a UN agency like the ILO provide funds for doing the work all over again, and this way income projections of civil servants are improved.

It is therefore hard to say which of the various figures on unemployment in East Africa is “closer to the truth,” and usually when one seeks to make out a case for this or that impression, it is helpful to compare figures from different sources, but unemployment is hard to determine by that method because not many private agencies concern themselves with the issue.

That is why UN efforts as well as the mainstay of government agencies like the National Planning Commission which is gaining excessive influence of late, as if economic growth has again started to rely on government plans instead of private investment and foreign direct investment flows, will remain a half full glass sort of logic for the foreseeable future.

Wasting too much resources getting plans into place in unhelpful because bureaucrats simply use those exercises for income purposes, meanwhile as establishing statistics of unemployment helps little, if the idea is for the government to see and act.

The key issue is to accept already negotiated structures of the East African Common Market so that business is eased, investment flows rise, local credit circulation surge, and industry thus creating more jobs.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

Reaction on major Constitution views

In the past three weeks or so high profile leaders gave their views on the envisaged new constitution. But, the most prominent issues that they proposed include introduction of a Senate, reduction of powers of the president and appointment of ministers outside MPs.

Now, if these views are adopted in the new constitutions, will decision- making processes and governance be improved in the country?

I am afraid since am not a constitutional expert my comments on opinion made by experienced people such our honourable Speaker might not carry the prerequisite weight.

But I believe those recommending the creation of an upper chamber (Senate) is based on either formal or informal situation analysis of the performance of the current parliament system.

The main concern is its failure to properly articulate issues of national interest without being interfered by partisan politics and in most cases MPs getting preoccupied in impressing their constituents sometimes at the expense of national interest.

I guess the qualifications and methods of picking members of the Senate will have to be different from that used for picking members to the lower chamber, otherwise the Senate is likely to fall into the same trap of narrow and partisan interests.

As to whether the creation of a Senate will lead to improved quality of governance in the country will depend very much on the method of picking representatives.

But let me comment on how we could improve the way our current MPs are picked. I see the current system where any Tanzanian can vie for leadership to represent a constituency irrespective of whether that person has ever lived or participated in leadership at local level (village, ward or district) is quite flawed.

In my view one of the main pre-qualifications should be historical interaction in the respective constituency as a civic leader, political leader, technical expert, etc such that person should have demonstrated practical experience and first hand knowledge of the developmental challenges in the area.

Those sceptical about this approach is that there are very constituents with residents well educated and with nationalistic views such that we risk getting a parliament with semi illiterate people or even if you put the minimum education as a first degree you might have some constituencies without qualifying candidates!

As a planner its my wish that the constitution spells out some basic tenets regarding national vision on social and economic development and articulates some basic social and economic safeguards with respect to economic management, protection and sharing of common heritage resources such as natural resources for the current and future generation of Tanzanians; and of course ensuring growth with equity and protection of special interest groups such as pastoralists, with respect to access to means of production and returns to their labour.

Issues identified as key to attaining national development vision and social cohesion should not be subject to political manipulation and changes by politicians as they are supposed to hold the nation together.

I am being too radical or unrealistic?

Dr Bohela is Executive Director with ESRF

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

Mtwara natural gas saga not a curse, it`s an African awakening!

The emerging problem in Mtwara should not be confused with the African natural resource curse, but rather be seen as a new pattern of African awakening in which citizens are rising up to demand what belongs to them in an effort to get out of poverty.

The government of the day must not turn a deaf ear or politicize the issue in Mtwara. It must re-examine itself carefully, and respect the people’s will to save itself.

The culture of secrecy in which contract details are negotiated and signed in the darkness by rogue public officials has particularly imposed a heavy economic burden upon the people of Tanzania, which has led us to this point.

The Mtwara saga is certainly a product of phony contracts, which has presented the government of Tanzania with a golden opportunity to review its investment and economic policies that seem to be repressive and deceptive, not progressive to its people.

What is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo or even in Niger Delta is quite different to what is happening Tanzania. DRC and Niger Delta have militants, factions and separatists in all out war, fighting their governments.

Mtwara residents are on the contrary, waging a different type of war, a peaceful war that can never be defeated by the mightiest army on the face of the planet. And in the wake of rather stunning revelation of inflated cost of the pipeline ($1.2Billion) from the actual price of $600million, their strength has grown and there is nothing the government can do but back down and address the mistakes made.

Sand oil discovery in Canada brought economic boom to Alberta residents and the Canadian economy as a whole. High school graduates working in the oil industry are earning in excess of $120 an hour which is considered average pay.

Albertans are enjoying their natural wealth. Oil companies are investing -giving back- heavily on Alberta’s social programs and causes. On the contrary, Tanzanian residents in Nyamongo, one of the gold rich regions in Africa are much poorer than they were before the gold mining companies camped on their land. Water sources are polluted, animals are dying and the residents are silently suffering hitherto unknown ailments.

Ministers Mwakyembe, Kagasheki, Magufuli or Muhongo are invariably known to be top performers in the current government. Notwithstanding, as long as these leaders are surrounded by indisciplined civil servants and crooked politicians, architecting the diversion of important national economic projects for their selfish gains, these top performers will remain hostages of the goons, that seem to be in the government’s radar.

Citizens of the internet age who communicate through text messaging and social networks have been awakened from their sleep and are literally unstoppable.

They are no longer interested in political propaganda and the so called Chinese aid shrouded with corruption. They know what they need and when they need it. Mtwara is a contagious polity awakening the government must reckon with.

mashaka.john@yahoo.com

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

Rethinking Nyerere: How Harris-Todaro model falsifies `Education for Self Reliance

Recent reflections by President Jakaya Kikwete when announcing results of the national census conducted in third quarter of last year had plenty of reminders of Mwalimu Nyerere's fears in writing his seminal essay, Education for Self Reliance early in 1967. The president was vividly disappointed with the current size of the population, in like manner as Mwalimu was abysmally worried by rising number of ex-school youths, at that time even those finishing Standard VII (just when the old Standard VIII was being phased out, with plenty of consequences for education quality subsequently) were looking for jobs. Mwalimu came up with Education for Self Reliance as a philosophy to redirect attention of youth as to using education.

What united Mwalimu with JK in his recent reflections is that their respective positions start from rising numbers of youths seeking for jobs, with Mwalimu being essentially a problem of school leavers seeking white collar jobs which he felt the national economy could not possibly deliver, at least not to expectations. In the case of JK it is more or less the same thing but writ large, that large population numbers put pressure on national resources, which is chiefly a matter of feeding the population but also job opportunities. The difference is that the problem for policy makers is no longer ex-Standard VIII finishers but graduate unemployment.

 

While in the case of rising demand for white collar jobs Mwalimu sought a genuine solution in changing attitudes of those going through primary and middle school (at that time), to direct their imagination to village life, no such solutions can even be imagined with regard to rising population. At most this sadness on the part of the president would ignite heightened activities of all sorts of birth control leaflets and vending antiquated medicine for women to stop pregnancies, touching off all sorts of harmful effects including incurable cancers and other tissue breakdowns. Ordinarily it is pro-choice (abortion, contraceptive) propaganda which gets plenty of airtime and space in newspapers, the 'mefaits,' drawbacks, are silently skipped.

 

The problem is how far we are with Mwalimu's 1967 worries and the solution he brought up, and examining the 45 year record since then, how far the worries raised by President Kikwete in much the same vein are founded, and what practical needs or methods exist to resolve the problem, if it can be verified to exist. For one thing, there isn't much difference between worrying about school leavers and prospects for employment, and worrying about population levels, food security and social services. The two can be called 'birds of a feather,' and hence they have the same logic (of a section of the population whose hopes are diminishing, vs population as a whole, whose hopes may according to JK diminish if care is not taken), which also means that what we know of ESR since 1967 applies to population at present.

 

The president regularly warns local people not to sell land to investors, and meanwhile Premier Mizengo Pinda champions Kilimo Kwanza, whose 'pearl' in the strategy is welcoming agribusiness especially in biofuels, which is equally a misnomer.  But more importantly as to his latest reflections, if indeed there is a problem of a rising population, the solution is not US destructive and cancer causing contraceptive pills and ballooning young women's deaths due to abortions but open market economy. 

 

When most land has been bought by local and foreign investors and agriculture is modernised while handicraft takes that place of hand hoe as the main occupation, as many more goods will be needed, population trends will start coming down. The Harris-Todaro model works on the basis of a proper market economy, while Malthusian sentiments and US abortionists constantly seek to 'plan' the population, and they harvest only death; only industrial growth and universalisation of women employment radically influences population growth.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Kenya arrests Tanzanian student with 5.4kg of heroine

Kenyan authorities are interrogating a Tanzanian lady student after intercepting 5.44 kilograms of heroine at the country's main airport.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said on Friday the 25-year- old lady was arrested on Wednesday evening during an ongoing surveillance and targeting operation aimed at curbing drug trafficking through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

KRA spokesman Kennedy Onyonyi said the suspect was picked from the transit area after the officers went through the passenger manifest for Sabena Airlines.

"The drug was concealed in the false 'top and bottom' of a Japan Express suitcase and was wrapped in black plastic paper to avoid detection at the screening machines," Onyonyi said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The East African nation has been restructuring the anti- narcotics police unit which has helped the country improve its capability to arrest drug peddlers using Kenya as a transit hub.

The authorities claimed to have made major gains since December 2010 following the arrest of several drug traffickers at the JKIA and along the Indian Ocean in Mombasa.

(Xinhua)

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

Four die in Masasi riots, as CHADEMA cautions JK

Four people were killed yesterday in the chaos that erupted in Masasi district, Mtwara region pitting ‘bodaboda’ drivers and police.

Commissioner of Police Paul Chagonja, the head of Operations and Training of the Police Force, confirmed the incident but could not give details.

According to the commissioner, twelve people were injured including a police officer. Earlier on it was reported that one police officer was killed during the violence.

Reports issued by the Ndanda regional hospital’s chief medical officer Dr Crispin Sapuli said the injured are Hosea Kibona (a policeman), Mohamed Abilai, Amami Ali, Athumani Maelezo, Zaruki Mussa, Mohamed Mshamu, Nassoro Mohamed, Yona Mareme and Feti William.

Others are William Matiponi, Jerome Frank and Maisha Hussein who sustained a bullet injury in the neck.

However, the chief medical officer said they received four injured people and the body of one dead person.

Commissioner Chagonja said the chaos erupted when rioting groups of young people clashed with law enforcers.

Yesterday’s violence is a continuation of chaos that has engulfed a number of locations in Mtwara and Lindi regions with continuing protests against government plans for a gas pipeline to process Mnazi Bay gas at Kinyerezi planned plant in Dar es Salaam.

In the violence yesterday at Masasi town, eleven vehicles and other property belonging to the Masasi District Council were set on fire.

Reports stated that the motorcyclists clashed with police after they had gathered in one of the streets protesting against the arrest of a fellow ‘bodaboda’ driver.

During the violence the rioting groups invaded a court building before setting it ablaze after they had done the same for the record files.

As if that was not enough the mainly youthful group went on to burn down the residential premise of Masasi Urban legislator, Mariam Kassembe (CCM) and the district education office.

The central committee directed the secretariat to monitor commitments made in the 2010 polls and push for their being implemented, citing the need for pursuing work on a key issue that touches the public, the process of constitutional reform.

The session similarly reflected on the work carried out by the official opposition camp in Parliament, mainly constituted by Chadema MPs.

Details will be provided on deliberations of the session as the secretariat reports on the meeting to the party’s executive council which will be held in the coming week. The session is also expected to review political action on strategies and steps taken to end the problem of gas resource use in the country, he added.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY