October 2019 Hayaan institute has organized Safarka Nabadda round table discussion forum in Garowe , the theme of the discussion was youth employment and peacebuilding, in Somalia 75% of the population is under 35 years old and the majority of them are unemployed, in that regards Hayaan institute hosted a public forum to discuss drivers and solutions to youth unemployment, the forum participants included Youth organizations, academics, social science researchers and business partners.
The forum aimed to focus on to what extend does unemployment plays on youth violence participation. During the panel discussion Issues examined included obstacles of youth employment, Government strategies and policies to tackle youth unemployment, higher education sectors and industry collaboration to find out solutions on youth unemployment and finally challenges and policy recommendations.
The event was moderated by Safarka nabadda projectmanager Ismail said Aw-muse, on behalf of Hayaan team he has welcomed the panelists and participants for their precious time on this remarkable event, following that the moderator gave brief introduction about the program and its objectives then introduced the panelists and key questions to be discussed in this round table discussion.
Key questions that has been discussed was the youth unemployment and peacebuilding, challenges and solutions. During the opening remarks Ismail stated that the development of a country depends on the qualities and abilities of its youths, therefore researchers have found that in Somalia 75% of our population are youth (less that 35 years old) , another world bank research in Somalia also found that 70% between the age of 15 to 29 are unemployed, in this regard Hayaan and its partners also found that high number of graduates are living in Garowe, so the big question is why youths are unemployed, does the jobs available in the market are not enough to graduates or the employers are not able to find the required skilled labors.
Participant’s discussion
The later part of the forum gave space participants whereby they freely discussed about the theme, most of the participants noted that youths in Somalia make up a large share of the population and they are the one who suffer disproportionately from unemployment, therefore this can most likely leads conflict participation. In this case, participants suggested that in order to effectively address youth unemployment in Somalia more resources are required such as conducting comprehensive researches regarding on factors constraining youth employment, to what extend does youth employment plays on youth violence participation and etc, in addition to that they also suggested that, youths in Somalia are lacking work competency and experience which constraints them to be employed so that most of private and public sectors are looking well experiencing people to avoid the risk associated with hiring fresh and young people, it by then recommended that the opportunity should be given to young people as they are more energetic and keen to learn.
Generally it was emphasized that the government should set and implement state actions plans towards youth unemployment strategies, thus, this underlays the economic growth of the state by creating large number of jobs needed by young people. In conclusion, participants was pleased to have been a part of the forum by describing it remarkable event as most of the participants were young people so that the theme of the forum gained insight from the discussions of the young people, Panelists were also eager to provide the many young people at the forum with the motivation and experience to improve their future careers.
Leave a Reply