Joint Force Between the Governments, Csos and Youth in Creating Stronger Post Pandemic Economic and Social Systems
Snapshot to African Continent
COVID 19 has significantly disturbed the world economy. It has changed the world and created a new normal by forcing all sectors ranging from economic, cultural, political, and social systems to change their normal routines by adapting to the new normal. With the spread of the effect of the pandemic, there’s a strong need of changing priorities, plans, and approaches for reaching desired outcomes.
Young people in Africa make the biggest age group in the continent making Africa one of the continents with a vibrant and energetic workforce. Despite having a reasonable size of workforce Africa workforce is still underperforming as unemployment is one of the biggest challenges all across the continent
Young people are expected to gear the development of their country’s and spearhead positive transformative changes in their communities, However, for this group to flourish there’s a need for the joint force between them, the government and civil societies organizations, these 3 groups can work together to build a stronger post-pandemic economic and social systems in the following ways
v Dialogue to support policy changes and influence informed decisions; There’s a need for all these groups to hold a dialogue between them to come up with the policy decisions with elements from each side. Most policies are made by policymakers who lack more information’s in most cases. For example, policy related to youth issues are made without consulting the youth who are more informed of their problems and needs
v Structural changes in top priorities; The priorities should be changed and adjusted to focus more on youth empowerment. Grants and other forms of financial supports should be made more accessible to youth for instance instead of mere stories about self-employment there should be some viable strategies for facilitating self-employment this include provision of funds/grants that will act as seed capital or contribute to the overall size of capital investment also accessibility of loans with favorable conditions like low-interest rates as well as relaxing conditions for accessing them.
v Encouraging the vibrant private sectors; With high rates of unemployment which is continuing to rise especially due to COVID as most businesses have been shut down, others forced to change the mode of operations like redundancy to reduce operation costs, There’s a strong need to promote a business environment that will favor not only the establishment of new informal sectors but also the expansion of the established sectors that will absorb the energetic youth who will, in turn, contribute to the growth of their economies and improvement of social systems by contributing to their national income I numerous ways like taxes
Young people's inclusion is a vital element towards economic prosperity, improvement of the social system, and well-being of the country. Youth shouldn’t be left behind in any country’s agenda both developmental and non-developmental agenda; as this age group are the future of the country so they should be included in all aspects of their country for them to be well informed and be the frontline in advocating for development and justice in their nations
