Poverty in Africa
According to studies carried by United Nations, Africa despite being a continent with immense human and natural resources is the poorest continent. Most of the nations categorized as underdeveloped by the UN are African countries. World Bank data shows that several developmental strategies designed for eradicating poverty in Africa have failed in producing the expected positive results. The extreme level of poverty in Africa has many causes; some of them are closely related. The main reasons include: rapid growth of population that cannot match the job opportunities available, poor governance which contributes to inappropriate use of resources and corruption as well. Also the issue of high mortality has reaped off African labor market competent personnel and unending war crisis in Africa has chased investors away. However, the recommendations suggested after research on the issue have been carried; focus solemnly on political power side. The recommendations have neglected youth empowerment which can be the only powerful tool capable of tacking poverty in Africa.
In Africa, the youth population is large and has high quality education. Despite the young population acquiring quality formal education, unemployment rates in Africa still remain high. Unemployment, education and political engagement should be the central focus in empowering youths in Africa ( Asongu et al 2017). The government should work on providing formal education skills that can match with the real world job requirements; education should be more work-based. Government education policies should encourage inclusion of practical training more than theoretical in schools. By doing so, the idea of keeping youths away from the labor market with the claim that they do not have the required skills will end and young people will be able to bring their new ideas in. since the existing economic ideas have failed in raising the African continent economic status then new ones from youths may do the trick. Another way that the government can help in empowering their young population can be through advocating self-employment. Job opportunities are scares and the only solution to that is by creating new ones to accommodate the growing population (Oluwatayo, 2018). African nations should at least consider encouraging the youth towards self-employment directions and motivating them through providing capital by offering the young ones with loans.
Previous studies on Poverty in Africa focused on how to change the economy but neglected the part of how to transform the perspective of the population. A country’s economy cannot be separated from the human input. Social population is the main resource in a nation’s financial growth and without changing the perceptive of the current Africa population about innovations then it is hard to expect change. Poor governance has indeed left Africa stuck in their poverty levels since the little produce goes to the few with power. Therefore, rising a new era to the economy sector, consisting of young people who have not been contaminated with the greed and corrupted ideas can be a way forward and a reliable solution to Africa poverty.
Young people are likely to challenge existing norms that hold growth back. Youths if given a chance and appropriate support they are capable of bringing modernization to the old investment ideas. For example, with the formal education skills young people in Africa have they can transform the agricultural sector to a large yielding one. Africa is rich in agricultural resources which lay unutilized or underutilized due to lack of professional knowledge on how to benefit from them (Tshabangu 2018). People only use the lands to grow crops for home food purpose. If the African governments could give the young population an opportunity to step in then chances are innovation can be intensified and produce more than what is currently being produced. Another reason why youth empowerment is the best solution in ending poverty in Africa is because they are not afraid to take risks. Youths have the mentality that they still have time to make mistakes and learn from them. While venturing into business, young people will be ready for any outcome because of they believe that the mistake can be used as future experience. For the older people the time to make mistakes is limited because of the age. African poverty status requires people who are ready to take risks and bring new innovation moves that can help eradicate poverty efficiently. The paper presents a strategy (youth empowerment) that had been overlooked in the previous studies concerning the poverty in Africa issue. Therefore, since the previous recommendations failed to resolve the issue of eradicating poverty in Africa, then the youth empowerment method suggested in this paper can be enacted for positive results.
References
Asongu, S. A., & Kodila‐Tedika, O. (2017). Is poverty in the African DNA (Gene)?. South African Journal of Economics, 85(4), 533-552.
Banson, K. E., Nguyen, N. C., Bosch, O. J., & Nguyen, T. V. (2015). A systems thinking approach to address the complexity of agribusiness for sustainable development in Africa: a case study in Ghana. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 32(6), 672-688.
Oluwatayo, I. B., & Ojo, A. O. (2018). Walking through a tightrope:The challenge of economic growth and poverty in AfricaThe Journal of Developing Areas52(1), 59-69.
Spaull, N. (2015). Schooling in South Africa: How low-quality education becomes a poverty trap. South African Child Gauge, 12, 34-41.
Tshabangu, I. (2018). The intersectionality of educational inequalities and child poverty in Africa: a deconstruction. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 17(1), 69-82.