Councils urged to mobilise youth on empowerment

IDDY MWEMA

THE Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Dr Florens Turuka has directed councils to encourage youth to form groups that will help them benefit from various development projects conducted by the government and development partners.

The PS also reminded councils to set aside 5 per cent of council’s revenues for youth development projects. Dr Turuka made the directive in Dar es Salaam yesterday when officiating National Strategy for Youth Involvement In Agriculture (NSYIA).

The Five-year programme is jointly implemented by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) intended to facilitate and build capacity of the youth for self-employment. “Councils should mobilise youth to form groups to benefit from a number of development programmes introduced by the government and our development partners.

Youth have the potential to make significant contributions to agricultural development at different levels and can provide a tremendous opportunity for developing an agricultural based rural economy if they are in groups,” elaborated the PS. Dr Turuka also urged financial institutions to start financing the youth in the agriculture sector to bring about required development in the country.

He advised the youth to grab opportunities available in the sector that will help also the country to achieve its 2025 development goal of becoming a middle-income and an industrialised nation. “While we aim to become an industrialised nation, more raw materials are needed and there is a number of opportunities in the agricultural sector. The youth should change their mind and start involving themselves with agricultural activities,” he advised.

According to the Tanzania population and housing census of 2012, about 67 per cent of the labour force comprises of youth and mostly are unemployed. On behalf of FAO Country Representative, Mr Charles Tulahi, said appropriate policies, strategies and programmes are needed to address the problem of unemployment of youth.

He added that the youth’s population was expected to increase with limited employment opportunities. “Available information indicates that, while the world’s youth population will continue to grow, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for young women and men will remain limited, particularly for those living in rural areas in developing countries.”

In light of this support for youth through appropriate policies, strategies and programmes were urgent and necessary,” Mr Turuka commented. He noted that available information showed that addressing youth issues has a very significant positive impact in reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition, particularly in rural areas.

Supporting the youth can also increase social stability and rejuvenate the agricultural sector,” revealed Mr Tulahi. Earlier, ILO Youth Employment Technical Manager, Dr Annamarie Kiaga, said the agricultural sector has a huge potential to create decent jobs but needed to polish its image to attract more young people.

Dr Kiaga said ILO promoted the addressed systems and institutions that can drive competitiveness and job creation in specific sectors by using a market development approach.

“The ILO believes that if designed and implemented effectively, value chain innervations can generate impacts with significant scale, especially in decent job creation,” she noted.