CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE: WHY TEEN AFRICA?


 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE: WHY TEEN AFRICA?

Young people are the most important and valuable resource of the every nation. Therefore, there is the need to search for, discover, recognize, and understand their needs, conditions, interests, issues, aspirations, ideas and capacities and make appropriate provision for their growth and development. While young people face enormous challenges, particularly with regard to self-development, employment and livelihoods, they nevertheless represent the opportunity for today and tomorrow—as educators, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, health professionals, scientists, politicians and peacemakers. This makes it doubly important to invest in them now. This will make it possible for future generations not only to survive but also thrive. In the light of this, countries that invest in their youth ought to realize the vitally important ‘demographic dividend’ these youth represent.

In line with the current conditions and realities in Nigeria, especially historical and contemporary socio-economic and political conditions, and in accordance with the current National Youth Policy, youths shall comprise of all males and females between the ages of 18 - 35 years, who are citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Young people as defined by this youth policy are characterized by energy, enthusiasm, ambition, creativity, and promise; they are also faced with high levels of socio-economic uncertainty and volatility making them the most vulnerable segment of the population. While it is true that this definition is broad, it is also understood that this is a time in life when most young people go through dramatic changes in their life circumstances as they move from childhood into adulthood. They therefore require social, economic and political support to realize their full potentials since they represent the most active, the most volatile, and yet the most vulnerable segment of a nation's population.

 

Nigeria's population is predominately young. According to Worldometers (www.worldometers.info//) as at January, 2019, Nigeria has a population of 198, 709,807 million people with a median age of 17.9 years which makes her the most populous nation in Africa with one third of her population being young people between the ages of 10 to 24 years.  In Sub-Saharan and North Africa, around 40 percent of the population is under 15, and nearly 70 percent are under 30 – representing a “pre-transition” age structure.

Realizing this demographic dividend requires getting more young people into productive employment and income generating activities, making the current scale of youth underemployment and unemployment a matter of worldwide concern. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that over 75 million young people worldwide are unemployed, and more than a billion jobs must be created in order to accommodate new workers and reduce unemployment.

Also alarming is the increasing number of youth ‘NEETs – Not Employed or in Education or Training’ – ILO data for 24 developing economies which shows an average NEET rate of 12.4 per cent for young men and 28.1 per cent for young women. Unemployment rates among young people everywhere are higher than among adults – averaging nearly three times the rate of the adult workforce. The challenge in cities can be particularly acute, as urban youth often face greater labor market barriers due to their lack of prior job experience and lack of links to professional networks and contacts, or the fact that their education and training did not prepare them for the world of work or is not matched to growth sectors.

Overcoming inequity requires a population that is informed, educated and skilled. In fact, investment in education has increased and developing countries have experienced major gains in education for young people. Results show that investment in early education and literacy is foundational to continued progress and achievement. Youth literacy, which is a vital prerequisite for education as well as employment, is also improving as a result of increased investment. The global literacy rate for youth (aged 15 to 24) increased from 83 to 90 percent between 1990 and 2010. Yet in many countries including Nigeria, youth literacy rates are still low, especially for rural youth and girls – though gender gaps are gradually narrowing globally.

As national and global enrolment rates improve, there is growing attention on groups that are harder to reach, including migrant and refugee youth, street children, rural youth, married girls and young people with disabilities. There is also increasing attention to the quality of educational systems to ensure schools teach the information and skills young people need in order to enter the workforce or participate in civic life. In addition to cognitive skill development, “non-cognitive skills such as perseverance, motivation, risk aversion, self-esteem and self-control are strongly predictive of life outcomes.

Health and nutrition among young people is another area in which investment pays off, and adolescent health has improved to a lesser extent than that of younger children. In a recent study of 50 countries, childhood mortality was reported to have declined by more than 80 percent in the past 50 years. By contrast, adolescent mortality has only marginally improved. The leading causes of youth mortality worldwide are injury (traffic accidents, violence, drowning, and fires), suicide, pregnancy and childbirth, respiratory infections, HIV, tuberculosis, and meningitis.

 

Moreover, around 70 percent of premature deaths among all adults have been linked to smoking and alcohol use and other behaviors initiated during adolescence. The biggest risk factors for all youth include alcohol, unsafe sex and illicit drugs. Among girls and young women, however, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the greater danger: the proportion of girls aged 10-14 that die in pregnancy or childbirth is five times higher than that of women aged 20-24, and twice as high among girls aged 15-19. The vast majority of these deaths take place within marriage, making the fight against early marriage and the promotion of youth sexual and reproductive health critical.

Young people, and young women especially, are also particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. There were 2.7 million new HIV/AIDS infections in 2010, down 21 percent from 1997. About 40 percent of new HIV infections are among young people age 15-24, yet only 40 percent of young men and 38 percent of young women have comprehensive knowledge about HIV transmission. However, far more young people know how to prevent HIV infection. As a result, HIV incidence has fallen in 33 countries, 22 of them in sub-Saharan Africa. According to UNAIDS, declines in new HIV infections have been primarily due to changes in behavior—including among young people, as well as by greatly increased access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services. In this regard, youth also are important influencers in families and communities, promoting positive behavior across generations.

Achieving the benefits of investment in young people depends on a secure environment and a belief by youth that they have a stake in governance, peace and democracy. Young people especially suffer from a lack of physical security in their daily lives. Children and youth who witness or experience violence at home, on the street, at school, or wherever it occurs are significantly more at risk for health problems, anxiety disorders, poor school performance and violent behavior. Violence, high school dropout rates and the challenges of the school to work transition can create conditions for youth to be recruited into criminal networks, armed groups, youth gangs, and trafficking, all of which contribute to sustained violence, extremism and insurgencies. Other factors include rapid urbanization, poor natural resource management, economic stagnation, unemployment, limited social investment, and few opportunities for political participation. In fact, engaging young people in creating safe environments—safe schools, safe neighborhoods, safe jobs, safe cities—is already showing positive results. Similarly, while accurate accounts of youth voting are lacking, anecdotal experience shows that youth civic and political education and participation supports stabilization and democracy.

In this regard, preparing youth for adulthood occurs within and across multiple sectors and domains by strengthening capacities and building assets. Mounting evidence holds that holistic or integrated youth programming can be particularly effective in addressing the complexities of young people’s lives. Cross sector approaches comprehensively address youth life transitions (learning, work, health, family, citizenship) and are designed around common factors (e.g., education, employment, life skills, security), leading to overlapping positive outcomes across multiple domains. Over the past two decades, educators, employers, and policymakers have increasingly placed great emphasis on the development of life skills and other empowerment initiatives as a way to prepare young people for success in today’s rapidly changing and globalized world. Also, there are efforts to engage youth in elevating their voices and ensuring meaningful opportunities to contribute to resolving issues and promoting positive change in their communities and nations. Youth engagement also involves preparation of adults to listen to and work with young people. There is a need to improve the quality of partnerships with young people, to provide more concrete platforms for youth participation, to support existing local youth networks and initiatives, and to include young people in science, technology and innovation initiatives.

Recent research has demonstrated that when young people are provided interventions that include non-academic supports in social-cognitive skills, learning outcomes improve as do completion/graduation rates. In all, life skills programs strengthen young people’s abilities in many areas that employers consider particularly important when hiring new employees. Employers often report a higher level of satisfaction with entry-level employees who have gone through life skills training than those who have not. Most importantly, life skills programs allow youth to create a life plan and equip them with the skills to take steps toward achieving their goals. They also help young people to better understand healthy personal behaviors, thus decreasing outcomes such as teen pregnancies, drug and alcohol use, and interpersonal violence. As a result, they help to increase young people’s sense of self-esteem and expectations for their future and the future of their children.

Again, young people are often seen as recipients of development programming, and have few opportunities to influence decisions affecting their lives or have a voice in their communities. It is now increasingly recognized that youth participation is a critical aspect of positive youth development. When young people have a genuine voice in development, there are real gains for themselves and their communities.

Teen Africa also promotes livelihoods training and access to microcredit, among other activities. These programs operate on the principles of local empowerment, participatory governance, demand-responsiveness, downward accountability and enhanced local capacity. The approach thus has great potential to empower youth by involving them in decision-making, addressing their needs and priorities and promoting their active engagement in building a better future for their communities.

To make a deep and lasting impact, Teen Africa is on a mission to “Catch them young and early,” which is why one of our target groups are young people in secondary schools across Africa, specifically teenagers within the age range of 10-19.

 

 The Teenage Development for Africa (Teen Africa) is a pan African not-for-profit, gender based, education youth development organization.

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