The Ethiopian government has recently passed a new bill dubbed the “Youth Revolving Fund,” which promises jobs for unemployed people aged 18-34 years.
(Deutsche Welle)–For the last two decades, the Ethiopian government has been trumping the country’s economic successes , which earned it the title the “African Tiger.” However the youth appear to have been left behind.
The town of Ambo is located 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Addis Ababa and is knows as the kicking off point of the protests against the infamous re-zoning plan of the government almost three years ago. Reports show that security forces responded to the protests with lethal force that claimed hundreds of lives while thousands more were arrested.
“The urgent problem of the youth now is not unemployment rather lack of peace in their area, because those employed or unemployed people are still getting killed or arrested,” said an unemployed young man from Ambo who requested anonymity from due to the current political situation in the area.
As a response to the growing protests, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency last October. One of the factors that the government attributed to causing the protests is unemployment.
In his address to parliament last October, President Mulatu Teshome said that his administration pledged to create more jobs for the youth. He argued that the youth in both rural and urban towns have no stable means of income and rely on daily labor. As a result, Mulatu said, these young people are living in an atmosphere of “extreme anxiety.”
“If the government does not focus more on the youth,” Mulatu warned, “it should realize that our country could again face the kind of political crisis that was experienced recently.”
A new jobs bill
Two weeks ago, the House of People’s Representatives passed a new bill dubbed the “Youth Revolving Fund,” which promises jobs for unemployed people aged 18-34 years. In the preface of this 11-page bill, it is stipulated that the economic achievements of the country had itself created new demands from the youth which the government could not fulfill.
Read more about “Ethiopia launches new initiative to employ disaffected youth” on Deutsche Welle
——
See also:
- Reducing Urban Unemployment in Ethiopia
- Youth Revolving Fund: A New Commitment to Transform Youths’ Livelihood
- IBM Launches “Digital – Nation Africa” & Invests $70 Million to Bring Digital Skills to Africa
- The University of Gondar and Queen’s University Join The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program