Sierra Leone

UNDP Statement at Annual Youth Consultative Forum

Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman, it is a great honor for UNDP to be invited to speak at this historic and timely consultative forum on youth development. The fact that you want to hear from the United Nations at this time, suggests to us that the Government appreciates our partnership, and recognizes, as we do, that effective and transparent partnerships are needed to jointly address the many challenges we are facing in coming up with effective strategies for youth employment and empowerment.

We also wish to congratulate you on the proposals to set up a National Youth Commission and a National Youth Service. We appreciate the fact that you are consulting widely with all development partners to secure consensus, and to mobilize national and international support for the Youth Commission and the Youth Service.

Tremendous changes have recently taken place in the country, with the election of a new President and a new Parliament, and the significant realignment of ministries and other Government departments in line with the new Government’s strategy. In this context, we would particularly like to applaud the innovative introduction of performance contracts between you and various ministries. We stand ready to support you in reaching these objectives.

As already recognized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the increasing number of unemployed and marginalized young men and women added to Sierra Leone’s instability in the past and may seriously compromise the country’s development efforts. Estimates of youth unemployment vary widely with some estimates indicating that about one third of the total population is youth, of whom more than 60% are unemployed. This would represent one of the highest rates in the world.

With life expectancy rapidly declining to as low as 45 years due mainly to HIV and AIDS, the youth are now, or will become the dominant group in society, most affected by change and also the most likely agents of change.

At the global level, there are about one billion people between the ages of 15 and 24 years, or about 17 % of the total world population of over 6 billion. By virtue of their numbers, the limited economic opportunities and skills deficiencies, poverty is increasingly becoming a youth phenomenon. Demographic, cultural, social and economic factors associated with those living in poverty often combine to present young men and women with serious challenges in creating sustainable livelihoods.

The exact circumstances facing youth around the world varies widely. Yet there are many common themes. As a specific demographic group young men and women are often marginalized in society, resulting in limited access to resources, education, land and technology, and little or no interaction with formal institutions. Their cultural and social position and lack of skills, knowledge and institutional support often makes them vulnerable to prostitution, early wedlock and child-bearing, and HIV and AIDS.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we it is evident that Sierra Leone prolonged civil conflict has negatively impacted on the youth. The social, education and economic networks and institutions of youth disintegrated giving rise to conditions which pose a serious threats to the country’s stability, and which the new youth policy must begin to address. Some of these conditions include deprivation and abject poverty; lack of access to sources of livelihoods; expansion of organised crime; the high level of unemployment; lack of educational opportunities; increase in narcotics and alcohol abuse; prevalence of a culture of violence; feelings of disaffection, disempowerment and disconnection from the political processes, and so on. Unless these issues are addressed in a systematic and coherent manner, an air of despondency and resignation may set in at best, or at worst they may resort to criminal activities or violence. In this respect, it is youth with their unique needs and concerns, who will either sustain peace or generate further instability.

In these circumstances, there is no doubt that unless their energy is positively harnessed as a matter of urgency, an air of despondency and resignation may grow and undermine national reconciliation and peace-building efforts in Sierra Leone. What we would like to see is a situation where the vast energies of the youth are translated into an asset for the reconstruction process, actively involved in the design and implementation of programmes rather than a threat to stability.

Past or current youth development programmes have tended to focus on youth as a separate development entity. This fails to recognize that youth livelihood systems are inherently interconnected to the surrounding social, financial and ecological environment and as members of households in a community. Examples of this are programmes that provide vocational training to youths who end up not finding job opportunities. Programmes that concentrate on employment generation for youth have essentially failed to recognize the complex and diverse nature of youth livelihood systems. The reality is that youth livelihood systems comprise a complex and diverse set of economic, social and physical strategies, often realized through the activities, assets and entitlements by which individuals make a living.

Yet we have not had a policy to address such complex circumstances of the youth. The absence of an overarching policy has hampered the design and implementation of youth-focused programmes, leaving many youth activities severely uncoordinated. The absence of a coherent institutional framework to support youth initiatives is another major impediment. I am glad that an attempt has been made through this conference to elaborate on these issues. While there is certainly no single blue-print that can provide quick solutions to the growing crisis of the youth problem in Sierra Leone, we now have a basis for designing broad but integrated approaches to youth problems that could help restore security, build dignity and hope amongst the young people.

In addition, a coherent approach to youth issues and concerns must integrate supply and demand. What do I mean? We all know that while it is important to increase investment in education and vocational training, for example, this is insufficient, as there is no point in making young people employable if the economy can not produce additional jobs for new entrants to the labour market. In other words, creating livelihoods for the youth through employment opportunities should go hand-in-hand with improvements in governance and macro-economic management as a basis for creating conditions under which young people will claim and enjoy their full potential.

Building on this framework and on the basis of it, what’s now needed in Sierra Leone is for the new Government to draw up an urgent operational plan for youth focusing attention on such urgent issues like creating employment and improving livelihoods.

However, we should also be aware of the sobering reality that we have little objective data to guide and inform our strategies and the early pursuit of better and more comprehensive data to inform our strategies is also one of our joint challenges. In this context, I am pleased to advise that we are in the progress of discussing with the various Government Ministries and with the ILO, the possibility of an early Labor Force Survey which will give us better data on the specific numbers of unemployed young people and on the specific areas where jobs can be created. A Labor Force Survey will naturally inform an Employment Policy and it will also assist us to address the gender agenda. I wish to stress this, as all too often the plight of unemployed young women appears to be forgotten and the empowerment of women still represents a daunting challenge.

We know that empowerment of young men and women is a priority. Youth should be part of the decision-making processes in the country and they should above all participate in specific decisions that are affecting their own welfare. This also means that youth employment and empowerment concerns should feature more prominently in sector policies and sector wide strategies. The UN system stands ready to assist you in ensuring the mainstreaming of youth employment and empowerment concerns in the overall development agenda. Mainstreaming these concerns means that effective arrangements should exist for dialogue, for collaboration, for partnerships and for meaningful involvement and participation. We again wish to state that this two-day event is a milestone in jointly arriving at specific capacities and capacity building strategies that are needed to ensure such arrangements for consultation and involvement.

I am pleased to say that the UN system stands ready to work with you in implementing the conclusions and recommendations of this National Consultation. We are aware that significant resources have already been mobilized to address youth employment and empowerment concerns but you and we are also aware that more resources are needed. I am particularly pleased that Government and the UN were able to effectively coordinate to ensure that effective presentations were delivered yesterday at the High Level Meeting in New York on the Peace Building Commission (PBC) and the Peace Building Framework that Sierra Leone and the PBC have agreed upon.

Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman, let me end by stressing that young men and women are the future of the country and their mobilization and involvement in all development programmes is a ‘sine qua non’ for the very success of all development programmes. I again wish to congratulate you on this initiative to bring so many national and international stakeholders together to jointly map out strategies. On behalf of my colleagues in the UN Country Team, we wish to assure you that we will render all possible support to promote the efforts of Government towards more comprehensive and accelerated youth development

Your Excellency the President, Mr. Chairman, Honorable Ministers of Government, Representatives of International Organisations,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention.