CTPD Executive Director Isaac Mwaipopo said: “We have observed that Zambia is increasingly dedicating more resources towards debt servicing and thus leaving the government with limited ability to stimulate the economy for higher employment for the nation at larger and young people in particular.”
Mwaipopo added that the institution remain deeply concerned that social sector spending has been reducing as demonstrated by the relative low funding to tertiary education compared to primary and secondary education.
“It makes sad reading that government is failing to pay lecturers on time. As we speak, there are lecturers who have stopped teaching as they are demanding to be paid their salaries. Government should take note of research evidence which shows that tertiary education has a significantly higher impact on the growth in GDP in Africa than other levels of education,” he noted.
And Mwaipopo further urged government to join hands with young people in finding lasting solutions to the challenges they are facing. According to the 2015 National Youth Policy, it spell out intentions that seeks to provide equal access to opportunities while the National Action Plan for Youth Empowerment and Employment targets to create 200,000 jobs annually of which 40% should be for the youths.
“There is great need to move away from the old tradition of always addressing young people; we need to find time to listen to them. They have ideas and solutions to most of the challenges they are facing. The increasing dropout rates, limited opportunities for University and College education, low funding to Institutions of higher learning, failure to harness the Entrepreneurial skills of Youths and many others, will conjointly create a population of disadvantaged youths,” he mentioned in a statement.
Mwaipopo further highlighted some of possible considerate measures needed to urgently address the rising cases of unemployment, which has become a serious factor to the growth of the country.
“Zambia needs to invest in human capital development through ICT and innovative practices in the Agriculture and Manufacturing sectors in order to generate more employment opportunities. The current construction boom needs to be supported through reducing interest rates in order to support construction sector employment creation.
causimgtGovernment should consider hosting a Jobs summit aimed at finding lasting solutions to employment challenges young people are facing, this must be a private sector led process aimed at bringing together industry players and policy makers,”
On March 12, 2019. Zambia commemorated youth day under the theme; “Zambian Youth: Generation unlimited.”
