Is the Bus Moving Forward - in Any Direction?
My discussions with Al Kags on youth development in Kenya seem to have gone off on many different tangents from the funding for youth development to the value of the national youth policy and its application; the focus, type and involvement of young people in enterprise. Input from Fiona Mati/yipe on unsustainable youth enterprises. Valerie’s comment to Al Kags post is that “there are no real policies to support youth”. And a question from George Lewitt on whether Kenya is truly supporting young people and whether young people [on the ground] are actually moving forward.
Where to start?
Let me re-focus on the aspect that began these discussions – funding for youth development in Kenya. As I indicated in my blogposts of March 8 and March 30 this year, I outlined the resource pools I am aware are available for youth development, from Government and from development organizations. In the blogpost of March 30 I do detail that Kenya is supporting young people. The questions I raised then still remain. Thus I may not be able to provide a satisfactory response to George B. Lewitt’s questions. There are resources, there is a national youth policy, but there is absolutely no coordination – formal or informal – on how youth development programmes are implemented. ALL organizations that provide technical and financial resources have the same general, overall objective for youth empowerment, for increased participation in social, political and economic development; and civic engagement in different sectors and at different levels.
I submit that the National Youth Policy is not a great document. But it does detail the issues raised by young people that they want (wanted) Government, development partners and youth organizations to address. However, even in its “weak” state the bigger issues is that there is no monitoring mechanism established by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports or any Governmental body or stakeholders group that can determine whether the investments in youth development are addressing these aspects. My major critique is thus not on the National Youth Policy but rather on the absence of a monitoring mechanism that would help the Kenya Government and young people determine whether there is any progress, on a macro level. Perhaps this is a failure on the part of youth organizations today.
Al Kags has challenged me to point out a country in which entrepreneurs and innovators do not drive development. I know none. I am aware that young people in most countries do not see themselves as drivers of development. Young people mostly look inward and see a barrage of challenges against them. The role of youth organizations and youth groups is to broaden their minds to the possibilities through relationship building among young people with different experiences; engaging them in challenging yet fun and educational activities; and opportunity to network with newsmakers, opinion shapers and may be even entrepreneurs and innovators. In countries where the economy performs poorly and there is a general limited access to services such as healthcare, quality education, and basic needs such as food and shelter young people’s dreams and ambitions are overshadowed by their day to day needs. And this is why the National Youth Policy seems more curative than visionary in its mission and priority strategic areas.
What do we do?
I’ll begin by agreeing with Fiona Mati/yipe. The initiatives in Kenya that target youth owned enterprises are service oriented, small in size and take on a “copy cat” nature. Looking at Kenya’s Vision 2030, I wonder how for instance the how the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) is enabling young entrepreneurs meet the goals for economic development. Indeed, Kenya must begin to guide its young entrepreneurs to invest in the right (read competitive) enterprises, at the appropriate scale and within a specific goal/results oriented framework.
To do so it does require a plan for competitiveness and less a “faddish” approach to development – which is how I view this wildfire enterprise development/entrepreneurship approach that is the priority for funding in youth development.
In order to maximize benefits to young people, it is important to establish a repository of best practice – whether in economic development (income generating activities/social enterprises or entrepreneurship), political development (civic engagement and good governance) or social development (youth friendly amenities such as recreation centres, health services, informal education centres, among others); and scale up what works.
For more young entrepreneurs and innovators to emerge there must be increase information on how they can be supported – venture capitalists and other investors need to be linked to young people (or is it that they need to find these young people?). The orientation of our education system must change – from employment orientation to “permission for creativity” and success outside non-traditional professions. While there may be a failure of the national youth policy to detail solutions for unemployment, there is a marked disconnect between the national youth policy and other key Government policy that would make the policy effective for young people. And I guess this is what Valerie may have meant.
Suffice to say, there is poor consistency between policy and practice. Or may be we just don’t know enough. If we did an evaluation, may be we’ll be surprised and see that young people are actually moving forward?
