We must be deliberate about positively transforming the youth dividend into a resource and supporting them to be at the centre of political governance and sustainable development.
By Ndung’u Wainaina
Democracy is one of the foundational principles under the Constitution of Kenya (2010, and a political pillar of Kenya Vision 2030. It aims to create a cohesive, equitable, and just society based on democratic principles and issue-based politics. This political policy goal is buttressed by a robust Bill of Rights, devolution of state power, and constructional principles of equitable sharing of resources and public expenditure that guarantee equitable development of the whole country.
The Economist Intelligence Unit findings published in the Democracy Index for the year 2019 classified Kenya as a hybrid democracy with a score of 5.18 (compared to full democracy scores of 8 to 10). Similarly, the 2019 Mo Ibrahim Index on Governance in Africa ranked Kenya 11 of 54 countries with a score of 59.8%, with strengths in national security and safety, the rule of law, participation and human rights, and gender parity. This finding is reflected in the 2019 UNDP Human Development Report, which ranked Kenya at 0.931 in the Gender Development Index, placing it among countries with medium human development achievements between women and men.
Despite the progress achieved in enlarging public participation and representation in governance, Kenya remains very far from consolidating a transformative democratic, people-centered, and accountable system of governance anchored on constitutionalism and the rule of law, which delivers constitutional guarantees of rights.
The 2019 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index and the 2019 Mo Ibrahim Index on Governance in Africa both note the progress achieved while citing major weaknesses in government accountability, access to justice, freedom of expression, financial security and economic opportunities, access to crucial social services, and meaningful civil society participation. These challenges concern because they go to the heart of the state’s capability to guarantee basic rights and freedoms and deliver development and services equitably to all citizens, the foundations of good governance, peaceful coexistence, and human security.
The 2019 population census indicates that 75% of Kenya’s 47.6 million population is under 35. This population segment presents a demographic dividend yet experiences several challenges that undermine its participation in transformative governance. These include high levels of unemployment and unequal access to economic resources, which makes them susceptible to political manipulation and exploitation. This makes this segment very vulnerable. To ease the situation, efforts are required to positively transform the youth dividend into a resource and support them to be at the centre of political leadership to ensure that young people have a voice and are willing to bring new ideas to political governance and sustainable development.
In building on the constitutional recognition of the role of the youth in nation-building and the call for effective participation of the youth in the management of the country’s socio-economic and political affairs, the country needs to build the capacity of decision-makers to engage with and respond to young people’s concerns and needs. This will require support for young people to navigate complex governance structures and processes and bring their voices to the table. There have to be solid and sustainable interventions that ensure decision-makers are accountable, inclusive, transparent, and accessible to young people.
We must identify governance institutions and enact policies that create an enabling environment to encourage and support youth participation and acknowledge their role in public policy formulation, planning, implementation, and governance.
As a nation, we face a challenge of tremendous consequences of youth bulge that we cannot continue to ignore. The economic future of our country depends on the now and next generation of young Kenyans becoming ready for college, work, and life. Sadly, however, many of our young people are reaching young adulthood without the skills and competencies they need to succeed. Millions of youth are being left behind, disconnected from the societal and economic mainstreams, and are falling into harm’s way. We can only overlook disconnected youth at our peril.
A globally competitive economy of our country requires healthy workers with higher skills and education. Our nation’s youth must provide the brainpower and manpower to fuel our economy, fill our skilled jobs, renew our civic life, and keep our nation safe. Only comprehensive investments—made now—will reconnect our youth and secure their future and those of their families, communities, and the country.
We need a national policy platform involving all levels of government and community sectors to reconnect our youth. Such national policy will make reconnecting our youth a national priority. It would build on young people’s strengths and involve them in finding solutions for their generation while investing in high-need communities. Further, the platform will create opportunities for work experiences relevant to careers and have real-world application, pathways to financial independence and social mobility, and build national and county capacity to expand effective, high-quality, evidence-based programming for the youth.
An economy working for the youth (E4Y) policy strategy should have the following components:
First, make reconnecting our youth a national priority. This will reconnect youth to education, skills, employment, service, and citizenship. To do this, we need leadership and institutional framework within the State House to coordinate all national and county efforts for youth. Current efforts to reach young people are insufficient and fragmented into narrow silos—no one is in charge or accountable. Leadership is needed to support, advance, and connect inter-agency efforts to promote the healthy development of this generation of youth.
Second, invest in building the youth service delivery capacity in communities of high youth distress. Communities need to be supported in undertaking aggressive efforts that produce real change on the ground in the way public systems work with the business community and social sector to create a comprehensive and coherent youth service delivery system. Nobody is accountable for youth who leave school prematurely or fall between the cracks as they transition between systems. Leadership at the local level needs to be supported to create a locus of responsibility for out-of-school, unemployed young people.
To address this issue at a scale sufficient to make a measurable difference in education and labor market outcomes, communities must realign how public systems and resources come together to support vulnerable youth. We have implemented a robust mechanism for engaging youth and connecting them to work experiences, post-secondary options, training, and employment.
Such a tool will support community efforts to build a robust youth service delivery infrastructure that involves all systems and sectors, including efforts to bring community providers, the business community, and social sectors together with public youth-serving systems. It will also provide communities with incentives and assistance to integrate new and existing services and funding streams to support youth programming at the local level.
Third, identify best practices and invest in scaling them up to meet the need for practical, high-quality, evidence-based programming for the youth. Governments at two levels will increase investment to enable communities to replicate and take to scale those existing programs of demonstrated effectiveness for which there is great demand. We do not need to reinvent the wheel to serve our nation’s youth. We know and have documented a great deal about what works.
Numerous programs nationwide have a consistent, proven track record for transforming young lives, but demand for these programs far outpaces public investment. The youth’s tremendous resources, talent, and infrastructure must be built upon and strengthened. There has to be significant investment and expansion in the national and county programs that attract disconnected young people and achieve good outcomes in education, job placement, personal responsibility, low recidivism rates, community service, and civic engagement as a matter of basic public policy, to reach the goal of reconnecting all our youth.
Fourth, create “on-ramps” and pipelines connecting youth to high-skill, high-wage career opportunities. Too many young people take wrong turns and end up in dead-end jobs. We must prepare youth for and connect youth to highly skilled opportunities. The challenge is that the educational profile of these youth run the gamut from well below class eight literacy level to levels just short of high school certificate, with most falling on the lower end.
The objective is to work with the education system, workforce system, youth practitioners, and the private sector to create pathways that will lead to secondary and post-secondary credentials, impart skills that are marketable in the emerging economy, and provide support that will help youth navigate in a complicated labor market environment. This will take leadership and cross-system capacity building to construct more flexible learning environments that incorporate contextual learning, innovative instructional technologies, alternative methods of awarding credit, and alternate vehicles for financing education. Communities will need resource support to design and implement a menu of options, drawing from the best practices appropriate for their youth population and the local economy.
Fifth, significantly expand the role of businesses and programs for work experience and civic engagement. We must create flexible, community- and work-based learning environments that incorporate hands-on learning, employ innovative instructional techniques, and lead to post-secondary skills and credentials. Further, we will robustly engage and incentivize businesses and industry to create employment opportunities in emerging areas of the economy and scale up successful work-based programs, including paid work experience, internships, apprenticeships, community service, and on-the-job training.
Sixth, create a policy and research infrastructure to identify innovations, assess progress, and provide technical assistance to youth and communities to build and sustain such initiatives. Vehicles must be put in place to seed innovation; nurture new development; provide for research and evaluation to identify and document promising practices that currently exist; and offer resources to the technical support that youth and communities will need to develop the leadership, management, and skills that will be required for success. The policies will address and help communities establish innovative sustainability plans and ensure program quality and accountability at local levels.
Finally, Involve young people in finding solutions for their own generation. We always talk about young people as a problem. But young people deserve respect. We should include them in finding solutions. Young people can and should work hand in hand with adults to craft solutions to the challenges they and their communities face. Every day, groups of policymakers – and adults – discuss the problems confronting young people without consulting them. This must radically change.
The writer is Executive Director, International Center for Policy and Conflict; Twitter: @NdunguWainaina.
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