UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION, YOUTH, CULTURE AND SPORTS
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen;
I am humbled and honoured to address this distinguished gathering and it is indeed a great privilege for me to be present at this high - level meeting on youth. It is a special pleasure to associate myself with the Youths from across the world.
To my understanding this is an appropriate platform for youth in strengthening international cooperation, enhancing dialogue, mutual understanding and active participation. As we all know these are indispensable elements towards achieving social integration, full employment and poverty eradication for sustainable development.
On behalf of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania; I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the International Youth Fellowship and Forum Organization Committee for organizing and inviting us to make a contribution to this special gathering. I believe that young people clearly have a role to play in challenging the social and economic problems they face and come up with joint strategies for action. We also know deliberate efforts and measure are taken to engage the youth in constructive activities in our respective countries. This includes a requirement on the youth themselves changing their mindset towards the challenges they encounter and take action to overcome them.
Let me share with you a thought that is critical to understand on the theme of this meeting; that is “Aimlessly Drifting Youths: Their Minds and Actions.” A substantive member of youth in the whole world, engage on issues that have hindered the level of their participation in development, and this is due to their pattern of thinking. Some simply sit idly and doing nothing. And as we all know : “ Idle minds are devils workshop”.
In the 18 Century, a great philosopher (Aristotle) once said there are three major types of mindsets; Great Mind, Average Mind and Simple mind. The great minded people make things happen, average minded people watch things happening, while simple minded people they wonder why things are happening. I am sure we are all struggling towards ensuring that our youth fall on the great minded people category.
This means the youth who make positive things happen. Since most of today’s youths are faced with the threat of drug use, unemployment, while others grew up under poverty, some have made streets their home and many are orphaned children.
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen;
As we all know we have to address various challenges and opportunities for our young men and women in our countries today. Some of the challenges and opportunities facing young men and women today are in the education, health, employment, etc.
Education
The education that is afforded youth (secondary and University) does not prepare them for the skills that are needed in the market today. In most cases graduates do without the basic support forms for expanded knowledge such as basic forms for self reliance, volunteering do not feature in the current education system so much that when they graduate they expect to be employed by Government. Hence these very limited opportunities for the young men and women, combined with social exclusion, can lead to social tensions and potentially to conflict.
Employment
Finding satisfying work at a livable wage is critical to economic empowerment of most youth in the developing world. Gone are the days enjoyed by their parents; where you finish and have a job waiting. All these are results of development. Successful programs in some countries have been developed to help youth with their job creation, searches, business and entrepreneurial skills. This has worked well because at their stage of life, youth are natural risk takers.
Health
Adolescence is the period of life when one takes risks. Much of this risk- taking relates to the individual’s sense of self-esteem and well-being. If someone is depressed or pessimistic he/she is more likely to take unsafe risks.
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen;
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania; is committed to empower young men and women in economic, social and cultural aspects. Responsibilities for youth issues are shared between all Ministries, Departments and Government Agencies as well as youth organizations and other stakeholders.
The Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports prepares and implements government policy, legislation, rules and guidelines on youth issues. This is always done by full involvement of various stakeholders including Civil Societies, Development partners and Youth themselves.
As we all know, young people are the most important segments in the society. In Tanzania, they comprise 35% of the total population and about 68% of the total labour force. While population of Tanzania is estimated to approach 40.0 million people young people aging from 15-35 years are 11.8 M. Among these 5.6 M are boys and 6.2 M are girls. The last census also shows that the proportion of young people is larger in urban areas (34%) than it is in rural areas (3%).
This year we have census programme in August in order to update the statistics. Employment creation in the country has been growing in some sectors but not to the extent to match with the growth of the labour force. The last survey of Integrated Labour Force indicates that, during the period of the past 5 years, the labour force in Tanzania increased by 2.8 million people which is an increase of 16.0%.
Current employed persons account for 79.2% of the total population aged 15 years and above. With the dynamics in the statistics of the active labour force, it is imperative to ensure the positive mindset of the youth.
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen;
Several interventions have been implemented by the Government of Tanzania and development partners to solve the problems facing young people in employment. Let me also use this opportunity to invite business partners from Korea to invest in Tanzania; so that we can work together to improve the economies. These are several sectors to invest on including; Agriculture, Fishing, Mining, Tourism, Processing Industries, Port and Habour related activities, etc. All these are potential areas for youth employment opportunities.
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen;
Tanzania is now focusing on the following areas:-
Promoting meaningful youth involvement and participation to enhance good governance, and acceptable values and ethics by:
· Using our Youth Centres situated in different parts of Tanzania (Illonga, Sasanda & Marangu) to offer livelihood and life skills as well as short courses on ICT and leadership skills for youth.
· Building the Moral capital (Ethical capital + Social capital) through the re-launching of the National Youth Service (Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa)
· Formulation of the National Youth Council
· Effective dissemination of National Youth Participation Strategy
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In concluding, I would like to call on Governments and other organizations dealing with youth issues that they should pay attention and support youth in addressing the challenges they face in various areas such as; health, education and employment. Ensuring the ability of youth to be responsible citizens and to find full and productive employment must be a central objective of national development strategies, including poverty reduction policies. Changing youth mindset towards informal employment is an important aspect for youth wellbeing and empowerment.
As pointed out earlier, I welcome the Korean Investors to Tanzania as there is a lot of potential and opportunities for businesses. We also have a very good political stability which is an asset for investors.
Youth networking is another opportunity for addressing youth challenges. I therefore want to take this opportunity to call youth in the 2012 World Camp, Youth Directors and the Ministers to make use of this opportunity to network, share experiences and chart out solutions for the challenges that they face. As we do so we should remember to see God’s Grace in our endervours.
Once again, I thank you for the invitation and we look forward to working with you in developing the correct mindset for our youth worldwide, so that they can also be responsible for their development and that of their Nation.
I THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
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