By Suzanne York.

If you are a parent or a teacher, you might be excused for occasionally thinking that there are too many young people.

But it’s true that there are a lot of young men and women living right now, as noted in a recent op-ed in the New York Times by Somini Sengupta, “The World Has a Problem: Too Many Young People.”

Sengupa writes, “A fourth of humanity is now young (ages 10 to 24). The vast majority live in the developing world, according to the United Nations Population Fund.” A fourth of humanity equals nearly 2 billion people.  And many are not having an easy time finding a job. The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that almost 43 per cent of the global youth labor force is either unemployed or working but living in poverty.

Youth Bulge

But doesn’t a youth bulge result in a demographic dividend?  It worked great for the Asian Tigers.

Yet Charles J. Kenny, an economist at the Washington-based Center for Global Development, told Sengupa, “No longer can you be sure that a large swell of young working-age people will enrich your country, as they did a generation ago in East Asia. “You can’t just say, ‘Hey look, I’ve got a youth bulge, it’s going to be great.’ You’ve got to have an economy ready to respond.”

According to the World Bank, the global economy will need to create 600 million jobs over the next 10 years – five million jobs each month – simply to keep pace with projected youth employment rates, per its report ‘Toward Solutions for Youth Employment.’

In 2014, the ILO reported youth unemployment was highest in the Middle East and North Africa, at 28.2 per cent and 30.5 per cent, respectively.

Taking a closer look at Sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the world’s population growth will occur, the World Bank states that half of the population is under 25 years of age. Each year between 2015 and 2035, there will be half a million more 15-year-olds than the year before.

Finding jobs for them will be a challenge, even more so for women. The African Development Bank (AfDB) found that in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and all of those in North Africa, it is easier for men to get jobs than it is for women, even if they have equivalent skills and experience.

But for young men who can’t find viable employment, joining gangs, militias, or terrorist groups can become an enticing option.  In addition to Nigeria, Boko Haram is also recruiting in neighboring countries like Cameroon and Chad.  Local authorities have said hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people in northern Cameroon, who lack access to school and employment, are increasingly fighting alongside Boko Haram.

Climate change is also a factor, especially for rural youth. As farming and agriculture becomes more challenging in the face of droughts and floods, many give up and try to find better luck in cities.

The Right Solutions

The obvious solution is of course to create jobs – public and private – but these need to be sustainable livelihoods, not just informal sector work.  Social enterprise, in particular around renewable energy and clean tech, offers growing opportunities.  And in addition to jobs, effectively addressing poverty, inequality and weak governance is critical for today’s youth to find success.

Other solutions include empowering women and girls, and investing in voluntary family planning.   By 2050, Nigeria is predicted to be the world’s fourth most populous country.  Major investments in education, jobs, health, contraception and women is sorely needed, starting today.  All of those young people in Nigeria and much of Sub-Saharan Africa represent what demographers refer to as population momentum, defined as “the tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement-level fertility has been achieved because of the relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing years.”  In other words, young people are in their prime reproductive years.

 

The Impact of Social Enterprise

Empowering and investing in youth is clearly the way to go.  For a little hope, check out the Nigerian organization Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF), founded by Njideka Harry.  Ms. Harry has said that “giving Africans the ability to create their own opportunities is vitally important, as the educational system too often does not create any for them.” Since 2001, YTF has worked in regions of Africa plagued by poverty and pervasive unemployment, especially among youth and women.  Read more here about other women social entrepreneurs who are making a difference all over the Africa continent.

Alexander Chikwanda, Zambia’s finance minister, has called youth unemployment in Africa “a ticking time bomb.” If Africa and the world are to stop that bomb from going off, then supporting women and men social entrepreneurs is a smart way to go about it.