Zapreneur proposals for youth unemployment naledi panel

Proposals for Youth Unemployment Or youth unemployment as a “poverty trap”.
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen
Zapreneur
editor@zapreneur.com
http://zapreneur.com
Presented at the Economic Development Conference hosted by the Department of Economic Development
30-31 May 2011
Birchwood Conference Centre

The “instrumental” problem with youth unemployment
The Ticking Bomb Metaphor –Someday, somewhere in a not so distant future we could have an uprising … but already here, just small and uncoordinated.
Economic growth – The economy will not grow and grow in a shared manner without addressing underlying reasons of why inequality exists
Service delivery and income inequality – “Good” government outputs, poor employment, educational and income outputs
Livelihoods difficult - Rural subsistence and/or informal employment limited in SA with spatial patterns being important
Coordinated and integrated – Lack of basic inputs arguably not in place

“The Poor”
Dynamically Poor
Unable to break out of poverty without an intervention
Poor at two different points in time
Cannot withstand a shock
Also called,
Structurally Poor
Chronically poor
Living in poverty trap
The so-called “uneverythings”

“The Poor”
Structurally Mobile
Fallen on hard times
With time will
Ability to withstand a shock
Also called:
Dynamically Mobile
Stochastic Poor
Dynamically Poor
Unable to break out of poverty without an intervention
Poor at two different points in time
Cannot withstand a shock
Also called,
Structurally Poor
Chronically poor
Living in poverty trap
The so-called “uneverythings”

“The Poor” and youth unemployment
If youth unemployment is temporary then:
Solutions should focus on “agency type interventions”
Market based mechanisms likely to work
Reliant on response from private sector firms
Redistributive systems are small
Current youth wage subsidy proposals do this

“The Poor” and youth unemployment
If youth unemployment is temporary then:
Solutions should focus on “agency type interventions”
Market based mechanisms likely to work
Reliant on response from private sector firms
Redistributive systems are small
Current youth wage subsidy proposals do this
If youth unemployment is about poverty traps then:
Solutions should tackle “structural issues”
Market based mechanism unlikely to work
Redistributive systems needed and needs to work
Current wage subsidy proposals do not do this

So what to do? The policy suite
Include youth in the social safety net (e.g. conditional grants in Latin America)
Extend the right to work through an employment guarantee (e.g. India)
Create asset bundle for young people (e.g. saving accounts for young children, and matched savings
In South Africa we do not do any of this, or at scale

Common Features
Focused on providing “some income” to stabilise communities
Entry and starting point with attempts to integrate and coordinate not at head office, but in the homes of the poor
Linked into wider economic strategy, with formal or informal

What does it mean for “Mzansi”?
Possible candidates
Significantly expand the Community Works Programme as a single major intervention
Provide social grants
to unemployed (either universal or targeted) or
change grants from individual to household grants, like Brazil
Longer term – create savings accounts for CSG recipient
Understand that in “cartel country” with “import parity pricing” and “inequality” youth unemployment will remain very high.
Can we wait for these bigger changes before we do something? Can “the something” help to make the bigger changes.

http://zapreneur.com	169
url_unknown	3
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1

Zapreneur proposals for youth unemployment naledi panel

by Zapreneur Media on Jun 01, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 173

Statistics

Zapreneur proposals for youth unemployment naledi panel Presentation Transcript