What does it take to address unemployment among youth in model villages?

There is a need to devise strategies that will help reduce unemployment in different model villages across the country, players in the social protection sector have said. As of 2019 before Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Infrastructure reported 130 IDP model villages constructed countrywide which have housed more than 4,000 Rwandan families relocated from high-risk zones and other vulnerable groups. However, activists and local authorities have said that there is a need to create job opportunities for youth who are facing unemployment in such model villages across the country. Unemployment among the youth, in the country, was 22.4 per cent, higher than the 17.9 per cent of the overall unemployment rate in the country according to a 2020 survey by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). According to James. K. Rwabwera, Executive Director of Friends Effort to Support Youth (FESY), a local registered youth centered NGO, aiming at empowering youth to acquire knowledge and skills for sustainable development, there are job creation opportunities that can curb such unemployment rate among the youth in various ways. “We have launched a project aimed to create jobs for youth in model villages. One of them is the Karama model village. We are expecting them to graduate out of poverty through skills that will empower them to create their own jobs. The TVET skills are needed on the labour market and we hope that after one year, the project will support more youth apart from those in the Karama model village,” he said. Karama Integrated Development Model Village is located in Kigali sector, Nyarugenge District. It is home to over 240 households relocated from high-risk zones around the three Districts of City of Kigali. The Model Village which was inaugurated by President Paul Kagame comprises of state-of-art living apartments, a secondary school with modern Science and ICT laboratories, a modern Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD), six green houses, a poultry farming, a health post, sports facilities and a modern market It also has access to water and electricity; equipped with decent road networks and a waste treatment system. However the gap in welfare of some of the youth in this village has been identified. Rwabwera said that over 100 youth in Karama village are set to get job creation hands-on skills that will help them become entrepreneurs. “We have established the Karama Youth Prosperity Centre which is going to equip them with hands-on skills,” he said. The initiative will be implemented under the project dubbed “Empowerment of youth skills towards job creation in Karama IDP Model Village” in partnership with the City of Kigali under the support of the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) through Rwanda Governance Board (RGB). The project will train, mentor and help beneficiaries to create cooperatives and find markets to what they will be producing. Fifty of 100 youth will be trained in green farming on a small scale, 30 will be trained on tailoring skills while twenty will be trained in e-Business through ICT. Betty Murebwayire, Division Manager of Nyarugenge District said that there is need for more strategies to curb unemployment in urban areas like Kigali city. “We pledge to partner in tackling the unemployment problem through helping youth to create more jobs. With hands-on skills, the youth will be able to create startups that play a big role in reducing unemployment and thus boost national economic development,” she said. The youth from Karama Model village have stressed the need for business creation opportunities saying TVET skill is the primary startup capital. “Some of the youth in the village are teen mother, others are school dropouts and others are school graduates who are yet to get employment,” said Donatha Imaniragena, a 20-year-old young girl who is set to acquire green farming skills for vegetables and fruits emphasizing that agriculture provides business opportunities which many youths have not yet tapped into. “This is an opportunity that will help us to address the problem of unemployment,” she said. Addressing juvenile delinquency Eric Niyonkuru, also among the youth, added that the youth centre will address both juvenile delinquency and unemployment among the youth in the model village. “Some male say that tailoring is for girls and women. That is a poor mindset. Tailoring is a business that can eradicate juvenile delinquency and curb unemployment among the youth because we have realized that it is a viable business,” she said. Anita Igiraneza, a 21-year-old teen mother said that she is looking to acquire tailoring skills to be able to fend for her two children. “I look after two children, my son and an abandoned child I took from the street. While my parents are no longer able to work, I am the only one to satisfy the basic needs for these children. The tailoring business will be generating daily income for me to afford all expenses,” she said. Chantal Niyonkuru, 20, is a teen mother who has also preferred to learn tailoring skills. “After dropping out of school in senior three due to lack of financial capacity, I became hopeless. With support in gaining tailoring skills, I expect to beat the odds. The business opportunity will help us to curb more unwanted pregnancies,” she said. Considering off-farm jobs targets in model villages Rwanda targets to create 1.5 million off-farm jobs by 2024 to reduce unemployment among the youth. At least 214,000 off-farm jobs were targeted to be created annually to be able to meet the target since 2017. So far, according to the ministry in charge of labour, 942,324 off-farm jobs have been created in the past five years. In the next two years, 129,101 off-farm jobs are supposed to be created including those to be created in model villages. During the visit last year in Cyankongi Model Village in Masaka Sector of Kicukiro District, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi, the local government minister said that the government is going to devise strategies for creating income generating activities in all model villages across the country. “Resettled residents in the model villages need water access and health services close to them. We have to think of income generating projects that can help them improve welfare. We can set up an integrated Craft Product Centres where young people and other workforce can do various income generating activities such as carpentry,” “They can do tailoring and tap into opportunities in and around the villages. We can set up a small market in these model villages. We can set up poultry houses to promote rearing as a business, they need kitchen gardens and many other income generating activities,” he said. He said VUP works are also opportunities for residents in model villages to generate income that should be tapped into. “All income generating opportunities will help them get means to buy food and satisfy other needs. All constructed model villages should have access to basic services,” he noted.

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What does it take to address unemployment among youth in model villages?