What is the value of integration to youth?

Although there has been a lot of activity on regional integration in the past two years, the East Africa Community (EAC) has not scored well on the youth agenda.

The findings of the East Africa Institute indicate that nearly 70 per cent of East Africa’s young people are not enthusiastic about regional integration.

The report notes that although political leaders have been making headline news due to their heightened activities in the bloc, there is little interest among the youth because they have not been allowed to participate.

This has led to the notion among young people that the bloc offers no solutions to the problems they face, that it is a political construct of the heads of the East African states, with little relevance on the lives of ordinary folks.

Poor public participation is reinforced by the fact that Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Kenya, the five EAC members, have different levels of democratisation. This makes it difficult to embrace public participation as an integral part of the integration process.

When Uhuru Kenyatta was elected as Kenya’s fourth president in 2013 and became the EAC chairman, the bloc hastily initiated a number of economic and infrastructural projects.

Although they have arguably had far-reaching economic benefits, critics argue that not sufficient consultations were done and that therefore, the programmes are not likely to yield the desired results.

SINGLE CUSTOMS

Notable among the programmes was the launch of the Single Customs Territory in 2013 that allows all goods imported in the region to be cleared at points of entry. Various players involved in cargo clearing opposed this initiative, saying that if they had been consulted on how this would affect their businesses, a different approach would have been adopted.

Last year, the Heads of State of the five EAC countries signed the Single Monetary Union Protocol to strengthen integration and economic links in the region, generating debate because of the low public involvement.

East African countries face many similar challenges, key among them a growing youth population that cannot find jobs. Children and the youth account for 80 per cent of the region’s population and 60 per cent of the region’s jobless people are the youth.

As the regional bloc seeks innovative solutions to its problem, it should consider the fact that it has a huge human resource capacity from its youthful population who can also serve as consumers.

Some of the successful projects that individual countries are implementing to enhance the wellbeing of the youth should be given a regional approach. For example, Kenya’s Youth Enterprise Development Fund and the 30 per cent tender jobs for the youth rule is a model that other East African countries can borrow.

At 0.7 per cent, Rwanda has the lowest rate of youth unemployment in the region. Countries in East Africa can learn from Rwanda’s robust training and funding of programmes for the youth. 

As regional integration implements joint road, rail, and telecommunication projects, it should consider pooling resources to nurture a competent youthful workforce that would significantly reduce reliance on foreign labour.

Mr Obonyo is a Global Young Diplomat and the external adviser on the UN Habitat’s Youth Advisory Board. [email protected]