Youth unemployment is serious and growing problem in most African countries. In fact, in many of the countries, youth unemployment is about two times the national unemployment rate; in Nigeria it is four times the national average. An equally worrying trend is the high level of unemployment among educated youth. Two recent surveys for IFESH by NISER and Institute for Peace at the University of Ibadan revealed youth unemployment rates of over 60% among educated youth in Delta, Rivers, Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states – the focal states of the CALM project.
The traditional responses to the youth unemployment problem in Africa include direct job creation, job skills training, community-based public works programs, educational reform with focus on technical education and vocational training. For instance, over 15 years ago, the Nigerian government established the National Open Apprenticeship Scheme operated by the National Directorate of Unemployment (NDE). These measures have failed to alleviate the problem. The result is that youth unemployment remains a critical problem and source of insecurity in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. In fact, unemployed youths are known to be the main participants and “cannon fodders” in the spate of conflicts as well as the main culprits in general state of insecurity and armed robberies in many communities in Nigeria.
Thus, to prevent and effectively manage conflicts and insecurity in Nigeria (and elsewhere in Africa), the army of unemployed youths must be productively engaged in activities that will keep them away from conflicts and trouble.
Sport is one activity that can provide productive engagement for the teeming youths in Nigeria. To be sure, sport along cannot solve the youth unemployment problem, but the promotion of sports will go a long way in helping to alleviate the problem in combination with other policies.
All over the world, employment or engagement is critical to the regeneration disadvantaged or depressed communities and areas. In fact, local people place employment among their top priority, along with education and health. Sport has important contribution to make in creating employment and a prosperous local economy as well as in engaging youth. Sport can contribute to the economy in different ways by:
The sports sector includes many different activities and provides a wide range of employment and self-employment options within the commercial, public and not-for-profit sectors, including:
The sport and leisure sector and its supporting industries are significant contributors to modern economies, especially in developed countries. In England, over 400,000 people are estimated to be employed in sports-related activities. This represents about 2% of total employment in the economy. Sport-related activities also account for more than #9.8 billion in value added (i.e. 1.5% of total gross value added or GDP) and #5.8 billion (or about 1%) of total household disposable income. In fact, the sport and leisure sector is recognized as a growth sector and its impact in increasing. Studies in the UK have shown that increasing the rate of participation in regular sport and physical activity has significant multiplier effect on employment, output and consumer expenditure.
In the United States, a recent study by the Outdoor Industry Foundation shows the important role the active-outdoor-recreation industry plays in the nation's economy. Figures from the study indicate the industry (i.e. bicycling, camping, fishing, hunting, paddling, snow sports, trail and wildlife viewing):
In New York City, one of the sports capitals of the world, the sports industry is worth as much as the entire construction industry. Sports are also driving some of New York's biggest plans for the future. The city has a large number of professional sports teams including Yankees baseball team ; the Mets baseball team, the Rangers hockey team, the Knicks basketball team, the Liberty women's basketball team, the Giants football team, the Metrostars soccer team and the Islanders hockey team. It is estimated that the sports industry generates $11.5 billion a year, or 2.5 percent of the city's total annual economy.
We do not have data on the contribution of sports to the economy of Nigeria, but it is undoubtedly less than the situation in the UK , US and other developed countries. Clearly, there is scope to promote sport and enhance its contribution to the Nigerian economy and productive youth engagement in the country.
Three of the major challenges facing democratic governance in Nigeria are: a) Frequent violent conflicts in many part country which are triggered by religious, communal, ethnic, or resource control issues; b) Endemic corruption; and c) Weak electoral system.
To assist in addressing the first challenge, the Nigerian Mission of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded an $8million cooperative agreement to the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH), a Phoenix-based NGO with field offices in Nigeria and other African countries, to implement the “Conflict Management through Local Mitigation (CALM) project in five states in the country –Delta, Rivers, Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states- over a period of five years. These are the states that have experienced high episodes of violent conflicts in recent years. The goal of the CALM project is to prevent and reduce conflicts in five targeted states by strengthening the capacity of the Nigerian society (governments and its relevant agencies, communities and civil society organizations) to better understand and address the factors responsible for violent conflicts, prevent conflicts using peaceful means, and mitigate the impacts of such conflicts whenever they occur.
Within these targeted states, the project focuses on the high-risk areas or “hot-spots” with history of violent conflicts or high potential for conflicts and the key actors in the conflicts. The project has three key components, as follows:
The first set of interventions target at-risk youths in the five target states. Activities include creating economic and social opportunities for youth through structured training including conflict management training, civic education, and skills training. The project also seeks to engage youth in constructive activities such as sports as a means of team-building as well as create opportunities for productive livelihoods. The second set of interventions focuses on providing an effective early warning system (EWS) in all five states. The early warning system is needed to neutralize potential conflicts and allow potential conflicts to be identified early and resolved before reaching a danger point. The third set of interventions focuses on main-streaming or integrating CMM into traditional development interventions including agriculture, education, health, governance, etc operated by other development partners.
IFESH will also incorporate key stakeholders in the CMM process in the targeted states through the establishment of Conflict Management and Mitigation Regional Councils (CMMRCs) in each of the states. These CMMRCs will receive both early warning and conflict management training to enable them to (a) work with youth to identify economic and social opportunities; (b) serve as a major conduit for recognizing, reporting and channeling early warning signs to appropriate authorities/organizations and (c) mediate conflict and negotiate peace agreements between rival factions. The integration of conflict management into major sectors of the economy and society is a priority objective of the CALM project.
A major component of the project is to enhance the productive engagement of youths in the five target states. Among the various strategies that IFESH has identified for the productive engagement of youths is the promotion of sports in addition to skills training. Since IFESH is not in a position to promote many types of sports, it decided to take one sport –basketball- and use it as the "entry point"- for the promotion of sports as a tool for productive youth engagement. IFESH has engaged the services of the "Basketball for Peace" organization to promote basketball and form peace zones and clubs in the hot spots areas in all the five target states. The youths who are members of these zones and clubs will be actively involved in the CALM project and will receive conflict management and mitigation (CMM) training during the initial phases of the sports program. Later, both youth zones and youth peace clubs will receive early warning (EWS) training.
During the first year of the project, the Basketball for Peace (BB4P) has made inroads into all five by establishing 30 zones and 90 peace clubs. It has formed basketball teams, established or renovated some basketball facilities, especially in schools, and organized basketball competitions. IFESH has also inaugurated the RCs in all five states and has completed two major studies on the causes and dynamics of conflicts in all five states and the jobs skills required for productive engagement of youths.
The peace zones and clubs are critical in the BB4P intervention. Peace zones serve as centers for dissemination of leadership training in conjunction with sports as well as training centers. In 2006/7, the peace zones and clubs are the centers for voter education/civic education and for early warning collection data. The peace clubs take the principles of peace education directly into schools and expose youth to this concept at an early age. The peace clubs are located in secondary schools near and around the identified peace zones. In this way they provide direct access to all students in the neighboring schools and encourage them to take part in peace education. The peace clubs are meant to be centers for exchange of constructive information and act as learning centers. They are structured around a written constitution, which sets forth a Governing Committee. This Committee consists of a state coordinator, peace manager and peer educators all youth plus a teacher who acts as a counselor. They serve a specified period and convene at stipulated meeting times. The peace clubs provide outreach to the communities in which they are located. They provide peer education on CMM having attended the TOT. They assist to transform participating youth into a public force for peace.
In the second year of the project which has just started, focus will be on livelihood skill training for youth, establishment of additional peace zones (15) and peace clubs (45) in all the five states, strengthening the peace zones and clubs through sports (basketball competitions) and training. EWS-related training will be conducted for all members of the five CMMRCs and all at-risk youth located in all 45 peace zones and 135 peace clubs. Youth under the established peace zones and peace clubs together with youth associations will continue to be an important conduit through which information, warning signs of potential violent outbursts will be collected. The youth will serve as a data collection network in gathering data. Overall, the EWS together with activities in peace zones and peace clubs and support from RCs will not only address youth restlessness and vulnerability to violence, but will also build local capacity to detect and report/respond to conflicts.
IFESH will also initiate outreach to youth associations and youth organizations in 2006/7. The target is to create community-based youth associations to ensure sustainability. These youth associations will provide a formal link between the youth peace zones and the community. IFESH will target these youth associations to participate in the voter education/poll monitoring. Up to 600 youth from this category will be targeted for this specialized training during the first two quarters of 2006//07. Included in this group will be the Almajeri or “servants of God”. These groups of at-risk, idle young boys are a substantial presence in the three predominantly Moslem states of Kaduna, Kano and Plateau. Most of these boys have been separated from their parents to undergo religious training under the direction of local Iman. Without parental direction, most of these boys spend their spare time on the streets getting into trouble. Thus they are a ripe source for recruitment and manipulation by groups. In response, BB4P has developed a pilot football league and started competitions for this group as a diversion away from violence in Kano state. Beginning in 2006/7, this group will be a target group for assistance as part of our focus on the 2007 elections. As such they will receive some assistance as part of an outreach under BB4P in Kano. IFESH will also work with the Interfaith Mediation Center in developing youth peer counselors with youth in Kano, Kaduna and Plateau (Jos) as part of the youth association umbrella.
With the completion of the skills assessment survey by NISER, IFESH will commence skills training in early 2007. Candidates for first year of skills training will be selected from among the at-risk youth in the 30 established peace zones and 90 peace clubs. In subsequent years, this training pool will be expanded to include the newly established peace zones and peace clubs as well as youth from youth associations and youth groups including those participating in interventions/transformations. The vocational youth training period is expected to be from three to six months duration. The purpose of this training will be to provide gainful livelihood to the pool of at-risk youth from these peace zones, peace clubs and youth associations. The trained youths wick be provided start-up kits to enable them put into practice what they have learned in their training. At the end of each training, a an assessment will be conducted as to the relevance of this training for the targeted youth and whether or not it leads to job acquisition.
Table 1: Achievement and Some Targets for Productive Engagement of Youths under CALM in 2006/7
| Description | 2005/6 | 2006/7 | Cumulative 2005-7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. of Peace Zones Created | 30 | 15 | 45 |
| No. of Youths Targeted in Peace Zones (45 per zone) | 1350 | 2025 | |
| No. of Peace Clubs | 90 | 45 | 135 |
| No. of Youths targeted in Peace Clubs (30 per club) | 2700 | 4385 | |
| Rehabilitation of BBcourts | 15 | ||
| Basket Ball practice | n/a | ||
| CMM Trainings | 300 | ||
| Peace Clubs meeting | 190 | ||
| BB4P competitions | n/a | ||
| Civic & social activities | 162 | ||
| BB4P Trainings | n/a | ||
| EWS Training | 403 | ||
| Voters Ed /Civic Ed Training | 600 | ||
| Skills Training | 150 | ||
| Literacy training | n/a |