The response to Local Content imperatives is also and mainly in the promotion of employment. But this increasingly requires an ‘outside of the box’ vision in which the link between programmes and innovation are mandatory requirements to achieve the objectives, as fair as they are necessary, of development in Cabo Delgado
In the most recent workshop of the +Emprego Project, held on the 30th of November, in Maputo, the debate followed the motto: “Dynamics of Innovation and +Employment”, a theme that suggests the necessary and urgent evolution of the paradigm in the approach towards the effective employability of the young population of Cabo Delgado Province.
The meeting was attended, as usual, by several entities that are partners of the project: the European Union, which co-finances +Emprego, the CTA, the IFPELAC, the Aga Khan Foundation, GAPI, among others.
Cristina Paulo, general coordinator of the +Emprego Project, opened the session, addressing “the importance of the knowledge management of a pilot project, which has the mission of scaling up worthy existing initiatives, but also of valuing and testing new programmes, approaches and methodologies, in a project that is small in financial scale, but not in ambition, which is huge”.
Based on the diversity of partners and ways of making things happen to achieve the intended results, the final objective of the +Emprego project “is to improve the employability of young people in Cabo Delgado and increase their income”, he said.
The +Emprego project is supported by the European Union, managed and co-financed by Camões I.P., with a budget of 4.2 million euros.
Looking outside to do inside
The first idea shared on the occasion was the incorporation of the innovative aspect in the discussion and implementation of all employment promotion initiatives, and it fell to Jason Mozambique’s partner, João Gomes, as keynote speaker of the session, to address the “Innovative African solutions for youth employability”, suggesting “a look at the experiences of some African countries to try to understand what they are doing to combat unemployment”.
“+Emprego is based on a great diversity of partners and has attributed great importance to knowledge management. We are a small project in financial scale, but not in ambition”
And proposed, on that basis, “an approach from three angles. First: the change of focus from the demand to the supply of jobs, with the argument that it is not enough to equip young people with a series of technical and professional skills and then ‘stock’ them somewhere outside the market, as has currently been done; secondly, the change of mentality, meaning that unemployment in Africa does not depend only on the action of governments, but of all actors in society; and thirdly, the role of young people who are no longer the problem, are gaining a voice and are part of the solution.”
An example of innovative ‘out of the box’ measures made in Africa is that of Nigeria. “In response to the mismatch between the employment needs of industry (very supply-side focused) and training in universities (demand-side focused), the Universities Commission of Nigeria has benchmarks for interactions between universities and industry.”
In other words, he continued, “it is mandatory for all Nigerian universities to establish enterprise centres. In other words, the aspect to consider is not young people or their ‘hyper-qualification’, but the supply of jobs.” For João Gomes, “this is where one should start thinking about this issue in Mozambique as well.”
A lot to do, but something is already happening
There are, even so, good innovation initiatives and some even gave their testimony at the +Emprego workshop, such as the training of beekeepers in rural communities in Cabo Delgado, namely in Chiúre district, for the benefit of displaced and vulnerable youths, promoted by the Aga Khan Foundation. According to Alexandre Devissone, “this project supported by +Emprego aims to establish the market value chain by ensuring the retail of processed, packaged or raw honey, and ensuring the availability of food.
To this end, 75 hives were installed in that locality. The trainees worked in teams to build hives with a view to their integration into the labour market and income generation,” he said.
The contribution of major projects
“How to increase the innovation of measures aimed at the employability of young people in Cabo Delgado, aiming at their greater effectiveness from the perspective of the private sector?” To this question asked in the panel debate at the same event, Paulo Mendonça, E&P Country Manager of Galp in Mozambique, revealed the achievements of the multinational, one of the concessionaires of the natural gas project of Areas 1 and 4 of the Rovuma Basin, and how it is developing programmes at the level of training, training and internships in the company, assisnalizing that, currently, most of the people it hires are young people.
“We have a program that is already consolidated in various countries and also here in Mozambique, through which we hire young people for internships. The most successful ones end up staying. This is the most important tool that Galp has at the moment to hire young people”, he revealed.
Paulo Mendonça recalled the good experiences carried out by the multinational company, the recent agreement signed with the International Association of Students in Economic and Business Sciences (AIESEC), in order to support the implementation of its social impact projects, also bringing the company closer to the Mozambican youth,” he added.
In addition, he said, “Galp has an agreement with the +Emprego project, signed during FACIM, through which it will fund a programme developed with the Unilurio University to train train young people in oil and gas, starting early next year.
Paulo Mendonça also recalled that, already in 2012, “the company developed a series of programmes, with emphasis on the training of 200 young people in various areas of skills related to this type of projects.
This was an international training, lasting between two and three years, and that contributed to the beneficiaries having raised their skills, and many were hired.”
ILO calls for aggregation of information
The International Labour Organisation (ILO), represented by Paulo Selemane, recommended looking at the structure of productive potential, and even demographics, to decide on policies to boost employment.
“Currently there is an euphoria, justifiable even, in relation to gas. But the fact is that the country is essentially agricultural and with about 60% of the population living in coastal areas.
In the specific case of coastal populations, the ILO is supporting the process of implementation of the maritime labour convention that Mozambique ratified, which has already come into force, and which will enable the promotion of new opportunities for decent work”, he explained, referring to some of the projects underway in the Northern provinces, namely Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado, with a component focused on agriculture.
“The aim is that young people start looking at agriculture as a high value job, with the same image that one has of someone who works in a bank or an office.
In other words, there is this strategy of changing the paradigm and of convincing young people to believe that income from agricultural production should not embarrass people”, he clarified, while mentioning the need to move towards aggregating all existing information about the various development programmes that currently exist in the region.
