Africa-Press – Lesotho. Centre for Youth Development Services (C4YDS) held a discussion forum to highlight the urgent need for the government to address youth unemployment and economic
empowerment. C4YDS was founded in Zambia back in 2014 and started operating in Lesotho in 2017, co-formulating the Lesotho National Youth Policy (NYP).
C4YDS’s purpose is to professionalize youth development in the country, advocate for youth and ensure that people who work with youth issues are well capacitated.
According to C4YDS Consultant Zwelithini Matsoso, the centre is in preparations to undertake the regional study on youth employment, to record the statistics of
unemployed youth and also to collect evidence by listening to youth’s opinions about unemployment. He added that the aim is to use the gathered information as
an advocacy tool among others, so that they can inform or encourage change of strategies. “The biggest task of C4YDS is to support the government and young
civil societies, to advice on the measures to change strategies and programmes that hinder empowerment of young people,” he said. Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation Senior Entrepreneurship Officer in the Department
of Youth Lintle Rabolinyane said the ministry is mandated to deliver among others, the Government of Lesotho’s vision of overall empowerment of young people through the effective integration of youth into socio-economic
development issues. She said they also guard the NYP to ensure that everything that the youth planned in the policy becomes a success. Rabolinyane further said the NYP was implemented in 2018 though it was blessed in 2017.
The NYP 2017-2030 has been developed with and for all youth in the Kingdom of Lesotho as a step forward to invest in the Youth. She said among the NYP
strategies, the focus is mostly on youth economic empowerment, education and skills development. ”I have learnt that in the Continent of Africa, the rate of
unemployment is very high,” she said. She further reflected on the newly formed movement called #BachaShutDown, which functions as an advocate for youth unemployment.
She noted that the issue of unemployment also appears in the NYP and they have declared it as a crisis. She added that this means youth unemployment has to be prioritized.
Rabolinyane further said as youth department, they have not really worked hard to ensure all the strategies that were put in place were achieved. She said among the factors
that have hindered this, is the outbreak of COVID-19 which impacted their strategies badly. She said another factor is appreciation and understanding of
the youth issues in different government ministries and departments. “Every year there is a budget allocated for youth but as the youth department, we have
never seen that budget with our own eyes,” she said, adding that they have learnt that such budget is used in other departments. One of the youth Letsatsi Lekhooa said the youth are hesitant to engage in issues
that affect them. “We are more interested in the things that do not concern us and this means our issues will always stay behind,” he said. The youth also complained that when applying for some vacancies, they are told that
they are over qualified. They said politics have also brought corruption in the country so much that as a young person, one has to follow as certain political party in order to get a job.
