Empowering and Sustaining Unemployed Youths Through Innovative Social Enterprise and Global Partnership.

 

 The Sustainable  Development  Goals (SDGs) are bold commitments of  the United Nations (UN)  to finish what was started in  the  year 2000, by tackling  some of  the more pressing challenges facing the world today. All 17 Goals interconnect, meaning success in one affects success for others.

The SDGs are unique in that they cover issues that affect us all. They reaffirm our international commitment to end poverty, permanently, everywhere. They are ambitious in making sure no one is left behind. More importantly, they involve us all to build a more sustainable, safer, more prosperous planet for all humanity.

This write-up is on  an  innovative  social enterprise and global partnership that addresses several of the Sustainable Development Goals  would be used to help the unemployed  youths realize their full potentials.   Many  youths  migrate from  the rich cultural, traditional  and  agricultural  enriched   rural areas  to the urban  cities after graduation in search of white collar jobs.

Government of various countries  of  the world do not fold their hands to watch  the large number of their population comprising of youths   roam  the streets in search of the unavailable government  jobs. They initiate one policy / program  or  the other  to cushion  the bad effects of unemployment  and  provide jobs for the youths.  They form  collaborations  with  financial  and private  institutions  to identify youth  assets and needs,  implement collective practical solutions and provide opportunities for  the  youths  and  unemployed  adults / retirees in order  to establish  a mutually beneficial  relationships.

 

These  collaborative  global  partnerships have resulted  in a social  and  economic enterprises through  funding  and technical aids  by  International  Donors, World Bank, Oil Companies,  Philanthropists , Non-Governmental Organizations  ( NGOs), Faith  Based  Organizations  (FBOs)  through their  corporate social responsibility  initiatives.

Any social  or  economic  entrepreneurial  initiative  is based on  a  model  that encourage sustainable  economic  growth  through collaboration.  A  case  study  of  such  initiative  is Patriensa  Pure Enterprise ( PPE)  in  Ghana,  a paper  presented  by Wm. Tim  Bailey  et  al.  at  the  African  Local  Summit  “ Empowering  Africa  to  Achieve  the  MDGs”  held  at  Kwame  Nkrumah  University  of  Science  and  Technology,  Kumasi,  Ghana  on  April 1-4  2012.  Similar  projects  can  be  replicated  in  various  countries  of  the  world  during the  Post-  COVID  era  to  create  employment  for  the  youths  and  others  whose  jobs  were affected   by  the  pandemic.

 Patriensa   is  one  of   the  Ghanaian  community  located   within  the Ashanti  region.  Because  Patriensa  lacks  many  basic  community  resources,  she  formed  collaboration  with  the University  of  Texas ( UT) at  Austin  and  Kwame  Nkrumah  University  of  Science  and  Technology  ( KNUST) to  establish  PPE.

 PPE consists  of   three  initial  initiatives:

a      a)  a  sachet water production  business where  “ sachets “ of  water are produced  and  sold;

b      b)  a  plastic  recycling  initiative; and

c      c)  a  biomass  briquette  project  to  manufacture  hand- pressed  briquettes   made  from  sawdust  and  other  agricultural  waste  products. 

It  is  worthy  to  note  that  each  initiative  trains  and  employs  community  members,   thereby  adding  skillsets  and  sources  of  gainful  income.

The sachet  production  provides  a  local  source  of  sachets  and  also  provides  economic  growth  and  job  creation  of  at  least  ten  employees  including  the  manager  of  PPE. The  recycling  project  takes  care  of  the  environmental  and  sanitation  issue  of  litter  from  used  plastic.

PPE  goes  on  to  partner  with  Trashy  Bags,  a  NGO  based  in  Accra,  and  trained   a  team  of  ten   unemployed  residents  of  Patriensa   to  collect,  clean,  and  produce  products  such  as  grocery  bags,  backpacks,  and  purses  from  the  litter.  As at  2012,  the  briquette  project  is  in  product  development  and  market  analysis  to  see  how  best  to  utilize  the  sawdust  waste  from  a  local  sawmill  for  a  cooking  fuel  source  and   initially  employed  two  community  members.

A volunteer  Board  of  Directors  consisting  of  six  members  was  established  to  oversee  the  enterprise  and  ensure  sustainability.  The  board  is  charged  with  the  responsibility  to  make  decisions  on  utilizing  PPE  revenue  to  fund  additional  projects  in  the  community.

 

These  initiatives  and  other  ones  not  mentioned  here,  address  the  Sustainable  Development Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth.  This  goal  is  aimed  to  promote  sustained,  inclusive  and  sustainable  economic   growth,  full  and  productive  employment  and  decent work  for  all. The 17 SDGs are   integrated—that is,  they  recognize  that  action  in  one  area l affects  outcomes  in  others,  and  that  development  must  balance  social,  economic  and environmental  sustainability.  Thus  Goal  17: Partnership  for  the  Goals  aims  at  strengthening  the  means  of  implementation  and  to  revitalize  the  global  partnership  for  sustainable  development. 

Facts  and  figures  from  UN Development  Program  reveal  that  an estimated  172 million people worldwide were without work in 2018,  which  is an  unemployment rate of  5 percent.  As  a  result of  an  expanding  labour  force,  global  COVID 19  Pandemic,  the number of unemployed is projected to increase by  more  than  1 million  this  year and  reach  more  than 174  million  by  the  end  of  2020 (  approximation   mine) .   

The  SDGs  promote  sustained  economic  growth,  higher  levels of  productivity  and technological  innovation.  According  to  United  Nations  Development  Program  (UNDP),  encouraging   entrepreneurship and  job  creation   are  key  to  this,  and   are  also  effective  measures  to  eradicate  forced   labour,  slavery  and  human   trafficking.   With  these  targets  in  mind,  the  goal   is  to  achieve  full  and  productive  employment,  and  decent  work,  for  all women,  men  and  youths  by  2030.  Through   the  creation  of  sustainable  social  enterprise,  PPE  attempts  to  reduce  poverty  among   the  youths  in  the  community  by  providing  employment  opportunities.  Women,  young  adults,  retirees  are  specifically  targeted  in  these  efforts.
The  initiatives  of  the  PPE also  address  environmental  sustainability  in  Patriensa.  The  briquette  research  aims  to  counteract  deforestation  and  utilize  local  agricultural  waste.  The  water  projects  provide  local  clean  water  sources  to the  community.   Tim  Bailey (2012)  emphasized  that  achieving  the  SDGs  requires  the   partnership of  governments, private sector,  civil society  and  citizens  alike  to  make  sure  we  leave  a  better  planet  for future generations.  It  can  be  observed   from  the  above  that  the  collaboration  between  Patriensa,  KNUST,  UT,  and  Afren  exemplifies  the  type  of  global  partnerships  pivotal  in  creating  sustainable  employment  among  the  youths  as  well  as  creating  sustainable  change  in  developing  countries.
 Cited  Works: 
Bailey,  T.  et  al. ( 2012).  Sustaining  and  empowering  a  rural  Ghanaian  community  through  innovative  social  enterprise  and  global  partnership.  A  paper  presented  at  the African  Local  Summit  “ Empowering Africa to  Achieve  the  MDGs”.  Kwame  Nkrumah  University  of  Science  and  Technology, Kumasi,  Ghana.
www.undp.org UN Development Program :  Transforming  our  world  #By2030.
www.undp.org