After a long period of declining economic growth, Kenya started to experience a significant boost in economic growth since the year 2000. Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) started to rise and the amount of jobs in the formal sector increased. At the same time, however, the population has been growing. Currently, the population growth is approximately 3% and there is a rather high dependency ratio of 0.8 (UNDP 2013). These strong population dynamics result in a youth population that is growing fast. It has been estimated that young people (between the age of 18 and 34 years old) make up more than a third of the entire population (Ibid.). Furthermore, nearly 80% of the population is below the age of 35 (Ibid.). The young working force has the greatest potential with regard to capabilities and productivity, but the large size of this group also poses challenges.
Between 2011 and 2015, the unemployment rate among youths (15-24) was estimated to be 17.1% according to the World Bank (The World Bank 2015). This is a rough estimate as others indicate that this rate is at least 25% (UNDP 2013), meaning that at least 1 in 4 young people does not have a job. Many people are therefore forced to operate on the informal market. These informal jobs, however, do not have the benefits of greater stability, health care provision and paid holidays.
One of the other consequences of the beginning phases of economic growth is that it fosters rapid rural-urban migration. Majority of newly created jobs are located in urban areas, which makes these areas more attractive for citizens. The benefits from economic growth are hardly distributed back to the rural area, which makes trying to make a living in these areas extra challenging. Therefore, large parts of the population want to try their luck in one of the booming urban areas and decide to move there. This has many effects on population dynamics, but most relevant to the issue of unemployment, is that more people move to urban areas than that there are jobs available. For this reason, unemployment in urban areas is particularly high, which leads to an incredible group of people unable to take care of their living situation and ending up in slums where they often turn to insecure low-paid informal jobs, criminal activities or, especially the case with women, sex work.
To get out of such a situation is challenging and requires the right opportunities. These opportunities are often not available, which almost literally ‘traps’ people and thus prevents them from improving their lives. Not only for themselves, but also for their children. They end up in a vicious circle. One way of creating opportunities that are sustainable is by empowering people. Examples of these are access to education, access to micro loans, access to broader networks, and financing the start-up of a business. The last example, the start-up of a business has a lot of potential when there is a sound business plan and the person starting the business is entirely committed to making it a successful business on the long-term. With this in mind we aim to contribute to an extremely pressing and difficult problem.
References:
The World Bank. 2015. "Unemployment, Youth Total (% of total labor force ages 15-24)." Accessed October, 2015 [Internet]. Available from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.ZS
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). January 2013. "Kenya's Youth Employment Challenge." Discussion Paper. Available from: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Inclusive%20development/Kenya_YEC_web(jan13).pdf