Africa: Unemployment

(asked on 22nd June 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to help reduce youth unemployment in (a) Ghana, (b) Kenya and (c) South Africa.


Answered by
Grant Shapps Portrait
Grant Shapps
Secretary of State for Defence
This question was answered on 29th June 2015

Helping young people in Africa to find a decent job is an important component of DFID’s work for promoting economic growth and private sector development.

In Ghana, the Enhancing Growth in New Enterprises (ENGINE) programme is supporting over 200 small and medium businesses, the majority of which are owned by entrepreneurs under 35 years old. Other programmes including the enterprise development programme, the Western Regional Coastal Foundation (WRCF) and the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), are also contributing to youth employment.

In Kenya, 8000 young people will benefit from new skills under the £5m Mombasa County Youth Employment programme.

In South Africa, though our bilateral programme has now closed, by 2014, DFID contributed to 112,327 jobs being created or saved, through: support to the Community Work Programme; youth employment schemes; a training scheme for workers at risk of redundancy; and measures to help firms become more competitive.

Details of the programmes can be found on DevTracker.

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