Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Roma (Agenzia Fides) – The echo of the people's revolt which forced President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia to flee, may be heard not only in the north African world and the Middle East but also in sub-Saharan Africa. The comments in local newspapers underline that in some African countries there is an input similar to that of Tunisia: the presence of a large number of educated young people without a job. This was one of the decisive factors of the Tunisian protest, and an element concerning many governments, not just in the Middle East.
The Catholic Congolese Agency, DIA, in an article entitled, “The Tunisian bomb, a risk in Kinshasa”, states: “the flowering of many universities and colleges in the Democratic Republic of Congo even to the remote villages in the country, produces thousands of graduates every year without employment prospects. Some young graduates say that less than one quarter find work related to their field of study. Faced with this situation, the Congolese government has no national labour policy”. The article adds, however, that the informal economy, linked to family and tribal networks, enables young people to find temporary work while waiting for something better.
The Ugandan daily, “The Monitor”, in an article on 19 January drew a parallel between the situation in Tunisia and that of Uganda. According to data reported in the article, approximately 50% of Tunisians between 20 and 45 years of age have a university education, and Tunisia has one of the highest rates in Africa for applications to schools (92%). However, 46% of young Tunisian graduates do not find work even 18 months after they complete their studies and the percentage of unemployed among 20 to 30-year-olds is 30%.
In Uganda, according to The Monitor, which cites a World Bank report from 2008, the unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 is 83%, one of the highest in the world. This is a situation which has not changed in the past two years. Also in Uganda, like in Tunisia, in the last 20 years, the Government has raised education taxes and created higher education institutes. However the forces of corruption and the level of unemployed have not come down. Thus a generation of young people is therefore created, much more educated than their parents, who fund it difficult to tolerate this situation at length, without a significant change to economic and social policies. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 20/1/2011)
