CYCI a Flagship Model for Entrepreneurship

It is in line with such interventions that the Commonwealth Youth Programme Regional Centre for Africa (CYPRCA) and the Government of Namibia, through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, particularly the National Secretariat of the Namibia Youth Credit Scheme (NYCS) in collaboration with the Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) hosted the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative (CYCI) a progress review meeting with a monumental impact on the work of the Commonwealth in providing technical assistance to its member countries on youth employment programming.

The CYCI Progress Review Meeting was officially opened on Monday, 5 December, 2011 by Governor of Erongo Region, Hon. Governor Cleophas Mutjavikua. In attendance was Mr. Julius Kaberere, Governance Adviser, from the Commonwealth Secretariat. The meeting attracted 40 participants of which 16 were international participants from 8 Commonwealth member countries namely; Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Swaziland, Zambia and the rest were from Namibia the host country.

Mr. Patrick Simataa, the Director of Youth, in the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture representing the Honourable Minister and Permanent Secretary who were currently out of the country, indicated that Namibia has a huge number of youths that are unemployed and hoped that the four day workshop would come up with new strategies that are more effective in delivering youth programmes and ensure that youth development is mainstreamed at every level of development in the Africa Region both economically and socially to ensure all young people who form the largest part of Namibian’s population and the Africa region as a whole were reached.

He further stated that, through the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, the Government of Namibia embarked on an initiative based on its mandate to ensure that the youth’s aspirations were addressed. In particular, he pointed out the development of the TIPEEG Program (Targeted Intervention Program for Employment Economic Growth) where the Government avails money to fund projects that are found to be sustainable in employing the youths. He further shared the Namibian Government’s VISION 2030 which is to curb unemployment situation by the year 2030.

Mr. Victor Mensah, the Programme Manager for Youth Enterprise and Sustainable Livelihood at CYPRCA noted that, youth unemployment was not a recent phenomenon but that; it has been present on the radar of commonwealth member countries. He pointed out that the Commonwealth’s approach to ensuring that unemployment was appropriately tackled and that young people gain sustainable livelihoods has been through the promotion of the youth development entrepreneurship in member countries.

Mr. Mensah further stated that, since work started in the mid-1990s, the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative (CYCI) has been the flagship model in providing the much needed technical assistance to member countries. Through the CYCI model, an integrated approach to employment creation had been promoted by ensuring that programmes are aimed at making young people job-creators and not just job-seekers.

Stefansu N. Linovene a young participant attending the meeting had this to say, the forum has created an avenue for beneficiaries from different countries to come together and exchange business ideas, discuss the challenges and the way forward for their business. He was gratified to note that different participants from various countries gathered for a common goal which was to improve the livelihood of young people through business entrepreneurship and hoped that the outcomes of the meeting would lead to increased youth entrepreneurship and sustainability.

It was hoped that at the end of the meeting bold and concrete decisions on the next steps to deal with the increasing youth unemployment situations in the region would be achieved.