With only $15M, GYIN Gambia vows to create 70,000 jobs

Mamadou Edrisa Njie, ED GYIN Gambia 

The GYIN Gambia Executive Director, Mamadou Edrisa Njie has called on development partners and donor agencies to invest a funding package of $15 million in a bid to enable his organization to realize its innovative ideas in creating 70,000 direct and indirect jobs for young people across the country.

To implement these ideas, Mr. Njie noted that his organization is requesting for only this amount and within three years, 70,000 jobs will be created.

Speaking at the Youth Trade and Agribusiness Forum on the theme “Youth Employment in Agriculture and Tourism as a solid solution to ending Food Insecurity and Unemployment in The Gambia” at the ongoing National Youth Agribusiness and Tourism Expo 2018, organized by the Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce (GYCC) at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, he assured that GYIN Gambia is ever ready to refund the money in full to any donor or development partner, if the project fails.

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture: Connecting the dots

ROME, 24 July 2014 – As the importance of nutrition-sensitive agriculture rises on the global development agenda, IFAD and its partners are working to "mainstream" nutrition into their investments and activities. As a result, there is an increasing demand for experts who understand the links between agriculture and nutrition. In the coming years, they will be called upon to design nutrition-sensitive agricultural and rural development projects that effectively contribute to ending hunger and malnutrition in poor and vulnerable communities.

Woman picks cucumbers in her vegetable field in Bangladesh. ©IFAD/GMB Akash

To expand the pool of experts who can take on such assignments, IFAD hosted an intensive training workshop at its Rome headquarters last week. About 40 staff and consultants  participated in the four-day session, which was developed jointly by IFAD, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and REACH, a partnership of United Nations agencies working to scale up food and nutrition interventions.

"This is a watershed moment," said Bibi Giyose, senior nutrition policy officer at FAO and previously nutrition advisor at the New Partnership for Africa's Development, or NEPAD. The session was an example of UN agencies "working together for one big, wonderful cause," she noted.

More Productive Jobs for Africa s Youth Vital for the Region's Economic Progress, says New WB Report

Washington, January 27, 2014 With more than half of Sub-Saharan Africa's population now under the age of 25, and as many as 11 million young Africans expected to join the labor market every year for the next decade, creating millions of productive, well-paying jobs will be vital to boost economic growth, significantly cut poverty, and create shared prosperity in Africa, according to a new World Bank report on youth employment in Africa.

 While many African economies have registered impressive economic growth in recent years, poverty levels across the region have not fallen as much as expected and young people looking for better-paying work have been at a great disadvantage. This is partly because many African countries rely heavily on oil, gas, and mineral extraction which boosts economic growth but does little to create new jobs for the region s fast-growing youth population or reduce overall rates of poverty. 

 In a new comprehensive regional report on the subject, Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa notes that close to 80 percent of the workforce will continue to work on small farms and in household businesses in the near future. While the modern wage sector is growing very fast in some countries, it cannot create enough jobs to meet the youth employment challenge now preoccupying governments in every corner of the continent.

A united call for action on climate change

Kofi Annan is chair of The Elders, a group of independent leaders who work for peace, justice and human rights worldwide.

 

Kofi Annan

When Nelson Mandela formed the Elders in 2007 to promote peace and human rights across the world, he challenged us to be bold and to give a voice to those who have none. No issue demands these qualities more than our collective failure to tackle climate change.

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. It threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions of people today and many billions more in the future. It undermines the human rights to food, water, health and shelter — causes for which we, as Elders, have fought all our lives.
 

No one and no country will escape the impact of climate change. But those with no voice — because they are already marginalized or are not yet born — are at greatest risk. The Elders have an urgent moral duty to speak out on their behalf.