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WEST AFRICA: 2009 may wipe out recent employment gains - ILO
28 Jan 2009 19:42:42 GMT
 Source: IRIN
DAKAR, 28 January 2009 (IRIN) - The global economic meltdown originating from high-income countries may reverse recent employment gains for workers in the poorest nations, according to International Labour Organization's (ILO) latest Global Employment Trends Report.

While overall unemployment has decreased in recent years in sub-Saharan Africa to 7.9 percent, ILO predicts that up to 50 million people could become unemployed in 2009, with the hardest hit region being sub-Saharan Africa.

The region has the world's youngest working population and 75 percent of available jobs there are considered "vulnerable," according to ILO. The agency estimated that one-third of job-seeking youths have simply given up or are working in jobs that pay less than US$2 a day.

Youths are three times more likely than adults to be unemployed, according to the international  Youth Employment Network, a coalition that includes the UN, ILO and World Bank.

Entrepreneur Lamine Daff, a 27-year-old in the Mauritanian port town of Nouadhibou, told IRIN he is not giving up. "People have written our obituary, saying that youths are risking their lives when they leave Africa by boatloads. Yes, many of my friends chose to leave to find work elsewhere, but what about those of us who stayed to make our living in Africa?"

The number of would-be migrants leaving from Nouadhibou to seek work in Europe spiked in 2006, prompting the Mauritanian government to ask Europe for help patrolling its coastline and rescuing sunken boats. But Daff said people from throughout the region continue to attempt the trip; the movement has slowed, but not considerably.

Fighting trend

"My friends tell me I am stupid to stay," Daff told IRIN, "But I do not want to leave my mother and I think it is possible to make a living here."

Since 2003 he has run a one-room shop selling clothes bought wholesale from the capital Nouakchott, or from Morocco when he can afford to travel there. "I have tried in vain to get a small loan to expand my business, but I am turned down for not having enough collateral."

Daff said when he recently approached a credit union, part of a national network of savings institutions known as CAPEC, he was turned away because he did not own property. "I got my father to serve as guarantor, but I was just repeatedly told to come back, day after day."

He was seeking a loan of about US$2000. The credit union initially said only $1000 was available, but eventually nothing. "I saw people with homes and cars who were approved for loans much larger than what I was asking. They are not the ones who need the credit as much. Finally, I was told that there was not any more money for loans."

Daff said to keep afloat his shop – called "New York" – he has let his sole employee go and is running the business himself.

Youth Employment Network's coordinator for West Africa, Maria McLaughlin, told IRIN that ILO's 2009 report reflects at least one positive element. "The doom and gloom [employment] projections are in some ways a testimony to how much progress has been made to raise awareness," she said.

"Unemployment, particularly among youth, is on the radar screen…It has always existed, but now people are at least talking and trying to measure it."

pt/np

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


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Last updated:Wed Jan 28 19:42:52 2009