DAR ES SALAAM (ILO News) - The Regional Commissioner for Singida Region, in Central Tanzania, Eng. Mathew Mtigumwe, commended the United Nations for supporting the Singida Youth Entrepreneurs and Consultants Cooperative Society (SYECCOS) in beekeeping project in Singida, accompanying the Government’s efforts to address youth unemployment in the country.
“…Although youth unemployment is not very alarming in this region, but we all note that it’s a serious scourge today not only in Tanzania but also globally…”, Mtigumwe said. According to the Tanzania’s Integrated labour Force Survey 2014, youth unemployment rate changed slightly from 13.4% in 2006 to 11.7 in 2014.
Mr. Mtigumwe was recently speaking at a meeting with SYECCOS and ILO delegations who paid a courtesy call to his office to brief him on the UN joint programme on youth employment of which Singida is one of the benefitting regions.
Since 2015, through the support of this joint programme, the SYECCOS, a youth cooperative with 34 members and involved in beekeeping, is implementing various activities including beehives making and installation, honey processing, queen bees raring, training of youth on honey processing and candle making.
The Regional Commissioner applauded the youth cooperative members for their commitment in creating employment for their fellow youth and challenged them to extend the training to other unemployed youth based in the rural areas.
According to SYECCO coordinator, Mr. Phillemon Kiemi, since 2015 the cooperative produces 12 tons of honey annually, has trained more than 60 youth in apiculture, some of whom are already employed in various regions in the country, 20 women in candle making and conducting outreach services to more than 556 local out growers in the region.
To date, the cooperative owns a surveyed farm of 1000 acres, keeping more than 2300 beehives, each with own produced queen bee. He further informed that the cooperative in collaboration with Tanzania Trade Authority (TANTRADE) and the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine (Morogoro) intends to train more than 500 youth on beekeeping during 2016.
“… It’s our intention to create employment opportunities for the youth through this project … we therefore urge them to develop a positive mind in apiculture for their own self-reliance and development…” Kiemi said.
Through the above project support, the cooperative is currently procuring a modern honey processing machine with a capacity of producing 1000 Kgs of high quality honey per hour. This is not only a step forward towards improving the quality of honey produced by the cooperative but also to support other local beekeepers in producing high quality honey products.
An integrated strategy for youth empowerment
Ms. Anamarie Kiaga, ILO’s Youth Employment Technical Manager, briefed the Regional commissioner and his entourage on the project activities being implemented by the UN Agencies - ILO, FAO, UNIDO and UN Women which have diversified strengths, allowing for an integrated approach to the youth employment challenge.
“…The programme is designed to support the young people through developing an integrated strategy towards addressing the youth employment challenge in the country which manifests itself in the form of unemployment, underemployment, poor employment conditions and lack of an integrated approach…” Ms. Kiaga said.
She further sited the five high impact priority areas being focused by the project including sustainable enterprise development, decent work for youth, enhancing agriculture productivity, skills development and building labour market information systems.
Background Information
In Tanzania, unemployment (for all ages) declined slightly from 11.7 to 10.3 per cent in 2014. However the country faces key labour market challenges including - policy issues and employment creation not being translated into action at local levels and in generating significant impacts on unemployment. Further, poverty rates especially among the youth and women remain pervasive. The country’s working age population is currently at 25.8m compared to 21m in 2006. Of these, 22 million people (86.7%) are economically active.
