Beating youth unemployment through entrepreneurship

By Carlos Pascal

In 2012, nearly seventy five (75) million young people between the ages of fifteen (15) and twenty four (24) were unemployed worldwide, and 14.3 percent of those young people lived in Latin America, including the Caribbean.

Considering this alarming rate of unemployment, Caribbean governments have put forth a number of initiatives to provide their youth with basic skills and opportunities to find gainful work.

However, there is still more to be done. At a time of considerable economic decline, youth entrepreneurship and careful monitoring of programs are promising solutions because these measures provide young people with the means to be self-employed and to remain so for an extended period of time.

There are numerous reasons why high unemployment rates exist among young people throughout the region.
First, the recent global economic downturn characterized by “recession, debt service obligations, and declines in development assistance” significantly decreased the number of job openings available.

For example, as a result of the crisis, Jamaica’s overall labor force decreased by 2.7 percent in 2010. This resulted in the loss of 16,000 jobs for youths between the ages of 14 and 24 from October 2009 to October 2010.

Meanwhile in Barbados, in 2011, while the overall unemployment rate was 11.2 percent, the youth unemployment rate was more than double that, at 28.9 percent. It is evident that youth are especially vulnerable to being out of a job during times of general economic hardship.

The problem here is that too many young people feel that they are “entitled” to a job from Government or some other institution.

Allow me for a moment to present you with a scenario. Let us say in 2013 1,800 students were enrolled in Dominica State College (DSC), now let us assume that in 2014 1,000 of those students will graduate. Out of that 1,000 let us make another assumption that 100 of them did Accounting and are now hoping to enter the world of work with their degree in hand.

Now this group of 100 will certainly expect that since they have endured the stresses of college life, their just reward would be a stable paying job which would aid them along the path of life.

Isn’t this what our parents taught us after all, to go to school, learn and get a job.

But, what this group of 100 Accounting majors will slowly realize after they have passed there resume around every bank, government department, etc, is that there are only a certain amount of accountants that a country can handle at a time.

Now, what happens to this group of 100 you may ask, sadly the majority of them will remain at home and call local radio stations and programs and say “the country tight”.

Then the cycle continues year after year after year.

What might be the solution to this enigma you might ask; there is one word for it - “ENTREPRENURSHIP.”

In political economics, entrepreneurship is a process of identifying and starting a business venture, sourcing and organizing the required resources and taking both the risks and rewards associated with the venture.
But, for the sake of this article let us say it is the ability to identify a problem faced by a large group of people and find a way to make a profit by solving it.

This, my friends, should be the future of our country. It is through this that we can take control of our financial destiny.

Now you may be asking, how can I be an entrepreneur when I do not have capital? Well my friends there are programs put in place to solve that problem.

Institutions such as the Dominica Youth Business Trust (DYBT) and the National Development Foundation of Dominica (NDFD) are waiting on young, aspiring entrepreneurs.

If after reading this you are still doubtful or second guessing yourself, then let me leave you with a few wise words from the immortal Nelson Mandela "It is always impossible."

Sustainable Development and Young People

The National Youth Council Media Team would like to shed light on the issue of sustainable development among young people. In that bid, below is an interview conducted by Edona Jno. Baptiste with sustainable development advocate Eardley Pierre. Pierre who hails from the community of St. Joseph is the president of the St. Joseph Youth Empowerment Committee and a member on the Dominica Youth Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Working Group.


Q: What is sustainable development?

A: Sustainable development is the kind of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A key element in the definition is the unity of environment and development, placing emphasis on the environment not only being physical but should include social, cultural and political spheres. It also insists that development is not just about how poor countries can ameliorate their situation, but what the entire world, including developed countries, can do to achieve our common goal which is the survival of the our Planet Earth and our existence as human beings.

Q: Where did the concept of sustainable development stem from?

A: Sustainable development came from the concept of sustainable forest. The foresters in 17th and 18th century Europe developed a system where they could estimate the annual forest timber output. They calculated stem girth, spacing, climatic factors as well as the vertical growth to determine how many trees they could cut down while ensuring sustainability of the forest. This is known as Sustainable Forest or Sustainable Yield.


Q: What sparked your interest in the sustainable development platform?

A: I first got involved during the UNESCO-funded Parle Kwéyòl Project in 2005. It was implemented by Youth Culture and Heritage Movement in an effort to revitalize the speaking of the Kwéyòl language amongst the youth of Dominica. Core pillars of the project included training and certification of young people to teach Kwéyòl ; Kwéyòl Classes; Kwéyòl Speeling Bee; Kwéyòl Marché and Extravaganza.

Q: How do you contribute to advocacy towards sustainable development in your community?

A: Through the St. Joseph Youth Empowerment Committee, which I am the president of. Its primary objective is to empower the community’s youth to use our resources in a sustainable way to develop our community.
In 2013, the group developed the Feast of St. Gerard Community Project which covered a beach clean-up, youth debates, educational workshops, a poster competition and Family Fun Day. At the end of the project, a cadre of 75 primary school students in St. Joseph was certified in basic sustainable development concepts. A compost heap project was established at the Kaleb Laurent Primary School and a small hut was erected at the St. Joseph beach to enhance the area.
Currently, members of the St. Joseph YEC are undertaking projects in rabbit and poultry rearing as well as horticulture.
On a national Level, in 2012 I joined the National Apiculture Planning Committee established by the Global Environment Faculty (GEF) to develop a National Apiculture Strategy.
I’m also a member of the Dominica Youth SIDS Working Group working towards education of young people on the issues of sustainable development, as well as initiatives on how to mitigate the effects of climate change. The group is also trying to achieve a consensus among Dominica youth as to their vision ahead of the third International Conference of SIDS, which will be held in Samoa, September 2014.
The Dominica SIDS Working Group is working with the National Youth Council to implement a Sustainable Development Education Program, to help spread awareness about sustainable development

Q: What are your expectations?

A: It is my hope that Dominica’s youth will be able to capitalize on signing of important documents such as the Jamaica Declaration and implementation of the National Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR). Ultimately, realizing that the future of our Country is in our hands by being able to use our environment (which includes the physical, social, cultural) to allows us a comfortable and fulfilling life.

Green Day at ITSS

By Mishell Abraham

Students of Isaiah Thomas Secondary School (ITSS) were reminded to stick to the principles of the 4-H movement.

National 4-H coordinator, Shirley Alexander addressed the student body at a special assembly on to observe its third annual Green Day on May 21.

4-H National Coordinator addresses the gathering

She applauded the school’s principal, teachers and Clubites for their continued effort, support and participation in the 4H activities year round.

The activity was in an effort to create awareness about the club and its work at the school. Most of the student body was either dressed in green or white for the event and it was originally put together by Bert Paul, a 4H leader.

The assembly started off with a short worship session where the staff and students sang songs of praise to the Almighty.

Following this, ITSS Clubites gave a presentation to the general school population on the club and more importantly how anyone of them could be a great asset to the organization.

section of the student population

President of the National Youth Council of Dominica (NYCD), Jahisiah Benoit, pointed out the benefits being part of such a club and the importance of having it within the school system.

Special recognition awards and gifts were presented to a few teachers for their dedication and hard work with the club over the past school year.

Those teachers were Mrs. Glennora Paquette, Mrs.Heskar Charter, Mr. Jameson Julien, Mr Jerwin Ambo and Ms. Cherese Martin.

4-H member, Curtley Pascal was awarded the prize for most outstanding 4-H member for the past school year.

4-H leader, Bert Paul expressed his deep appreciation to everyone who participated and supported the assembly with hope that in future it would be a bigger event.

One Night at the Mecca

One Night at the Mecca

By Delroy Nesta Williams

MVP Britney "Tear Drop" Stoute

For all the talk about the World Cup and most of Dominica (including me) being glued to the televisions 3 times a day for the matches in Brazil, most of us (not me)missed one  of the best initiatives in the sport on the evening of June 21, 2014.

As a member of a Facebook group (Dominica Football Fans), I spend hours at a time every week discussing and debating everything possible with relation to football. When I say everything, I mean everything. We debate issues from as simple as Ronaldo’s millions to the complexity of the local football structure’s inabilities (perceived and actual).

But this post isn’t about the group, no, no, no… it’s actually about women’s football in Dominica. You see every now and then (quite often actually), we lament the fact that not enough is being done for the sport and particularly at the youth level.

Inner-City All Stars with Manager Wayne "Benji N2O" Benjamin

Last night though, I ventured to Newtown where Sports-Maggz, with the assistance of numerous sponsors, organized an All-Star women’s match. All-Star games in Dominica? Isn’t that something reserved to the NBA and basketball? Well not last night… and thank God it wasn’t too.

It is one thing to gauge the development of a sport when you’re watching teams with one or two good players surrounded by role players. It is a totally different experience when you gather the best players to fill up two teams and play each other. When you get the cream of the crop to play together and against each other, it’s a thing of beauty; from the cross-field daggers (passes) of Britney Stoute, the statuesque goalkeeping of Kimberley Elie to the defensive prowess of Cora Francis. The goals were noteworthy especially the long distance strike that sealed the victory from a Pottersville young lady. I am still thinking about strike as it left her foot from the right wing (just outside the 18 yard box) to rocket passed the defense and goal keeper to strike the back post and ricochet back out. I turned to fellow spectators; they too were overjoyed by the goal and its power and precision. And they should know football after having represented Dominica at various levels in the game.

Outer-City All Stars with Manager Julian "Juju" Wade

The game wasn’t without its blunders or its mental lapses but apart from that, the ladies put on a show worthy of a repeat game. What I lament was the size of the crowd though, too small. I am not sure what the advertizing budget was or if there was any, but I am hoping that future matches will see more support from the Dominican populace.

Hats off to Sports-Maggz and everyone involved. It was surely a great initiative.