<aside> 🌍 Human and Social Sustainability Network Africa is a youth-led non-profit organisation committed to addressing the global challenge of poverty through strategic initiatives in education, skill empowerment, and advocacy.
Our transformative approach involves enhancing young people's access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities, and essential resources, including educational support, skill empowerment, and technology tools.
</aside>
Access to quality education remains a massive challenge in Africa, with the super-rich having more advantages. While education, as a right, is provided for in many international declarations and the constitutions of all African countries, many poor people across the continent still need access to education of good quality.
Significantly, the inequality gap has increased over the years, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many schools to be closed. For instance, the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria increased from 13 million to 36 million because of school closures. Sadly, many of these girls live in rural areas with limited access to electricity or technology.
From our observation of various communities in Nigeria, poverty is rampant because people do not have access to the quality education that they need to improve their lives, get better opportunities, and significantly change their situations. Lack of education and knowledge has led to many avoidable deaths from diseases that could have been easily treated or epidemics that shouldn’t have occurred.
<aside> 💡 Quality education encompasses equipping youths with the knowledge and skills to make them globally competitive and suitable for future work. This presupposes that primary and tertiary education meets the minimum global standards.
</aside>
Unfortunately, this isn’t the situation in Nigeria and many African countries. Since education is vital to achieving other SDGs, Nigeria, like other African countries, is at risk of a growing poverty rate, slow economic growth, and under-development.
Thus, activists, volunteers, and social ventures are needed for advocacy and alternative means for the most vulnerable. This birthed HSSN Africa; to change the education and employment narrative in Nigeria and Africa, reduce poverty and inequality, and drive economic growth.
Unemployment and underemployment have been identified as major drivers of poverty. An unemployed person would have no source of income, while an underemployed individual has to manage a low income to sustain himself and his family. Many jobs do not guarantee the ability to escape poverty because of unfavorable working conditions and low wages rooted in inequality, discrimination, and negligence.
Africa has a youth population of over 400 million, yet, due to several educational, socio-demographic, and economic factors, this young population is more likely to face unemployment than most regions of the world. In 2022, the youth unemployment rate in Africa averaged around 13%, with South Africa recording the highest unemployment rate of 34%.
Unemployment has many dangers; like Education, it is interconnected with my other SDGs. A case study of Lagos, Nigeria, and Zinder, Niger, shows that unemployment can cause physical and mental health issues, high poverty rates, increased crime rates, violence against women and children, vandalism, thuggery, and slow economic development, inter alia.
To stop underemployment, UNESCO and the International Labour Organization have recommended governments, the private sector, and international donors pursue integrated, comprehensive policies and strategies that create jobs for young people and improve the transition between school and work. Some strategies include policies to improve labor standards and social protection for youth, like acceptable wages and work conditions, and programs that target specific youth populations, like disadvantaged young women, to boost their skills and employability.
<aside> 💡 It is also imperative to promote development-oriented policies that would support industrialization, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation, encourage the growth of MSMEs, and provide them with access to financial services.
</aside>