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Government visitor praises MEDA’s “tangible results” new production techniques, implement new technologies, and gain access to support services such as finance. Since the project began in 2011, weavers have seen their incomes rise 14 to 18 percent. Fantino talked with several local weavers and a designer to learn how they became involved in EDGET and the impact it has had on their lives. A male weaver told him, “I have more, steady orders and receive more money for my products because of the linkage to designers. In this group, we work together to encourage quality and delivery of our orders on time.” A female weaver added, “Since this project and the new things I learned about developing my business and to improve the quality of my weaving, I have gotten more orders and am able to save
money. I have made enough money to buy a new house for my family.” Local designers also benefit from the project. Said one, “It has given me access to more excellent quality weavers for the fabric for my designs. In
Youth unemployment is ratcheting higher on the global doom scale. It is now commonly being called a crisis, and was listed in The World in 2013 (published by The Economist) as one of the biggest problems facing the world. That is no surprise to economic development practitioners who have long lamented the 25% unemployment rate among young people 15 to 24 in north Africa and the Middle East. “Clearly, this is a critical business issue,” writes Dominic Barton, managing director of McKinsey & Company. A survey by his company found that 40% of employers from Asia to Africa report having trouble finding skilled workers. “We forecast that by 2020 there will be a global shortfall of 85 million high- and middleskill workers for the labour market,” he writes. Beyond the needs of employers, however, there is a social and political price to pay. “If young people who have played by society’s rules — working hard, for example, to graduate from school and university — find fewer and fewer opportunities to secure decent jobs and the sense of respect that comes with them, society will have to be pre-
Canadian cabinet minister Julian Fantino chats with a weaver during a visit to MEDA’s project in Ethiopia.
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The Marketplace March April 2013
Ethiopia there is a strong, proud heritage of excellent weaving skills and we are investing and leveraging that expertise by linking these weavers to high‑end buyers here and through export markets.” — MEDA release
The young and restless need jobs — or else
Photo courtesy of ©ACDI‑CIDA
Julian Fantino, Canada’s Minister for International Cooperation, recently paid a visit to MEDA’s EDGET project (Ethiopians Driving Growth through Entrepreneurship and Trade) and praised MEDA’s sustainable approach to economic development. The project, which receives funding from the Government of Canada through CIDA, aims to help 10,000 farmers and weavers to create more sustainable livelihoods. “This is exactly the kind of project that Canada is proud to support as it delivers tangible results, helps lift families out of poverty and puts countries on track to becoming self‑sustaining,” Fantino said. The five-year project is helping textile producers and rice farmers to increase their incomes by helping them reach higher‑value markets, learn
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pared for outbreaks of anger or even violence,” Barton writes, noting recent riots in several regions. “As the jobless young resentfully note, the gap between the haves and havenots in the OECD countries is at a 30-year high, with income among the top 10% nine times higher than that of the bottom 10%.” One ingredient of the disconnect is inadequate training (a problem which MEDA’s programs in Morocco and elsewhere seek to remedy). Employers complain that entrylevel workers lack the right skills, yet educators contend those skills are precisely what they have been trying to teach. “In our survey, nearly 70% of employers blamed inadequate training for the shortfall in skilled workers, yet 70% of education providers believe they suitably prepare graduates for the jobs market,” says Barton. “Similarly, employers complain that less than half of the young whom they hire have adequate problem-solving skills, yet nearly two-thirds of the young believe that they do have such skills.” One solution to the impasse, he says, is greater cooperation between those who train the young people and the businesses that will hire them.◆
