EDITORIAL - JDIP and the youth crisis

Professor Don Robotham makes a suggestion that, at first blush, may for Mike Henry, the minister of transport and works, be blood-boiling provocation.

Professor Robotham, an eminent sociologist who now works at New York University, proposes that the Government put aside 10 per cent of US$40 million (J$3.44 billion) of the money for the Chinese-funded Jamaica Development and Infrastructure Project (JDIP) "purely to upgrade the skills of young workers".

From a political perspective - and the minister would probably claim economically, too - there are fathomable reasons why Mr Henry might bristle at Professor Robotham's proposal.

First, Jamaica's roads, which are to get priority attention, as well as other physical infrastructure, have been in a chronic and worsening state of disrepair. Additionally, the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), of which Mr Henry was recently named chairman, must face the electorate sometime in 2012 in a context where the economy has declined over the last three years. Joblessness has grown. Young people, who face the brunt of unemployment in Jamaica, were further squeezed by the downturn.

The JDIP offers an opportunity for short-term employment and improvement of the JLP's election prospects.

But Professor Robotham makes an important observation in the context of the crisis confronting Jamaica's youth: that the JDIP must also be about developing human beings, "not just physical infrastructure".

Urgency of attention

This context, and the underlying issues that inform it, have, unfortunately, been addressed by neither youth leaders nor, in so far as we can discern, the minister with responsibility for youth affairs, Ms Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, nor her deputy, Mr Warren Newby, in any discourse about youth development. Yet the available data insist upon the urgency of its attention.

According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, in 2009, nearly 400,000 Jamaicans aged 15-29, or 59 per cent of the cohort, were either unemployed or out of the labour force. And worse, of this group, 83 per cent (more than 331,000) represents young people who, for whatever reason, had stopped looking for work and opted out of the labour force.

Another frightening statistic highlighted by Professor Robotham is that of the nearly 250,000 people who, in 2009, were in the 15-19 age group, 88 per cent of them were neither in school nor at work.

As Professor Robotham poses the issue: "And we wonder why we have a crime problem!"

Unfortunately, the solution does not lie primarily in short-term jobs. The fundamental problem is that the great bulk of our young people are ill-equipped for good-quality, long-term employment, which is a hindrance to the growth and competitiveness of the Jamaican economy. Less than a third of the labour force has any formal training, and three-quarters of unemployed youth have no certification.

An urgent attack on this crisis is necessary, with immediate emphasis on highly at-risk youth. Given the shortage of domestic resources to do the job, we are sure the Chinese would not be averse to steering, as Dr Robotham suggests, some of the JDIP cash in a fashion that meets the objective of the programme.

Mr Henry might even find that it delivers more votes down the road.

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