Haramaya University in collaboration with USAID is conducting training under the theme of “Empowering Youth as Positive Change Agents through Social Entrepreneurship” for 45 youth from August 18 to September 14/ 2021 at Harar Ras Hotel.
According to Prof. Jema Haji Mohamed, Project Manager, youth unemployment is a concern of governments and policy makers for many reasons. The youth represent a significant percentage of the population and the vicious circle of poverty and underdevelopment can be broken by effectively channeling youth into productive activities, he added.
Professor Jema further indicated that youth unemployment will create a sense of desperation leading to social instability and political unrest, fuel future instability, illegal migration and violent conflict.
The Professor added that social entrepreneurship is a good fit for young people and is believed to have great potential to mobilize youth to engage in efforts to achieve major social objectives, including employment creation, poverty reduction, inclusion and integration.
It was highlighted that social enterprises, by combining entrepreneurial behavior with markets, can serve as tools for meeting community needs and youth engagement in productive works. Potential social entrepreneurship sectors in Harari Regional State will be identified and employability of youth in social enterprises will be enhanced, it was noted.
The project involves social entrepreneurship business plan development training on social entrepreneurship (SE) training and writing a social venture plan. It is designed by the team from Haramaya University and is funded by USAID, a partner against the fight to reduce poverty and food insecurity in the country.
In this project 45 youth will be trained for one month. They will be followed after the training to start their own social enterprises with seed money provided from USAID and they will also be supported to write their own projects for funding.
Four well experienced staff from Haramaya University will provide the training.
On the opening of the training, Dr. Yesihak Yusuf, Vice President for Community Engagement and Enterprise Development of Haramaya University, said serving the community is one of the pillars of the Haramaya University.
The youth is one of the strong force that carry the responsibilities of changing the society and giving training and putting the youth on track to solve problem is one means of solving the problem of society while in the meantime creating job opportunity to this age group, he stressed.
Mrs. Amina Abdulkerim, Head of Women, Children and Youth Affairs Bureau of Harari region, in her part said that the trainees who are able to take this training are very lucky among the many unemployed youth and they should take advantage of this opportunity to do their part by respecting the training procedures and actively participating in disciplinary manner to gain the skill and knowledge.
Dr. Richard Wentzell, Dean-College of Law of Haramaya University, also highlighted the importance of the training program and expressed the willingness to support the team.
Invited guests from Haramaya University and Harari Regional State Women, Children and Youth Affairs Bureau attended the opening session.