Capacity-building and its Effects on Reduction of Youth Unemployment in Nigeria

1. Capacity-building and its Effects on Reduction of Youth Unemployment in Nigeria By Yemisi Lydia, OLALEYE (PhD) DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA. E-mail Address:yemisi1957@yahoo.co.uk yl.olaleye@mail.ui.edu.ng Mobile Phone Number: +2348037139098

2. Introduction • A society owes its young people the best possible opportunities. • Age 15 and 24 is a crucial development life phase. • Psychological development, social transition and changes in status are closely related (Adebayo, 1999). • Young people are expected to establish a sense of personal identity.

3. Young people • expected to establish a sense of personal identity • expected to become progressively more independent of parents. • move from school into the workforce, either directly or via further education or training. • Majority leave home during these years to establish households of their own, with or without others. • Most form intimate relationships with non-family members (Adedeji and Osuagwu, 2001).

4. Youths Unemployment • Youths constitute the most significant part of the world population. • They are the most active, diligent, creative, contributive, innovative and energetic people. • They can prove more productive and constructive in any field of life but the irony is that a large portion of them around the world are unemployed and they cannot find any suitable job (Chapman, Weatherburn, Chilvers and Roussel,2002).

5. Unemployment and lack of an adequate income generally means being dependent on others-family, relatives, friends, a partner or the state-so the growing sense of autonomy, independence and responsibility for self, the right of every young person, is less able to develop. • Youth unemployment has been an increasing trend for many years not only in the developing countries but also in developed ones.

6. In Nigeria • Since the early eighties, unemployment has assumed alarming and disturbing dimensions with millions of able bodied persons who are willing to accept jobs at the prevailing market rates are unable to find placements (Cuthill and Fien, 2005). • Urban unemployment (Adedeji and Osuagwu, 2001). • Youth unemployment (Adebayo, 1999).

7. . Capacity-building • refers to investment in people, institutions and practices that will, together, enable countries in the region to achieve their development objectives. • The main aim of capacity-building is to transform individuals from passive recipients of services to active participants in a process of community change (Adebayo, 1999). • not limited to international aid work. • being used by government to transform community and industry approaches on social health and environmental problems (Darandari, 2008) • it is a personal growth process that leads to enhanced performance.

8. Statement of the Problem • The intention of capacity-building supported through the national treasury is clearly to improve national well-being. This suggests that however capacity-building may be defined, if it occurs through state-funded research projects, it would take national interest into account and also accommodate wider than participation of individuals from previously marginalized sectors. • This study, therefore, examined capacity building and its effects on reduction of youth unemployment.

9. Objectives of the Study • Broad objective: • Identifying capacity-building and Its effects on reduction of youth unemployment. • Specific objectives: • To examine whether the educational levels of unemployed youth have anything to do with participating in capacity-building programmes; • To find out whether youth are participating in capacity-building in order to reduce unemployment of youth.

10. Research Hypotheses • H1There is no significant relationship between youth unemployment reduction and capacity-building. • H2 There is no significant relationship between capacity-building programmes and levels of education of the unemployed youth. • H3 There is no significant differences between youths participating in capacity-building and youth unemployment reduction.

11. Methodology • The descriptive survey research design • The target population: • Youths (male and female) • Ages of 20 to 39 years • The multi-stage sampling procedure • Lagelu is stratified along the axis of Olodo, Kumapayi, Iyana-Ofa, Oyedeji and Erunmu. • Random sampling technique was used to select 80 respondents from each community, • Thus 400 respondents was used for the study.

12. Instrument • a structurally designed questionnaire adapted from CBERYUQ. • to retrieve information about their knowledge, attitude towards capacity-building programmes in reducing their unemployment. • KR 21 was used for items that were dichotomously scored, • Cronbach Alpha was used for 3, 4, and 5 point item scales. • A pilot study was carried out with a sample of 60 subjects in Akanran LGA, Oyo State, Nigeria. • The result of reliability coefficient is r = 0.83. • Frequency distribution and Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was to analyzed the data collected for the study.

13. Table 1: Personal Characteristics of the Respondents

15. Characteristics of the respondents The personal characteristics of the respondents examined • Age, • Marital status, • Religion • Educational attainment.

16. Table 2: Capacity-building (Vocational Centre) and Youth Unemployment Reduction

17. Table 3: Correlation of Capacity-building with Youth Unemployment Reduction

18. Table 4: Capacity-building Programmes and Level of Education

19. Table 5: Correlation of Capacity building Programmes with Level of Education.

20. The result of the test shown in Table 5, establishes that there is no significant relationship between capacity building and education levels of the unemployed youths,(r=..043N=400, P< .05). • The result suggests that capacity-building programmes as a means of reducing youths’ unemployment will not be influenced or impacted the youths’ education level. • The null hypothesis is therefore accepted and alternative rejected.

21. Table 6: Correlation of Youth Participating in Capacity-building Programmes with Youth Unemployment Reduction

22. The result of the test shown in Table 5, establishes that there is no significant relationship between capacity building and education levels of the unemployed youths, (r=..043N=400, P< .05). • The result suggests that capacity-building programmes as a means of reducing youths’ unemployment will not be influenced or impacted the youths’ education level. • The null hypothesis is therefore accepted and alternative rejected.

23. Discussions • The result in research hypothesis one indicates that there is significant relationship between capacity building and youth unemployment reduction (r = .374, N = 400, P< .05). • This result is supported by the findings of Du Toit, 2003 that capacity-building is a process whereby people especially unemployed youths are enabled to better perform defined functions either as individuals, through improved technical skills and professional understanding, or a group aligning their activities to achieve common purpose.

24. It is also observed in research hypothesis two that there is no significant relationship between capacity building and level of education of the unemployed youths (r= .043N=400, P< .05). • This is in line with the findings of Braimoh, Osiki and Mpine, (2009), that capacity-building refers to assistance provided to entities, usually societies in developing countries which have a need to develop a certain skill or competence for general upgrading of performance ability.

25. Hypothesis 3 reveals that there is no significant difference between youths participating in capacity building scheme and unemployment of youth reduction programmes (r=.-112, N=400, P< .05). • This finding is corroborated by the findings of Rooij (2005) who asserts that young people have a natural disposition for innovation and learning new tools and those assets can help to create viable options to remain in the country side.

26. Implications of Findings The findings of the study also have implications for community development planners, policy makers, non-governmental agencies and other stakeholders participating in development planning, design and service delivery system. • Community development officials, social workers and health social workers should be encouraged and empowered to meet with community leaders and members of the public to educate the youths not to rely on only white collar jobs but to learn other skills so that they can be self-dependent and even become employers of labour. • This study established that capacity-building schemes have a great influence on reduction of youth unemployment.

27. Conclusion • The findings from this study established that the long-term consequences of unemployment on pathways to adulthood are easy to predict. • It is apparent that a significant proportion of young people are not in a position to make a positive transition to adulthood.

28. For some, it will be very difficult to “catch up”, even if circumstances do improve. The education, training and job creation measures proposed will improve the situation for some young people. • However, in order to ensure that there is no further polarisation between those who get jobs and those who do not, and young people have a viable future, it will almost certainly be necessary to adopt fundamental approaches to ways in which work in the future may be more fairly distributed.

29. Recommendations • The government should reach out to youths, regardless of their ethnic, cultural, religious, geographical or political affiliation, by establishing good schemes aimed at encouraging youths to spend their free times positively. • Government’s empowerment programmes should be restructured or re-designed, and centred on the “participatory approach”. • There should be enhanced investment on human capital which should involve the youths. • Government should create a conducive investment climate and business friendly environment. • Youths should be encouraged not to rely only on white collar jobs alone.

30. References • Adebayo, A (1999). Youth unemployment and national directorate of employment programmes. Nigeria Journal of Economics and Social Studies 41(1), 81-102. • Adedeji, S.O. and Osuagwu, J.N. (2001) Relative labour market performance of graduates from Nigerian polytechnics and universities during the NYSC programme in Oyo State, Nigeria. Ibadan Journal of Educational Studies. 1, No. 1 37-46. • Alwin, D.(1988). “From obedience to autonomy: Changes in traits desired in children, 1924-1978”, Public opinion quarterly, Vol.1, 52. • Braimoh,D., Osiki, J.O &Mpine, M (2009), From empower to transformation: A capacity building model for academic in distance higher education institutions in Nigeria • Carmichael, F. & Ward, R. (2001) Male unemployment and crime in England and Wales. Economics letters 5 (73): 111-115 • Chapman, B.D, Weatherburn, C.A., Chilvers, M., & Roussel, S. (2002). Unemployment duration, schooling and property crime. Discussion paper 447. Australian National University, Centre for Economic Research, Canberra. • Cuthill, M. &Fien, J. (2005). Capacity building: Facilitating citizen participation in local government, Australian Journal of Public Administration. Vol. 41, No. 2, 114-129.

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