These days unemployment has become one of the hurdles of the states due to the ever increasing rural-urban migration rate. Coupled with the recent price hike, urban areas have become unsafe environment in relation to failure to address the growing unemployment.
People from every corner of the country seeking rosy picture of life in cities add some sort of complication on the well-being of the society. These pose a threat for nation food security, employment, infrastructure and service.
The government of Ethiopia intervened to address the problem with policy and strategy establishing City’s Job Creation and Food Security Agency. And it is also striving to solve the complication investing a lot in urban agriculture.
Accordingly, as Ethiopia’s urbanization is growing rapidly, the government has given due emphasis for urban job creation and how the sector should involve relevant bodies who have stakes.
As Urban Job Creation and Food Security Agency (UJCFSA) is a mandated institute to address unemployment, that is why it is set to create 300 thousand job while the performance was 142 thousand in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
Agency, Communication Affairs Team Leader, Abozenech Negash told The Ethiopian Herald that among jobs created during the first quarters of the year, over 55 thousand were created for women and the remaining were created for peoples with disabilities, refugee returnee, university and college graduates.
The job opportunities include sectors of small manufacturing enterprises, construction, trade, urban agriculture, and service. According to her, the Agency has met over 52 percent of the target.
The agency set to provide 2 billion Birr loan for more than 22 thousand enterprises in the first quarter of the year. Eventually, it was able to provide 1.26 billion Birr for 14 thousand enterprises.
Nearly one million unemployed were registered, and for over two hundred thousand of them have received information and counseling service. Furthermore, the agency organized more than 18 thousand enterprises that consist of over 60 thousand members.
On the other hand, some hectares of urban land were cultivated and made fit for urban agriculture. Besides, over 1 million seedlings were planted. Additionally, more than 48 million kg of solid waste was collected and disposed from nearly 4 million m2 of land.
As to her, 30 toilets, 42 km road construction, 31 schools and 22 health care facilities overhauled. During the first quarter, the agency has saved over 44 million Birr from beneficiaries engaged in environmental development. However, the performance faced short fall of the target.
Expanding urban agriculture, creating jobs is the key to build sustainable and stable urban development. Thus, the agency is working on, but the journey for inclusive urban development is not an easy job it needs the collaborative and cooperative work of all pertinent actors.
All in all, the first quarter is the preparation chapter thus most of the time passed in disseminating information and making agreement on the planned issues with relevant bodies. Turnover of employees, frequent shift of officials and instability in some part of the country are the some of the hurdles for the inefficient performance.
The Ethiopian Herald December26, 2019
BY MULATU BELACHEW
