Improving youth employment in Botswana: The need for evidence based policy and programme development

Youth unemployment is a major policy concern that deserves urgent attention because it has become a threat to the social, economic and political stability of the country. It leads to a variety of social ills, including; poverty, alcohol abuse, crime and social unrests. Policy and programmes response to the problem of youth unemployment are many and varied but have almost always taken the form of social welfare provision and less on promotion of practical education and skills training. Government has often spent funds on short term under employment and indecent jobs, quick fixes and unsustainable programmes with little impact on job creation. The absence of research to guide policy frameworks often lead to poorly designed youth programmes. The objective of this paper is to examine the strengths and challenges of programmes meant to address youth unemployment with a view to propose long lasting solutions. It will highlight the need to reassess past and current approaches to youth unemployment with a view to develop more effective, relevant and sustainable solutions. This paper argues that in order to address the prevailing challenges, greater emphasis should be on research to generate ongoing and reliable data that may provide the answer to the pervasive problem of youth unemployment in Botswana.