What role should the youth play to eradicate poverty in SA?

By L.J
Poverty reduction is a subject that has attracted a lot of debate in the past three decades. Poverty is a global challenge that goes beyond social and political issues to include economic issues. Therefore, solutions aimed at breaking the vicious cycles of poverty cannot be limited to political and social policies, but call for a radical set of measures that are comprehensive and well-coordinated. Economic growth as the ultimate solution to poverty. This is relatively because economic growth brings with it a number of reforms i.e. structural, regulatory and trade that play a major role in addressing poverty related issues. This essay seeks to highlight ways in which youth can eradicate poverty in Southern Africa and how economic growth is its ultimate cure.
In the past, agricultural productivity growth rates were closely related to poverty reduction rates. This implies that economies that reported rapid growth rates in agricultural productivity also experienced great results in matters poverty reduction. The hunger problem is relatively tragic when the populace rely heavily on rain water to grow products. If we can start growing our own food like corn, rice, different types of beans, fruits, wheat and sugar cane, all that can be able to sustain our families and even our communities to sell some of the food we grow ourselves, with the money we can buy few animals such as chickens bit by bit, we can be able to start buying other animals such as cows and sheep’s, that can help us with milk and meat. We can now go into shops and sell. As time goes by we can move to big supermarkets. In this way we will be creating employment as well for others who will be able to feed their families alleviate poverty.
Therefore, we need to approach our Government to encourage foreign and local investors by providing a good business environment where high returns to investment are guaranteed. Be competitive with international counterparts as well. There is need to create awareness on the need to acquire advanced skills that can be utilised in manufacturing firms to harness better wages.
We can reduce poverty through creating sustainable Jobs that has corporate responsibility. When people have jobs, they have income, and when people have income, they can more easily get themselves out of poverty. We must stop mixing business with pleasure. We need to educate our young girls. The government should design programs that will empower them. A woman’s degree of education is linked to the age at which she marries and has children, to her health and diseases, to her economic opportunities, to her social standing, and to her general future wellbeing. Educating girls and women can reduce poverty in southern Africa. Insufficient education is a significant factor contributing to poverty high level. It can never be overemphasized because education can make changes about everything. Today African children do not have access to education which is required to let them gain knowledge and skills, to equip them to have better ideas and opportunities for employment. We need to engage in programs that will help us come up with new ideas and teach us Leadership skills. Financial education is very key as well so that as young people we should be able to use money wisely and stop being consumers but producers of products. We need to be involved in all spheres of the Government. Engage our government to increase minimum wage. Because of this, right now, “A full-time worker with two children earning the minimum wage will still raise his or her family in poverty.” And this is an issue in southern Africa. Raising the minimum wages could potentially increase the health and wellbeing of millions.
The lack of technology, Southern Africa is very rich with natural resources such as fertile soil, enough rain and sunshine for cultivation, raw materials, oil, gold and many other major resources but lacking ways of exploiting them. No advance technology or industrial infrastructure to channel these resources through real incentive to accelerate the development.so as young people we need to acquire more skills in information Technology so that will be able to use the skills to channel these resources and eradicate poverty in our land.
As youth we should engage our political instability and corruption head on and make sure that we are involved in decision and policy making of our country. As youth we need to be in Governance. We need to start being involved in politics so that we can represent the masses and correct the mistakes our Fore leaders have done. Leadership is one of the key problems. Most of the African governors are busy with their own business and hand in hand of foreigners are draining the public resources out in favor of their overseas partners. Majority of African leaders are dictating those policies which are just match with their own private and not the public interests. Leaders try to run the country by copying the modern western state systems at domestic level and neglect the tradition and culture of their own people. With such negligence, the political atmosphere in most Southern Africa states is not well enough for safe investment and its level has been restricted to the sectors for washing out their resources in favor of western countries.
As young people the steps are to focus on good governance, social responsibility and elimination of corruption. Develop our educational systems, infrastructure, and labor markets which will able ours to exploit our resources in the global markets. Increase economic input on national income through the important exports of major resources such as oil, gold, raw materials, timbers, fishers. Encourage agriculture sectors, proper management of resources and foreign investment. This can be met through the demand of trade reform that will help small scale farmers and enriching their agriculture and other sectors like services and labor. In other words we should target the extremely poor people and enabled them to contribute to development by improving their health, education, provide agriculture subsidies instead of wasting expenditures all will lead to economic growth. There is need to educate the population and motivated them to maintain it. Donations can help as well to build basic infrastructure. The southern African nations need political and economic policies that will aid our growth and lessen our dependence on outside charity. In order to eliminate poverty is to be stabilised in peace and may be reduce the population to have access to more food instead of more people with the less food. Even few African countries that have experienced sustained high growth over the last few decades are now reported to have reduced their absolute poverty levels, but the important aspect is that the gains of economic growth should be distributed fairly to reach the poor people in the country.
Engage more in massive food production. We have over millions of hectares of unused cultivated land, billions of rands are spent in southern Africa for buying food each year. We should focus all our efforts on investment policies in agricultural sectors and training programs for more efficient water management, new techniques of cultivation, irrigation and harvesting. In addition of these issues and to rapidly increase productivity, the fertilizers as well as sufficient suitable machinery and equipment for conservation of agricultural products should be provided for the African farmers.
As young people we need to have focus of changing our communities and country at large. Stop making a lot babies that we cannot look after thus resulting in poverty. We need to use our God given skills and Talents to empower each other with more knowledge. Transform our minds through motivating each other. We need to respect and learn from our experienced elders. Have faith as our Guide and weapon in life. We should stop being beggars.
We should go to school to enlighten our minds, find our purpose, loot at what has been left in the markets, business gaps and ideas, create opportunities and start businesses and corporates, be encouraged more especially those in agriculture sector. To never indulge in fear of the future but rather plan well and know what we want. Almost everything has been made available by our current government whereby we as young people are the ones to benefit more out of every program by our government. The environment is conducive for us. We need to stop being lazy. Zealous spirit, go-getter kind of mind must be reinstalled in most of our young people and we will be able to eradicate poverty in the southern Africa.
Aluta Continua
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