Transcript
DANIEL EVANS: One is a demand side public works project that's called the Rapid Employment project and that's implemented by the Honiara City Council and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development, supported by the World Bank. That initiative involves adults and youths undertaking short-term, labour intensive public works, for example: cleaning roads, brushing grass, cleaning drains and small scale infrastructure projects such as building concrete steps known as Jacob's ladders and other initiatives such as bridge construction around Honiara. That programme has been in operation since 2010 and since that time, I think it has employed around 12,000 people within the capital with most participants undertaking 20 days of employment. Whereas for the more permanent infrastructure initiatives, people involved in those are generally employed for 54 days. They earn the Solomon Islands' minimum wage which is four dollars an hour.
BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: Once they've completed these projects, does it lead to more work for them?
DE: A very small minority actually end up doing further work. In terms of participating in the project again, they can do that, but the long-term employment outcomes are marginal.
BRD: So contrast the Rapid Employment Project with the Youth at Work Programme?
DE: Youth at Work is largely concerned with on the job skills training and mentoring. That's done by placing participants in internships with other private, public sector, NGOs or donors, generally for a period of three to 12 months. That's one component of Youth at Work; there's actually another component called the Youth Entrepreneur programme and that involves providing a small amount of money and training for youth to start their own business. The amount provided is around $2000 Solomon Islands dollars which is roughly $260 US dollars. Generally youth who have been involved in that part of the project have done activities such as telephone top-up services, selling second hand clothing, catering, tee-shirt printing and the like.
BRD: Again the question must be, do these programmes lead to more permanent work for the youth?
DE: The data that both projects have been collecting, but in particular Youth at Work, indicates that the long-term employment outcomes aren't great. That's not to say that these programmes aren't having a very positive impact on the youth that partake in them, it's just indicating that the employment results for these projects aren't fantastic on the basis of available data. I think the underlining finding of the Youth at Work project, in particular the internship component, was that 33 percent of participants who had taken part had found work. So there is no real evidence to suggest these projects are impacting on national employment. Unfortunately this isn't an issue that the government is appropriately grappling with at the moment and there is no coherent approach to dealing with youth and the youth bulge. I think there are a number of areas where intervening would be more positive or have potentially better outcomes than others, in particular a focus on the informal employment sector. But I think the risk at the moment is that the youth population is growing so rapidly, it's becoming increasingly urban, if these youth aren't occupied, if they feel as though they're marginal to the political process, they don't have a voice, then you really do have the ingredients for instability in the future particularly in Honiara.