{"id":102572,"date":"2020-05-19T16:23:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T23:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=102572"},"modified":"2020-05-19T16:24:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T23:24:20","slug":"ideas-for-the-presidential-task-force-creating-employment-for-the-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/19\/ideas-for-the-presidential-task-force-creating-employment-for-the-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Ideas for the Presidential Task Force: Creating Employment for the Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It has so happened that in Sri Lanka, instead of creating employment for the youth we have had the unfortunate experience of being forced to gun down the youth twice. In the April 1971 uprising at least ten thousand and in the late Eighties some Seventy or Eighty thousand had to be silenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth of a country, especially the youth who due to either the lack of qualification or due to the lack of employment opportunity have to be confined to attend to a menial job and have to scrape the barrel for life, needs to be taken care of. They deserve to be trained and guided to become a national asset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, the achievement of the Youth Self Employment Programme\nof Bangladesh comes of great importance in that it is the only  development programme that can claim success\nin guiding millions of drop out youths to become self employed on a\ncommercially viable basis. It is easily the only youth employment programme\nthat has achieved world status within the short space of three decades. It is a\nprogramme that has left its imprint on the sands of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In  Bangladesh when the new\nMilitary Government of General Ershard took over the country in 1982, the\nMinistry of Youth Development was providing skills training to 40,000 youths\nannually but the vast majority of them failed to find employment and continued\nto be unemployed for life. I happened to be the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to\nthe Ministry on Youth Development and the new Hon. Minister for Labour and\nManpower, Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam at a Conference held to evaluate youth\ndevelopment programmes, ordered me,:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0What can you contribute to Bangladesh\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would suggest that you approve a self-employment programme to supplement the skills training programmes\u00a0 that are being implemented by the Ministry of Youth Development, where the lecturers who train the youths in skills will,\u00a0 in addition, also guide the youths to establish enterprises to manufacture items for sale and become self-employed entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest official in the country\nwho was present vehemently objected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self Employment is not something that can be established. The International Labor Organization (ILO) with all their unlimited resources have just miserably failed to establish a self employment programme at Tangail in Bangladesh. They laboured for three years and brought experts from all over the world and failed. It was a massive loss and this Government is not going to waste any more funds again. Self Employment is not a task that can be done. That was the conclusion of the ILO and they are the only experts of international standing\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the ILO failed,  I\ncan establish a Self Employment Programme. I hold the experience of\nestablishing self employment units in Sri Lanka for eighteen years and also\nhold the Ph.D in Agricultural Economics and Non Formal Education from Michigan\nState University. I am a trained expert not only in agricultural economics but\nalso in community development and non formal education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The Secretary to the Treasury the highest official in Bangladesh\nlaughed loud at my attempt to make entrepreneurs out of school drop outs- the\ncategory from which the Department of Youth Development found youths for skills\ntraining.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.. I argued that though the ILO failed I would succeed. The\nSecretary to the Treasury  was adamant\nthat such a programme would never succeed, but I quoted instances where I had\nestablished  successful employment projects providing incomes to youths\nwhile simultaneously producing what the country imported.. He laughed at my\ntelling that I had successfully guided unemployed youths to understand basic\neconomic principles to become entrepreneurs by having a few cattle, a few dozen\nhens or making an item for sale. I explained that it was an easy task to\nprovide training to the unemployed and to also guide them to open up small\nscale enterprises and guide them till they become successful entrepreneurs-  what  I\nhad done again and again in Sri Lanka over eighteen years. I detailed how I\nwould be guiding the youths to  master\nthe art of making the right decisions and for them to develop their ability and\ncapacity to think and act to become successful entrepreneurs. The battle went\non for an easy two full hours.  The Hon\nMinister was listening in silence till his patience was exhausted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Minister finally\nordered us to shut up. He was the third in command in the military government\nand I was worried thick. The Secretary to the Treasury was the highest official\nin the land and even Secretaries of Ministries would never even dream of\narguing with him. Instead of questioning us further, the Minister  asked for any \nGovernment training programmes that guided youths to become\nentrepreneurs. The Secretary to the Treasury replied None\u201d. Then the Minister\nasked for the  number of youths being\ntrained in all vocational training programmes in the country..  He carefully totaled the figures of youths\nthat were being trained.  Then the\nMinister asked for the number of school leavers in a year who would have not\nfed into the higher echelons of learning and also not finding a job and be\nrelegated  to be under employed scraping\nthe barrel for life. The answer for the number of youths scraping the barrel\nfor life annually was in the millions while the number of youths under training\nin vocations was in the thousands. Without any hesitation, the Hon Minister\nordered that I should establish a self employment programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secretary to the Treasury stumped,  stating\u201a  that there will be no \nfunds to establish a self employment programme, to which I replied that we will\nfind savings within the  approved budgets  for the skills training of\nthe youths and re deploy staff as necessary. The  Hon Minister \napproved my suggestion.. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started planning work that night itself. The next morning I was\naddressing trainees at the training centers and also training our Lecturers and\nYouth Officers on how the programme should be done. The officers who had till\nthen done traditional youth development work were trained in concepts of\neconomics. All Training Institutes were immediately altered to Training Cum\nExtension Institutes where the youths in training were to be guided to become\nself employed. Overnight we established a countrywide special extension service\nfor the lecturers to go out on inspections and help the youths who faced\nproblems when they commenced enterprises.  The youths were guided to draft\ntheir own projects to become self employed, starting small farms even with a\nfew cows or chicks. Dresses were sewn using the machines at the training\ncenters that were kept open after work till ten at night.  The method was\nto intensively guide the trainees in the management of their enterprises. Every\naction from the planning of their projects, to the purchase of raw materials,\nthe chicks, the feed, the process of manufacture, the process of the growth and\nsale of cattle, the making of garments and their sale was all monitored on a\nnon formal education  basis where the youths were trained to look at the\nadvantages and disadvantages of each course of action and act on their own.\nThey were monitored closely and helped when they failed. . The trainees were\ntaught basic economics related to their ventures\u201a  The training included\nunderstanding the free market economy and the youths were guided to think,\nunderstand and increase their ability and capacity in the process. This was non\nformal education in action. The achievement was within the village setting\nwhere the projects became family concerns with brothers and sisters becoming\ninvolved. On our Visits, Training sessions were provided impromptu where\neveryone could participate. Short training courses were provided as and when\nnecessary. The effort was to make a youth movement to make youths establish\nenterprises and guide them till they are income bearing equal to the earnings\nof a clerical officer in the Public Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Programme began at the beginning of April 1982 with a few\ntrainees and was expanded to 2000 by October 1983. By the time I left\nBangladesh at the end of October  1983-\nin  nineteen months my team was guiding\n2000 youths.  The team comprised the\nSecretary, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry with a few hundred staff of\nDirectors, Deputy Directors of Youth, Director for Livestock and Poultry ,\nDirectors of the 3 Residential Training Centers in Livestock & Poultry,\nLecturers in Training Institutes- all of whom were taught the essentials of\neconomics firstly to be able to analyse the economy of Bangladesh and to arrive\nat areas of economic activity where self employment production would be an\nasset.to the country This included national and regional planning culled down\nto the village level., where the self employment units were established.. They\nwere also taught methods of imparting instructions in a manner that would evoke\nthe active participation of the trainees and enable them to think and make\ntheir own decisions, developing their ability and capacity in the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got down to work in earnest.. The officers were patriotic to\nthe extreme. It was long hours every day for months.  Daily circuits in Toyota Hiace bone shakers-\nleaving early morning to return whenever. The officials responded to a man,\npatriotic to the extreme, working long hours..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In an evaluation conducted\nin March 1983, eleven months from the commencement it was found that of the\nyouths that commenced by May 1982,   283\nyouths had established  their own\ncommercial ventures, with stocks of flocks and head of cattle  valued at Tk.911,630.00.  It was building up stocks, buying chicks and\nducklings and seeing them grow. As much as 223 of them had reached a net income\nof TK 369.00 a month. Of them 83 earned over Tk. 500.00 a month. In the  Jamalpur District, in disciplines like dress\nmaking, fisheries, retail sales, electrical goods repairing workshops, welding,\netc. 73 youths were involved, earning an average net income of Tk 445.00 a\nmonth with 20 of them earning net incomes of Tk. 500.00 or over:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time Tk. 500.00 a month was the salary drawn by a Clerical\nOfficer in the Government Service. Getting the youths to reach a net income of\nTk. 500.00 a month was our aim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an Evaluation done in August 1983, 16 months since\ncommencement  the Evaluation Report\nstates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Programme of Excellence in every respect  unfolds in the results documented. .Of  500 unemployed youths who joined the\nprogramme in the early months,   479 are\nearning  an average net income  of Tk 596.00 in August 1983, 8 to 12 months\nafter they commenced their commercial ventures, 55 of them earn over Tk.\n1000.00 a month and 253 earn  over Tk\n500.00.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 1983, barely 16 months since the commencement, the\nachievement was hailed by the two Secretaries of the Ministry of Labour and\nManpower; In their words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr.Karunaratne\u2019s\nsignificant contribution has been in the field of self employment to the\ndrop-out youths. This programme was not only designed but also guided by him.\nThis activity which was initially launched as a pilot experimental project has\nbeen a great success and has now being adopted as a fill-fledged Programme. The\nGovernment of Bangladesh..has been successful in providing meaningful\nemployment to a large number of youths on this Programme\u201d .(Asafuddowlah)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Karunaratne\u2019s role as\nthe formulator of the program has been particularly commendable. It was mainly\nthrough his dedication and hard work that the pilot project has now been\nformally accepted as one of the most important development projects. (Ayubur\nRahaman)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The YSEP has stood the test\nof time for over three decades (1982-2019) The Five Year Plan of 1997-2002\ndevotes 8 pages to this program. This is easily the premier employment creation\nprogram that one can find in the world today. All other programs involve\ntraining and apprenticeship only and never include the tasks of motivating\nyouths, involving them in non-formal education endeavor to develop their\nabilities and capacities, through technical guidance and management advice\nprovided as they work on their projects aimed at their  becoming commercially viable, which are the\ncornerstones on which this programme  has\nbeen based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of traditional\nyouth work, the aims of the Ministry of Youth had been altered:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To facilitate the\nunemployed youth for gainful employment\/self employment, providing\nvocational\/skills development training and micro credit support.\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To involve the youth in\nthe mainstream of national development processes” (www.dyd.gov.bd\/nyp_activities.php<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No subsidies of any sort\nwere provided. What was provided was intensive training in residential\nsettings, with payment of a meager monthly stipend. In many cases the youths\ninvested their stipend to purchase chicks. They created capital by rearing\nchicks to become hens. Later, to the promising youths loans were arranged and\ncarefully utilized under  close\nsupervision. Short term training was provided whenever needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above achievement of the Youth Self Employment Programme\nstands great in comparison to what was achieved by the ILO Project in Tangail\nin the earlier three years, where the number of entrepreneurs was only 626,\nwhere Tk. 1.38 million was disbursed of which only Tk. .61 million was\nrecovered.  The best cases document\npeople owning one milk cow or fattening one head of cattle for sale. Many of\nthe 626 people had dropped off. The ILO had to eat humble pie, declare failure\nand erase the attempt from their books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 By  August 1983, 16 months after\ncommencement  The Department of Youth\nDevelopment  was training  2000 youths. The Programme was expanded apace\nto involve 7000 youths by 1987, to 16,000 by 1992 and to 160,000 a year  from 1997. In 1982 we had only 3 Residential\nTraining Centers. This was increased to 64 by 1997. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In  2011 February \nThe Government of Bangladesh reported to the 34 th Session of the\nGoverning Council of IFAD(FAO), one of the funders,   that this programme had guided as much as\ntwo million youths to be self employed\u201a  on  a commercially viable\nbasis.(Statement by Bangladesh to the 34 th Session of the Governing Council of\nIFAD(FAO), dated19\/02\/2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My task was also to train the officers to carry on the programme\nafter my\u201a  two year period of service ended.\u201a  True to a man\nBangladeshi officers carried on the ardous task and\u201a   today 160,000\nyouths are being guided annually.. A full Department of Youth Development now\ndevotes 95% of its time to training and guiding youths to become self\nemployed..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every country boasts of skills training programmes where youths\nare trained in the thousands but none provide training to guide the trained to\nbecome entrepreneurs- the task that was successfully done in this Youth Self\nEmployment Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would behove  every\nGovernment to  decide that all skills\ntraining programmes should include guidance to enable the youths in training to\nestablish enterprises of their own and become entrepreneurs. This can be\nachieved with little extra cost as the staff that train youths in skills can\nalso be guiding them to become self employed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important fact is that for the first few years, no new\nfunds were provided for this Programme. . Savings were found within the skills\ntraining programme budgets for holding training workshops to create self\nemployment..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a live successful employment creation programme is a great\nasset to any country. Guiding the unemployed \nto become entrepreneurs, also enriches the economy with  produce to avoid imports..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have detailed factually how I designed and established the Youth\nSelf Employment Programme, a programme that has come to stay on a permanent\nbasis for over  three decades and also\nfind mention in the Five Year Plans of the country. The Commonwealth Fund tried\nto get my services  later, but I had to\ndecline as I was employed in a permanent position in Westminster as a Lecturer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In actuality I converted a youth development department attending\nto traditional youth work to attend to economic development, training the youth\nand finding employment opportunities for them. I had to train the staff of the\nDepartment of Youth Development  in\neconomics and methods of communication and educating youths to become\ncommercial entrepreneurs. This is easily the one and only programme of this\ntype in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may be a good idea for the Task Force to contact the Secretary\nto the Ministry of Youth Development of Bangladesh, to find veracity  for this unique programme. The officer who\nwill know most is  the former secretary,\nMr Muhammed Asafuddowlah, of the Bangladesh Civil Service, who was Additional  Secretary of the Ministry when I designed and\nestablished the Programme and who was  later\nthe Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Development twice  and was instrumental in expanding the\nprogramme to what it is today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intrinsic success of this programme even merits a visit by a\nleading member of the Task Force to sus and find out how Sri Lanka  can learn \nfrom this programme.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar employment creation programme for the youth of Sri\nLanka, if established,  will be a great\ncredit to  the Government of President\nGotabhaya and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would deem it  a priviledge\nto provide more details and be of service if called upon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

. Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University\u201a <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commonwealth Fund Advisor of Youth Development to the Government\nof Bangladesh(1981-1983) and Government Agent, Matara(1971-1973) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programs of \nSuccess (Godages)2006
\nSuccess in Development-\u009d(Godages)2010
\nPapers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka-\u009d, Godages 2012
\nHow the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development,  Kindle\/Godages, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 18, 2020, Colombo, Sri Lankagarvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne It has so happened that in Sri Lanka, instead of creating employment for the youth we have had the unfortunate experience of being forced to gun down the youth twice. In the April 1971 uprising at least ten thousand and in the late Eighties some Seventy or Eighty thousand had to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}