Rinchi
TechInAfrica – The Government of Japan has announced that it will financially support a project in Liberia aiming at promoting social stabilization in the country. The main focus of the project is to create jobs and improve the livelihood of vulnerable people and communities, especially youth.
The Japanese Government is working with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for this project, offering total funding of US$5.8 million. The funding will help to stabilize the country’s economy which recently has struggled with civil wars and Ebola crisis.
The economy of Liberia is mainly driven by foreign investments by transnational corporations (TNCs) in the extractive industries. However, this doesn’t help much on job creation because most of TNCs’ concessions projects do not employ local communities due to their lack of skills.
The project by UNIDO and the Japanese Government will provide local communities with necessary and technical skills, helping to drive employment and job creation in the country.
UNIDO’s Project Manager, Noriko Takahashi, said: “With over 80 percent of Liberia’s youth unable to find secure employment, providing skills training is an important tool to tackle youth unemployment and, in turn, enhance social stabilization in a still fragile post-crisis society.”
“I am pleased that Japan can contribute to supporting skills and jobs creation for the youth of Liberia – a very important element of the Liberian Government’s “Pro-Poor” policy. One of the pillars under TICAD 7 (Tokyo International Conference on African Development), which Japan hosts in August this year, will be about human resource development, therefore this project is in line with the Government of Japan’s development agenda,” added Tsutomu Himeno, the Ambassador of Japan Embassy to Liberia.
The project will focus more on youth, thus, provide them with technical and vocational training in the Nimba Country, in coordination with TNCs. It will use existing vocational institutions to deliver the training.
The focus of the project is the wood and furniture industry as it’s the main priority of Liberia’s Government to drive economic growth. Additionally, it will also seek to create local businesses and develop a partnership with TNCs to relieve tension between the organizations and local communities.
Source: africabusinesscommunities.com
