Nyandeng urges international community to empower youths, women

The Vice President for Gender and Youth Cluster, Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior has called on the International Community and the government to empower youths and women to be part of the development in the country.

She said the government cannot improve its economy without the engaging youth and women who are the ‘‘engine of development’’.

“We need to empower our youth and women economically so that we can go back as the government and collect taxes from them,” Nyandeng said during the United Nations day celebration yesterday.

She added: “a poor government is where citizens are poor and a rich government is where the citizens are rich.  The youth in South Sudan are redundant they are not engaged; we want them to be part of the development of their country,” she added.

Youth in South Sudan account for 73.6 per cent of the population and women stand at 56 per cent of the total population that cannot be ignored, said Nyandeng.

“If we do not engage the youth, South Sudan is going to remain poor because they [youth] are the energy. We should use that energy in a private sector because the government is very narrow on top but wider at the bottom and that is how the nations are created,’’ she described.

She revealed the government should encourage the investors to come and tap the available resources so that the benefit goes to every citizen following the limited number of the population.

“For those resources to come out, [they] need security and at the same time, we need to give this agreement a chance because South Sudan does not have any other alternative. If you see our politics in the region everybody has a problem,” she said. 

In January 2021, the South Sudanese youth were challenged to embrace the informal jobs churned in the private sectors rather than eyeing the white-collar jobs that may otherwise pay inadequately.

The Minister of Information and Telecommunication Michael Makuei, who also serves as the government spokesperson, said a majority of the young people in the country despise manual jobs and direct their focus on living large beyond their means.

 He said most youths do expect white-collar jobs. He discouraged them from looking for government institutions to employ them and overlooking informal jobs that pay more.

He encouraged young people to come out of their comfort zone and set up business ventures in the private sector. He accused them of relinquishing the sector to foreigners as he bashed them for ‘taking tea’ under trees while pretending to be looking for jobs.