The BRIDGES Programme, a five-year initiative that is part of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works, last week officially launched Awaqi Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Skills. The project has been in its trial phase for more than a year, reaching more than 250,000 youth across the country. First Consult, an economic development consulting company that has been operating in Ethiopia for more than a decade.

Awaqi is designed to create a centralised platform for youth to access information and resources that can better optimise their competitiveness in the country’s embattled job market. In addition to facilitating employability, the social media-focused initiative also seeks to create and develop ecosystems that encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

Speaking at the launch event at Hyatt Regency Addis Ababa, Minister for Labour and Skills Muferihat Kamil affirmed that the country needs to change the way it perceives young people. According to her, addressing the macroeconomic problems in the country, of which employment is perhaps the most important, should not only be reserved to experts and established professionals.

Nebil Kellow, Managing Director of First Consult, echoed the same sentiments urging attendees to not only power and drive the youth, but to emulate the same spirit that makes the youth actors of change and progress.

Of course, despite these positive outlooks, Awaqi and all other entities involved in youth employment have an uphill battle ahead of them. Various sources indicate that Ethiopia’s youth accounts for more than 29 percent of the population with more than 42.6 percent being unemployed and more than 2 million joining the workforce each year. 

Awaqi Ethiopia, and the leaders behind the initiative, do not see these abysmal figures as a failure of the youth themselves so much as a failure of the systems that are in place. This is why, in addition to launching Awaqi, the partners also signed a partnership agreement to work closely on developing micro, small, and medium enterprises through credit and other financing systems, increasing public-private partnerships, and driving the digital revolution that the country needs. 

As such, Awaqi Ethiopia’s main mission is going to be providing information, tools, training programmes, networking opportunities and other vital resources for the youth to build themselves up in the professional world aside from their education. The BRIDGES Programme is specifically concerned with creating employment opportunities in industrial parks, where employees have little or no access to employability enhancement resources. It is expected to create more than 600,000 employment opportunities.