Policy teams to give job creation priority

• Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya on Wednesday said 19 teams will work on the medium-term policies for the next five years with reducing youth unemployment as the key plank.

• The teams whose membership includes scholars and representatives from ministries, NGOs and professional groups are expected to draft the second Medium Term Plan (MTP) for Vision 2030 to be followed by the next president and county executives.

• Each team is expected to visit the 47 counties to seek ideas to put the country on the path to medium income status over the next 18 years.

Job creation has been placed at the heart of a policy to be drafted for implementation by the next president.

Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya on Wednesday said 19 teams will work on the medium-term policies for the next five years with reducing youth unemployment as the key plank.

“Employment creation, especially for the increasing number of youths, will remain a top priority in the development plan for the next five years,” Mr Oparanya said as he launched the teams.

The teams whose membership includes scholars and representatives from ministries, NGOs and professional groups are expected to draft the second Medium Term Plan (MTP) for Vision 2030 to be followed by the next president and county executives.

Each team is expected to visit the 47 counties to seek ideas to put the country on the path to medium income status over the next 18 years.

The teams will draft policies in areas such as tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, information technology, health, education, labour, security and other social and economic sub-sectors. Each team will have between 25 and 36 members.

“Unemployment, food and physical security, and a national value system remain weighty issues that must be addressed adequately as we move into the second MTPs,” said Mugo Kibati, director-general of Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat.

The focus on job creation comes in the wake of fears that political uncertainty and external shocks could slow growth in the coming years.

An assessment of the first MTP (2008-2012) indicates that the government failed to sustain high growth trajectory that it required to create jobs in the economy.

Under the plan, the government had projected to ride on strong growth to deliver 740,000 jobs annually, on the back of economic growth rates of 8.4 per cent in 2008, progressively rising to 10 per cent last year.

The actual growth however, was 1.6 per cent in 2008, 2.6 per cent in 2009, 5.8 per cent in 2010 and 4.4 per cent last year, largely because of shock from the post-election violence and external shocks.

As a result employment creation shrunk from 759,000 in 2008 to 503,500 in 2011, the report released in April by planning ministry shows.

The government also fell short of building 150,000 housing units annually with returns showing only 30,000 units were constructed.

“These targets were achievable but the macroeconomic conditions under which they were conceived changed radically as shocks like drought, high commodity prices, Eurozone crisis and post-election violence set in,” Finance Assistant Minister Oburu Oginga said.

The team will collect views from the counties until November and come up with a draft MTP for between 2013 and 2017 by February next year.