A radical and innovative program to create 10,000 jobs for young Somalilanders

Desperate situations require radical solutions. In the current situation of all time unemployment and unprecedented number of our youth gambling their future by jumping to Tahreeb in drones, the SL government was expected to think about the problem seriously and come up with innovative solutions to address this social malaise. In particular the expectation of this government was very high due to its repeated promises during the presidential campaign that she will make youth employment and Tahreeb a very high priority. We all know that the number of youth going for Tahreeb sky-rocketed during the current government and very little has been done about unemployment, which creates despair, hopelessness, Islamic radicalization and fuels Tahreeb. Rather the current government spends the scare resource she has in muffling and suppressing free press. This reached an unthinkable level of suppression, imprisonment, and sometimes targeted assassination attempts.
It is true that SL is a poor country and as such there is no easy way to address the problem of unemployment. But we need new and bold ideas in order to use what we have in an efficient and economical manner.
Today I am proposing a radical program, which will ensue the creation of at least 10,000 jobs, yes 10,000 jobs, for young Somalilanders. Believe it or not this program will only cost the government administration and planning costs, but it requires a courageous decision on the part of the president:
Here is the plan:
Reduce the civil service employment mandatory retirement age to 50 year, with exception of armed forces and national security employees. The country cannot afford to lose expertise of these two institutions for national defense and security reasons. There should be no other exception to this policy
Implement the above mandatory retirement for all civil service employees retiring all employees above the 50 retirement age. This will easily create at least 10, 000 new jobs right away. Fill all the positions created by this compulsory retirement with the educated and young labour force
Create a new temporary commission of academics from the Universities and other respected personalities and give them a full mandate to manage the filling of these vacant posts with the educated and young labour force in coordination with the civil service commission office.
Keep the office of the president and the ministers away from the program, because (let us face it) they are staffed with corrupt officials and they will misuse the hiring for their benefit. We want to give these jobs to the educated young labour force in a fair and transparent manner
Ensure all the private corporations, which had benefited from the recent Somaliland Business Trust Fund to also hire the young and educated in proportion with the amount of money they received from the Fund
Provide tax incentive to all private corporations, who hire the young labour force


Benefits
The benefits are obvious. The program will eliminate or drastically reduce Tahreeb, as people who target Tahreeb are the young generation. It will also provide employment to thousands of educated youth who lost all hope with the current status
The program will restore some of the damaged image of the current government, at least on the employment front as a positive legacy to remember this government in the future.

Risks
There are no risks as the labour forces who are over 50 and who will be impacted by this program are not candidates for Tahreeb. Secondly at this age they know how to survive as compared to the young generation

Final Note
This is a tested approach and has been used by other countries in the past, the only difference being the limit of the retirement age. In our case the proposed age of retirement is extreme, but this is the only way we can create such a huge opportunity for the young generation in view of Somaliland’s limited budgetary resource
With this proposal the government has no execute for not implementing it

 

Ahmed Mohamed
Brampton, Ontario
Email: am83301@yahoo.ca
June 16, 2013