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| Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua. PHOTO: Internet sources. |
The 'African Economic Outlook 2015' progress report recently released by the African Development Bank (AfDB) opens up the inner workings of African economies. The report under the banner of 'unlocking the potential of local economies for inclusive growth' gives a glimpse of the many opportunities dotting the African continent - and which, sadly, remain unexploited.
The report seems to suggest that Africa’s development imprints must be seen and felt far away from the cities. Progress must reach where it matters most – rural and slum communities.
It makes a case for reclassification of priorities and fostering responsive development steps with a view to fighting rural poverty.
Of great importance is the fact that under-exploitation of these opportunities is partly to blame on governments' apathy vis-a-vis information dissemination coupled with official preference of urban settlements as the test zones for development initiatives.
Consequently, this has led to uncontrolled, unsustainable urban sprawl and poor, marginalized countryside.
End result is two-pronged: 1) you get a huge dependency ratio between countryside folks and their kin residing in urban areas. 2) Economic gain becomes insignificant hence augmenting poverty levels.
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| PHOTO credit: African Development Bank. |
The report further makes some three key observations (which will form the basis of this article): 1) (that) we must diversify rural economies and develop modern agriculture and green growth; 2) Authorities must link up cities and countryside through trade, infrastructure and financing; and 3) We must build skills among young women and men.
On a country to country basis, we can afford to say that Kenya is slowly catching up though we still have much to do to attain that coveted "inclusive economic growth" status.
The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 lays a robust legal foundation over which some of the above observations will easily be built - and materialized. The central plunk here is the issue of education and training and how rural communities should be roped in.
Considering that this role falls squarely in the field of county governments, it makes much sense to point out to Governors that time has come for them to make this constitutionally sanctioned process real to rural communities.
Take for instance the matter of youth unemployment and surging crime incidents bedeviling this nation. I tend to dispute the notion that we are experiencing job scarcity. I'm of the view that our scope has been reduced because we run away from thinking.
This has something to do with our perception of polytechnics.
We put much premium on sugar-coating youth empowerment interventions which have brought forth minimal (or no) benefits to the target groups. We embark on short-term distributionism under the guise of empowering populations.
It must dawn on policy makers, development partners and citizens alike, that traditionalism that alienates the process of imparting knowledge on populations will never lift them up economic scales.
Confining young women and men to conference halls to receive tired narratives on economic growth as opposed to taking life skills down to the village and slums - where a majority of them are found - borders on escapism.
The magic bullet is the village polytechnic!
How many plumbers, gardeners, jua kali artisans, agricultural equipment operators, carpenters, cooks, tour guides, drivers, low-cost house builders (fundis), etc have we trained and uplifted?
No! Money is not the problem. We have much more funds to expend on unnecessary “official” junkets but zero shilling to set up even a single village polytechnic!
Financing Vocational Training in Sub-Saharan Africa : a study conducted by Adrian Ziderman, formerly a senior economist for human resources at the World Bank, underlines the necessity of governments to look beyond the public purse when sourcing for funds to run vocational training institutions.
This shift from the norm is necessary to assure the continuity of training and growth of these institutions, and (to) rope in private sector into the training of their potential workforce.
County governments can also enlist retired officials and/or skilled but “paperless” village folks as trainers in village polytechnics as part of cost-cutting measures.
The internationally renowned India’s 'Barefoot Colleges' founded by Sanjit "Bunker" Roy – an Indian social activist and educator – have achieved much with little funds. All they do is simple: They encourage "paperless" village trainers to train their fellows.
They have simplified training manuals in order to cover only the essentials and to facilitate learning. They have incorporated part time learning to reach out to "busy" members of the society who face time constraints.
In Kenya we have the capacity to achieve a lot. Devolution fruits are here with us. It’s time we squeezed juice from them.
I believe our Governors are up to task.
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