Youth Employment and Income Generation : A field study in Ribáuè District, Mozambique

Abstract: The African country of Mozambique has been undertaking a remarkable development process within the past. However, this has not been translated into a significantly decreasing poverty–or unemployment rate. Especially amongst young, the unemployment rate is quite high. Due to a high annual population growth and large amount of jobseekers every year, the economy is not able to create a corresponding number of jobs. The focus of this study is therefore to achieve a broader understanding of employment possibilities young people have. To foster a vast image of this situation, sectors such as education, agriculture and politics will be examined. This thesis is based on a qualitative field study carried out in Ribáuè, a district located in Nampula province, in the northern part of Mozambique. During the fieldwork, an ethnographic approach with semi–structured interviews mainly on a local level has been used to gather information. The (dis)empowerment model by Friedmann along with Sen’scapability approach and Lewis’ dual-sector model were used to analyse the data and clarify the problems described above.The study shows that young people in Ribáuè district are aware that they cannot depend on the government and should rather start to generate income through entrepreneurship. As young people are less interested in agriculture, the most common business that they are doing is to buy and sell consumer goods. However, one of the main obstacles when it comes to starting-up a business is the financial means. Moreover, there seems to be a crucial mismatch between the demand of the labour market and the knowledge provided by the education sector. Taking this into consideration, this study also highlights the importance of governmental efforts to empower the young people in general, not only in entrepreneurship, but in order to prepare them in every aspect of their lives.