NANCY SIAME, Lusaka
THE department of economics at the University of Zambia has embarked on a two-year project to find solutions to challenges of youth employment

and migration in eastern and southern Africa.
This is being done in collaboration with the African Migration and Development Policy Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
Project overseer Paul Okwi said the venture aims at finding ways on how countries involved (Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda) can adopt local solutions to address youth unemployment.
Dr Okwi said the project is also aimed at finding out why migrant youths tend to succeed more than their local counterparts who have a number of privileges at their disposal.
“Our thought is that local youths do not exploit available opportunities while migrant youths grab every opportunity they find their way to help them succeed,” he said.
And project lead researcher Frank Chansa said the research intends to get empirical evidence on Zambia’s youth employment and migration and advise policy-makers accordingly.
Dr Chansa said an advisory committee of different professions has since been formed to ensure the project has viable research output.