Teslem Zein ,
Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?
Youth unemployment in Mauritania stands at 18.6% being the highest unemployment rate in the country. Representing 60% of the population, young people are at the same time the most exposed group to underemployment and the most vulnerable one. This high rate of unemployment is due to the fact that the national market cannot resorb the labor supply. The Sahel’s terrorists groups take advantage of this by using it as an opportunity to recruit, further threatening the security of the country and the subregion.
How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?
My engagements with incubators, the private sector and as a manager of a national business competition aims to promote entrepreneurship as possible career trajectory for youth in Mauritania. My ultimate goal is to help young people create their own opportunities to tackle the structural challenges they face when job hunting. From a political perspective, my goal is to help remove constraints to business development in Mauritania, principally limited access to finance and protecting businesses from being exploited by extremist groups.