Posted on September 9th, 2024
Garvin Karunaratne
Mere talk is not what is required in Sri Lanka’s situation of today- massive unemployment and lack of incomes- poverty for the people at large- the vast majority who cannot today be assured of even two meals a day. It is on record that children are not even going to school- they are at home in hunger.
I look forward to hear from the personage that wins our Presidential election[- a Presidential decree creating immediately a special programme, training the unemployed in industry, agriculture and livestock- all to produce what is imported today. It is not the creation of a new Department; instead it is redirecting existing programmes and redeploying existing personnel.
The achievement of the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh comes of great importance to all contenders for our Presidency, in that it is the only employment creation programme that has achieved world status guiding over three million youths to become entrepreneurs within the short space of four decades. In the first nineteen months it created employment to around 2000 youths. It is a programme that has left its imprint on the sands of time
The full details of how the Youth Self Employment Programme came into being is narrated in detail to help the personage that is victorious at the general election on September 21 st. to make a firm decision to create such a employment creation programme in Sri Lanka..
No feasibility reports were written to get the Youth Self Employment Programme approved. The approval came in a flash. In Bangladesh when the new Military Government of General Ershard took over the country in 1982, the Ministry of Youth Development was providing skills training to 40,000 youths annually but the vast majority of them failed to find employment and continued to be unemployed for life. I happened to be the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry on Youth Development. The new Hon. Minister for Labour and Manpower, Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam at a Conference held to evaluate youth development programmes, ordered me,: What can you contribute for Bangladesh”? I replied: I would suggest that you approve a self employment programme to supplement the skills training programmes that are being implemented by the Ministry of Youth Development, where the lecturers who train the youths in skills will, in addition, also guide the youths to establish enterprises to manufacture items for sale and become self employed entrepreneurs.”
The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest official in the country who was present objected: Self-Employment is not a task that can be done. The International Labor Organization (ILO) with all their unlimited resources have just miserably failed to establish a self-employment programme at Tangail in Bangladesh. They laboured for three years and brought experts from all over the World and failed. It was a great loss – a massive expenditure and this Government is not going to waste any more funds again. Self-Employment is not a task that can be done. That was the conclusion of the ILO and they are the experts.”
I replied: Though the ILO failed, I can establish a Self Employment Programme. I hold the experience of establishing self-employment projects in Sri Lanka for eighteen years and also hold the Ph.D in Agricultural Economics and Non Formal Education from Michigan State University. I am confident of success.”
The Secretary to the Treasury the highest official in Bangladesh laughed loud at my attempt to make entrepreneurs out of school drop outs- the ones that had even forgotten to read and write. the category from which the Department of Youth Development found youths for skills training. I argued that though the ILO failed I would succeed. The Secretary to the Treasury was adamant that such a programme would never succeed, but I quoted instances where I had established successful employment creation projects providing incomes to youths while simultaneously producing what the country imported.”
The battle went on for an easy two full hours The Hon. Minister was listening in silence , making notes, till his patience was exhausted. The Minister finally ordered us to shut up. He asked: for any Government training programmes that guided youths to become entrepreneurs. The Secretary to the Treasury replied None”. The Minister then asked for the total number of youths in vocational training. The answer was a few hundred thousand. Then the Minister asked for the number of youths that failed to get into higher education as well as finding a suitable job- the youths that will be scraping the barrel for life, unemployed. The Secretary answered that it was in the millions, every year
The Hon Minister without any hesitation immediately decreed that I should establish a self employment programme to create entrepreneurs.
The Secretary to the Treasury stated ‚ that he will provide no funds to establish a self employment programme, to which I replied that I needed no new funds; I will find savings within the approved budgets for the skills training of the youths and re deploy staff as necessary. The Hon Minister approved my suggestion.. .
We started planning work that night itself. The next morning I was addressing trainees at the training centers and also training our Lecturers and Youth Officers on how the programme should be done. The officers who had till then done traditional youth development work were trained in concepts of economics and how to identify areas in the economy where there was scope for employment creation, where the output produced would help the country. All Training Institutes were immediately altered to Training Cum Extension Institutes where the youths in training were to be guided to become self-employed. Overnight we established a countrywide special extension service for the lecturers to go out on inspections and help the youths who faced problems.
The youths were guided to draft their own projects to become self employed, starting small farms even with a few cows or chicks. Dresses were sewn using the machines at the training centers that were kept open after work till ten at night. The method was to intensively guide the trainees in the management of their enterprises. Every action from the planning of their projects, to the purchase of raw materials, the chicks, the feed, the process of manufacture, the process of the growth and sale of cattle, the making of garments and their sale were all monitored on a non formal education basis where the youths were trained to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each course of action and act on their own. They were monitored closely and helped when they failed. .
The trainees were taught basic economics related to their ventures‚The training included understanding the free market economy and the youths were guided to think, understand and increase their ability and capacity in the process. Our aim was to make a youth movement to make youths establish ventures and guide them till they are income bearing equal to the earnings of a clerical officer in the Public Service.
This Programme began at the end of March 1982 with a few trainees and was expanded to 2000 by October 1983. . The team comprised the Secretary, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry with a few hundred staff of Directors, Deputy Directors of Youth, Director for Livestock and Poultry, Directors of the 3 Residential Training Centers in Livestock & Poultry, Lecturers in Training Institutes- all of whom were taught the essentials of economics firstly to be able to analyze the economy of Bangladesh and to arrive at areas of economic activity where self employment would be an asset to the country. They were also taught methods of imparting instructions in a manner that would evoke the active participation of the trainees and enable them to think and make their own decisions. This included national and regional planning culled down to the village level., where the self employment units were established. This was National Planning which Sri Lanka did till 1977 and stopped at the orders of the IMF when we followed the IMF’s Structural Adjustment from 1977.
In an Evaluation done in August 1983, 16 months from commencement the Report documented: A Programme of Excellence in every respect unfolds in the results documented. .Of 500 unemployed youths who joined the programme in the early months, 479 are earning an average net income of Tk 596.00 in August 1983, 8 to 12 months after they commenced their commercial ventures, 55 of them earned over Tk. 1000.00 a month and 253 earn over Tk 500.00.” In August 1983, barely 16 months from the commencement, the achievement was hailed by the two Secretaries of the Ministry of Labour and Manpower; In their words:
Dr. Karunaratne’s significant contribution has been in the field of self employment to the drop-out youths. This programme was not only designed but also guided by him. This activity, which was initially launched as a pilot experimental project, has been a great success and has now being adopted as a fill-fledged Programme. The Government of Bangladesh has been successful in providing meaningful employment to a large number of youths on this Programme” . (Md. Asafuddowlah, Joint Secretary of the Ministry))
Dr. Karunaratne’s role as the formulator of the program has been particularly commendable. It was mainly through his dedication and hard work that the pilot project has now been formally accepted as one of the most important development projects.” (Ayubur Rahaman, Secretary of the Ministry of Youth Development,
The YSEP has stood the test of time for over three decades (1982-2024) The Five Year Plan of Bangladesh 1997-2002 devotes 8 pages to this program. This is easily the premier employment creation program that one can find in the world today. All other programs involve training and apprenticeship only and never include the tasks of motivating youths, involving them in non-formal education endeavor to develop their abilities and capacities, through technical guidance and management advice provided as they work on their projects aimed at their becoming commercially viable, which are the cornerstones on which this programme has been based.
The YSEP Programme was expanded apace to involve 7000 youths by 1987, to 16,000 by 1992 and to 160,000 a year from 1997. In 1982 we had only 3 Residential Training Centers. This was increased to 64 by 1997. In 2011 February The Government of Bangladesh reported to the 34 th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD(FAO), one of the funders, that this programme had guided as much as two million youths to be self employed‚ on a commercially viable basis.(Statement by Bangladesh to the 34 th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD(FAO), dated19/02/2011)
My task was also to train the officers to carry on the programme after my‚ two year period of service ended.‚ True to a man Bangladeshi officers carried on the ardous task and‚ today 160,000 youths are being guided annually.. A full Department of Youth Development now devotes 95% of their time to training and guiding youths to become self employed..
His Excellency former Ambassador, Milinda Moragoda in 2011, in his bid to become the Mayor of Colombo, in his manifesto said that he should seek to implement the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, which incidentally was an amazingly successful scheme introduced to that country by a distinguished son of Sri Lanka Dr Garvin Karunaratne, who served in Bangladesh as an international consultant.” From (The Nation: 11/9/2011)
It would behove whoever that wins the Presidential Election on 21 st September 2024, to make a Presidential Decree that a special programme to alleviate poverty, create employment and the production that Sri Lanka needs, be immediately implemented.
The Youth Self Employment Programme was implemented with no additional funds whatsoever for the first four years. It was entirely done by recasting development programmes and re deploying existing staff. .
Garvin Karunaratne
08/09/2024