Project to tackle unemployment launched

Two United Nations agencies launched on Friday a two-year volunteer project in Cape Verde, to curb high youth unemployment and tackle land degradation, the UN reported. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) unemployed youths make up 36 percent of the 400,000 population of the arid island state 600 km west of Senegal. Through the project, "Promoting Volunteerism for Sustainable Management of the Environment in Cape Verde", the youth would start environment-friendly small businesses to protect the fragile biodiversity of the islands after receiving training from Cape Verdeans trained by national United National Volunteers (UNVs) and local education institutions. The enterprises could include irrigation, coastal palm tree plantations, recycling, rubbish collection, handicrafts and ecotourism. The project will cost nearly US $500,000, contributed by UNV, the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "As a pilot project, the involvement of unemployed youth in the rehabilitation of degraded land is significant as it tackles at once both poverty and desertification which are mutually reinforcing," Executive Secretary of UNCCD Secretariat Hama Arba Diallo said. "This project combining volunteering for the environment and income-generation is most certainly on target, United Nations Development programme (UNDP) in Cape Verde said. "It will greatly contribute to ongoing efforts aiming at integrating environmental protection into national poverty reduction strategies," he added. The failure of Cape Verde's 2002 harvest as a result of drought has affected up to 30,000 people.