ZIMBABWE’S latest attempt at youth empowerment, the National Youth Empowerment Strategy (NYES) 2026-30, emerges at a critical moment when nearly half of the nation’s youth find themselves trapped in an economic limbo.
Announced in the wake of International Youth Day, the strategy emerges from the 24th Cabinet meeting as a testament to what Information minister Jenfan Muswere characterises as the government’s renewed commitment to youth development.
“The National Youth Empowerment Strategy aims to create an enabling environment to promote youth participation in the mainstream formal economy,” declared Muswere, outlining an ambitious framework built upon five foundational pillars: economic empowerment, technology and digital transformation, education and skills development, governance, and health and well-being.
Yet this latest government initiative lands in a landscape scarred by decades of unfulfilled promises and deteriorating youth prospects.
The stark reality confronting Zimbabwe’s youth reads like a catalogue of national failure: The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency’s revelation that 49,2% of young people are neither in education, employment, nor training (NEET) stands as a damning indictment of previous interventions.
This figure is not merely a statistical footnote; it represents nearly half of Zimbabwe’s youth population who find themselves stuck in a dysfunctional economy, their potential trapped in a cycle of poverty and diminishing opportunities.
The education sector, once the pride of post-independence Zimbabwe, now witnesses an exodus of approximately 50 000 students annually, their academic journeys prematurely terminated due to socioeconomic challenges, including grinding poverty, drug and substance abuse and the persistent scourge of early marriages.
The social fabric of Zimbabwe’s youth population continues to unravel at an alarming rate.
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In urban centres and rural communities alike, the devastating epidemic of drug abuse, particularly the crystal meth variant known locally as mutoriro, has emerged as both a symptom and accelerant of youth marginalisation.
This crisis runs parallel to a growing gambling addiction that has transformed betting shops into temples of false hope, where young people sacrifice their meagre resources on the altar of desperate dreams.
The informal sector, rather than representing a triumph of entrepreneurial spirit, has become a last resort for university graduates who find themselves thrust into precarious survival mechanisms instead of the professional careers they studied for.
Against this backdrop of systemic failure, the NYES presents an elaborate framework of intentions.
The strategy document speaks of “extensive consultations with the private sector, development partners and the youths”, and promises a comprehensive approach through its three cross-cutting pillars: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Gender Equality and Inclusivity, and Governance, Co-ordination and Partnerships.
However, these well-articulated intentions collide with a historical record that breeds scepticism.
Previous youth empowerment initiatives, launched with similar fanfare, have consistently devolved into vehicles for partisan patronage, creating what critics describe as a privileged class of politically-connected beneficiaries while leaving the majority of youth in perpetual waiting.
The implementation challenges facing the NYES are formidable.
While the strategy promises nationwide reach through a detailed communication plan incorporating local languages and culturally relevant content, questions linger about its ability to genuinely penetrate Zimbabwe’s marginalised communities.
Will young people in the remote reaches of Binga, the agricultural expanses of Gokwe, or the border regions of Chipinge, experience the same access to opportunities as their urban counterparts?
The strategy’s success hinges on its ability to transform the government’s mantra of “leaving no one and no place behind” from political rhetoric into tangible reality.
Perhaps most critically, the spectre of corruption looms large over the NYES’s prospects.
Zimbabwe’s track record of resource misappropriation in public programmes demands unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability.
While the strategy includes a resource needs and mobilisation plan alongside a monitoring and evaluation framework, these mechanisms must contend with deeply entrenched networks of patronage that have historically diverted resources from their intended beneficiaries.
The strategy’s promise of “deliberate programmes and projects that economically empower youths” risks becoming yet another hollow echo in the chambers of unfulfilled government initiatives without robust, independent oversight mechanisms.
Looking beyond Zimbabwe’s borders, successful youth empowerment programmes offer instructive lessons.
Rwanda’s aggressive digital literacy campaign, complete with mobile ICT units reaching the most remote villages, demonstrates how technology access can be democratised.
Botswana’s Youth Development Fund, with its transparent allocation processes and mandatory business skills training, provides a template for reducing both implementation corruption and project failure rates.
These examples underscore a crucial truth: successful youth empowerment requires not just well-crafted policies, but unshakeable political will and institutional integrity.
The path forward for Zimbabwe’s youth development demands more than the NYES’s current framework, however well-intentioned it may be.
Real transformation requires a fundamental reimagining of how youth empowerment initiatives are implemented and monitored.
This means establishing truly independent oversight bodies with real power to ensure transparent resource allocation, creating specific funding streams for marginalised communities with clear, publicly accessible selection criteria and developing robust anti-corruption mechanisms that go beyond traditional monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
The strategy’s ultimate success will not be measured by the elegance of its framework or the comprehensiveness of its pillars, but by its ability to deliver tangible opportunities to young Zimbabweans regardless of their political affiliation, geographic location or social status.
In a country where youth have too often seen their aspirations crushed beneath the weight of systemic failures, the NYES must prove itself not through words, but through unprecedented action and unwavering commitment to genuine transformation.
- Lawrence Makamanzi is an independent researcher and analyst, passionately sharing his insights in a personal capacity. He is reachable at [email protected] or 0784318605.
