Factors Constraining Youth Participation in Economic Development in Zanzibar

Nowadays, young people especially in the developing economies are not accorded equal chances to participate in decision making for economic development. The main objective of this study was to examine the factors that constrain youth participation in economic development in Zanzibar. A quantitative research method design was adapted to collect primary data from respondents. Data was collected from 181 respondents using structural questionnaire and descriptive statistical technique was used for data analysis. The study identified three factors notably; low levels of education, lack of entrepreneurship skills and inferiority complex for hindering youth participation in decision making processes for economic development in Zanzibar. The finding revealed that, the majority of the respondents 149 (82%) agreed that, the participation of youths will influence effective outcome in economic development, 96 (53%) of the respondents agreed that, low level of education is the major factor that hinders youth participation in economic development programs and the majority of respondents 59 (33%) disagreed that, policies do not address youth participation in decision making. The study recommends that, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar should invest much in youth for sustainability economic development programs so as to avoid joblessness in the nation.


Introduction
Youth participation is a serious problem threatening the economy and livelihood expectancy around the world, especially in this 21 st century. The World Bank Report (2018), shows that, about 42% of the world population is composed of youths and children. It is said that, there are nearly 1.8 billion youths aged between 15 to 24 years in the world and majority of them living in developing countries. Many youths are unable to participate fully in society. Around 175 million young people in low-income countries can neither read nor write. Among those aged 15-24, some 500 million live on less than $2 a day and over 73 million are unemployed (UNFPA Report, 2018).
In Tanzania, about 20% of the population is composed of young people, while using the Tanzanian definition, (18-35) 35% of the population are youths (NBS, 2003). Tanzania has experienced an average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 7% (THDR, 2014) though the economy has not generated enough employment opportunities for the available workforce of which young people accounted for more than 65% (THDR, 2014). Government statistics shows that, the unemployment rate is 12.7% (THDR, 2014) but unemployment among the young people was more than 50% (TSYR, 2011). According to the Tanzania State of the Youth Report (2011), the involvement of youth in decision making bodies in central and local governments was below 50% whereas despite the fact that all along, youths have been having the lion's share of the population of Tanzania.
Zanzibar, the case study of this research, the situation is more challenging. According to the International Labour Force Survey (2016), the total youth population in Zanzibar aged 15 -24 was 219,824. Out of total youth population, Zanzibar youth unemployment rate was 14.3% (Rajeev, Afua and Mohamed, 2017). A total of 13,026 young people in age group 15 -24 are unemployed, among them, young women (9,052) suffered more from unemployment than young men (3,974). Simply it can be argued that, the total young women unemployment rate was 12%, which was higher than 5.3% of young men. The young men unemployment rate in the urban areas was 11.7%, which was higher compared with rural areas, with a rate of 1.7%. The young women unemployment rate in the urban areas was 23.7%, which was higher than 5.1% in the rural areas (ILFS Report, 2016).

Problem of the Study
The development of Zanzibar mainly depends on active young labour force and capital to boost its economy (ZYEAP, 2007). However, youth unemployment and underemployment is persistently a problem in Zanzibar. The ISSN 2222-1700(Paper) ISSN 2222-2855(Online) Vol.11, No.24, 2020 difficulties young people face in entering and remaining in the labour market are compounded by the additional burden of large numbers of young people who are engaged in the informal economy. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar (RGoZ) has invested in several strategies in order to reduce the rate of youth unemployment in the the country. For example, the youth employment issues have been well articulated in MKUZA II and development partners plans such as International Labour Organization (ILO) as one of the major means to reduce poverty and empower them to be part of the social, economic and political progress (MKUZA II, 2005;ILO, 2011).
Until recently, the countless number of graduate and non-graduate youths strolling around the streets in Zanzibar witnesses the limited job opportunities that the youths have, one out of ten young people are unemployed (9.8%) according to Zanzibar Household Survey Report (2015/16). The major drivers of Zanzibar's youth unemployment crises include: lack of jobs, lack of skills and experience, mismatch between supply and demand for labour. Therefore, the main aim of this paper was to examine the factors which constrain youth participation in economic development in Zanzibar.

Theoretical Literature Review
Theoretical review describes the rationale behind the justification of undertaking any study (Khan, 2010). The researchers intended to use theories for various reasons: (1) to answer the research questions they set out to investigate (2) to justify the findings based on the concepts and approaches related to the suggested theories of the study (Ziedler, 2007). Therefore, the following theories were used in this paper.

Triangle of Youth Participation
A triangle of youth participation is a participation model which was propounded by Marc Jans and Kart De Barker (2002) and is very much relevant to this study. The model identified the dynamic balance of three dimensions that young people will actively participate in society, namely: challenges, capacity and connection. Jan and Barker suggest that, young people need to be hooked by a challenge which necessitates their participation; need to feel that they can and will be able to cope with and have personal capacity to deal with the challenge; and young people need to feel and understand that, their involvement have some connection with that of others.

Ladder of Participation
Ladder of participation is a model of participation which was developed by Roger Hart in (1992) with the aim of enabling young people take an active part in decision making and get an opportunity to have a voice in society. The model shows that, in different activities seemingly involving young people but they have nothing in common with the true participation. The model was useful to the study because it helped the researchers to understand level of participation that establishes conditions and environment for youth participation.

Economic Development Theory
Economic Development Theory proposed by Patrick (1966) explains that, in the beginning stages of economic development, causation runs from economic development to social development. This view has been labelled "demand-following" with the social sectors where youths can be vulnerable in participation in construction of economic development, in underdeveloped countries viewed as an indication of the law of demand for their services.

Empirical Literature Review
Tebatso (2015) exploring youth participation in community development organizations in Western Cape, South Africa, 18 youth respondents between the age of 14-35 through purposive sampling technique from five communities in the area were employed. The study adopted qualitative exploratory approach using structured interview to collect data. The findings revealed that, young people are capable of making positive contributions by getting involved in meaningful activities in their communities. The study recommended that, the positive youth development approach and youth development programmes and initiatives across the country should be adopted for the development of their country.
A comparative study conducted by Sakiluzzaman (2018) determined the extent of participation of rural youths in commercial agriculture in Bhola District of Bangladesh, 80 youths were randomly selected as respondents and data were collected through interview. The finding of the study revealed that, more than 51.2% of youths had medium extent of participation in commercial agriculture whereas 43.8% of them had low extent of participation and only 5% had high extent of participation in commercial agriculture. Adesope (2017) admits that, many youths have been trained in one form of formal education or the other. But, these young people who are formally educated still lack specific skills that could enable them perform technical tasks in their locality. He further stated that, since the youths are lacking in skills, it is difficult to make a living because they are ill-prepared and not ready for the demand of socio-economic development.
ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.11, No.24, 2020 77 A study conducted by Murimi (2009) evaluated youth participation in economic development and poverty reduction activities in Garowe District of Somalia, 278 youths were randomly selected and data were collected using questionnaire, the study opted qualitative and quantitative approach and data were analysed using Principal Analysis Factoring through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study finding revealed that, the level of youth participation through formal job assignments was low, while practice of youth groupings into business ventures was high. The study was concluded by establishment of policies that help youths' engagement in economic and poverty reduction activities.
A study conducted by Wengwe (2015) aimed at assessing youth participation in agriculture and water development projects at Mkinga District, Tanga. A descriptive cross sectional research design of both qualitative and quantitative method was adapted to collect and analyse both primary and secondary data from respondents.
This study used structural questionnaire and semi-structural interviews to collect data from 80 respondents. The key findings revealed that, youths neither participated nor were they involved in development projects as majority 46 (63.9%) of respondents said that, youths were did not participate in conceptualization of the projects. On the other hand, majority 43 (59.7%) of respondents said that, youth were not involved in decision making process of the projects and lastly, majority 40 (56%) of respondents also said that, youth did not participate in project implementation. Conclusively, youth participation in development projects in most cases is very low especially in developing economies.
A study by Grace (2006) explored the constraints to youth participation through the mechanism of the National Youth Roundtable. The primary research question was: "what are the constraints to youth participation in the current federal political environment?" what gaps in the development of youth participation mechanisms are exposed through an analysis of the literature regarding the history of youth participation?; what are the original and current objectives of the National Youth Roundtable and how is its effectiveness measured?; The research was framed within applied post structuralism approaches that presume that, youth participation mechanisms are a technique by which unengaged young people come under governance, surveillance and control. In particular, the research was attentive to the capacity of various youth participation mechanisms to engage young people as empowered subjects who are aware of the terms of their engagement. Data collection methods in this study were examination of documentary evidence; in-depth interviews; a focus group; and participant observation.

Research Methodology
This area shows how the paper was conducted in order to capture the information easily. In case of research design, a descriptive research design was used to obtain the responses to questions from the respondents like; what are the factors constraining youth's participation in economic development in Zanzibar. The rationale of choosing this research design was to enabled the researchers to hand the issue on the sport and to show the extent to which youths participate in economic development. The target population was constructed by young people who are employed and who are not employed from the Urban West Region of Zanzibar. The rational of this selection was because the Ministry is responsible for the youths and empowering them so as to participate in economic development.
A total of 181 respondents were involved to provide information about this critical issue of investigation using purposive and simple random techniques. The reason behind using purposive sampling was due to the fact that, this helped the researchers to choose respondents with specified characteristics from graduate youths and employed youth. Simple random sampling technique was used to select respondents from the population of the study. Primary data was collected using questionnaire survey from the targeted respondents in order to appreciate the reality of what was happening to them at a point in time. The questionnaire was developed based on a Likert scale (from 1 to 5) because it included questions which required of the respondents to indicate how much or to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the given statement on each construct. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mean and standard deviation as well as inferential statistics such as multiple linear regression were used for data analysis. Data Was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 23.

Findings and Discussion 6.1 Profile of the respondents
In social sciences, characteristics of respondents play a very significant role in expressing and giving the responses about the problem. In this study, personal characteristics namely, gender and levels of education of the 181 respondents were examined.
Gender is an important variable especially in Zanzibar's social situation which is irregularly affected by her social or economic phenomena and youth participation is not an exception. Hence, the variable gender was investigated in this study and the following results were obtained. It is fairly clear that out of the total respondents investigated, more than half of the respondents, 55% of them were young men whereas 45% were young women. In Zanzibar, the social conditions for participation are normally controlled by the males and youth participation ISSN 2222-1700(Paper) ISSN 2222-2855(Online) Vol.11, No.24, 2020 was the unit for data collection. From the results, the researchers tried to be fair in the investigations in order to get the views from both gender so as to avoid gender biasness.
Education is one of the most important characteristics that might affect a person's attitude and the way of viewing and understanding any particular social phenomenon. The variable 'Educational level' was investigated by the researchers and the data concerning it is as follows. About 55% of the respondents were educated up to Bachelor degree. 31% were educated up to master degree. The number of respondents who possessed Diploma level was very little; only 14% of the total respondents. It can be concluded that, many respondents were openminded due to sufficient educational level they had attained. However; few of them were still far away from the higher education which is so important today to create a knowledge based society. Data related to gender and level of education of the respondents is presented in Table 1.

Study Findings
This study was designed to examine the factors that hinder youth participation in the economic development of Zanzibar. Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data imputation and descriptive statistics results were drown to identify how the respondents would on the said factors. The results are presented in Table 2.  Table 2 show that, 96 equal to (53%) of respondents agreed that, low levels of education is the major factor that hinders youth participation in economic development, 44 equal to (24%) of the respondents strongly agreed that, low levels of education can hinder youth participation in economic development and only 41 equal to (23%) of respondents disagreed that low levels of education is the factor that hinders youths from participation in economic development. This implies that, for the youths to have a chance for involvement in economic development, they have to acquire a certain level of education in order for them to participate in economic development.
Data further shows that, 90 equal to (50%) of the respondents agreed that, lack of entrepreneurship skills is one of the factors that hinder youths involvement in economic development and. Those who strongly disagreed were 44 equal to (23%). Majority of the youths; 61 equal to (34%) strongly agreed and 28 equal to (15%) strongly disagreed that inferiority complex is a factor which hinders youth participation in economic development.
These imply that, all status have an adverse impact on youth participation in economic development. The findings are similar with Angba, (2014) education levels are highly significant in the extent, intensity and pattern of participation. In essence, the higher the educational level attained, the more favorable the attitude towards participating in community development projects.

Multiple Linear Regression
The researchers also employed multiple regression technique in this study. According to Pallant, (2016), multiple regressions is a cluster of techniques which can be employed to explore the relationship between one dependent variable and several independent variables. In this case, standard multiple regression was used in which all independent variables were entered into the equation concurrently or simultaneously through the use of SPSS version 23.
The results of standard multiple regression as displayed in Table 3 indicated that, the independent variables; low levels of education, inferiority complex and superiority complex accounted for 61.8% of the variability in youth participation in economic development in Zanzibar (R 2 = 0.618). The adjusted R square value was 0.602. Therefore, these findings substantiate that, only 60% of variability in youth participation could be explained by factors like Low levels of education, inferiority complex and superiority complex. The remaining 40% of variability depend on other unexplained factors. P-Value at 0.000 (Less than 0.05) insinuates youth participation significance model at 5% significance. ISSN 2222-1700(Paper) ISSN 2222-2855(Online) Vol.11, No.24, 2020 79 These results reveal that, youth participation in decision making in economic development in Zanzibar is mainly affected by the factors advanced in the afore discussed regression equation with their value in a given coefficient, where each coefficient shows how much can contribute in that participation.
Results show that, levels of education contribute to the greater extent to youth participation in decision making. This means that if youths have sufficient education, there is greater possibility for them to be enabled to participate in decision making. Followed by inferiority complex, if there is no inferiority complex among the youths, then, youths can participate in decision making in economic development in Zanzibar. Then if there is no superiority against youth in Zanzibar, also, the youths should participate in economic development.
These results were backed by the study conducted by Adesope (2017) who admitted that, many youths have been trained in one form of formal education or another, but these young people who are formally educated still lack specific skills that would enable them perform technical tasks in their localities.

Conclusion
The main focus of this empirical research was to primarily assess the participation of youths in decision making for the economic development of Zanzibar. In effect, this assessment sought to appreciate how inclusion of the youths in decision making process affects the economic development of Zanzibar. According to the findings, it is concluded that involvement of young people particularly in the decision making process is essential for the economic development of this country. This is so because inclusion of youths in these processes is regarded as an opportunity for them to develop their thinking capacity to bring forth ideas, perception and knowledge that will facilitate the economic development of their country.

Recommendations
Taking into account the above findings and conclusion, the following recommendations are advanced:i. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar should invest much in youths for sustainability economic development programs so as to avoid joblessness in the nation that results in creation of youths who are idle and end up developing bad behavior such as substance abuse, rape, defilement and the like. ii. The Urban West Region of Zanzibar should use the allocated funds to mobilize and sensitize youth participation in economic development projects that directly affect their lives iii. The existing national youth policy should be reviewed to consider the participation of youths in decision making for the economic development agenda of Zanzibar.