Unlocking decent jobs
Think of CEOs of a few public institutions whose workers are on strike or threatening to do so. Their high perks, I can imagine come up with managing such incidents. Angry workers whose jobs are not enough to see them earn a decent living. That’s just a fraction of thousands Malawians that cannot stage industrial action because they have no jobs.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines decent jobs as work that involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organise and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
One must love this country, no matter the drawbacks, that some of the workers are expressing their rights to fair pay. But I must hasten to say there are many others that cannot exercise such a right because they have no jobs, not out of choice, but none is available. The journey to a decent job begins with getting employed first, a strike, maybe later. The 55 percent of the population still swallowed in deep poverty is the critical constituency that needs jobs, decent ones for that matter, to enable our great country rise. I am tempted, like I have done many times to rethink how the subsidies we have can act as a tool to complement other efforts in dealing with lack of jobs.
Subsidies are not new in this country. They have existed for the last 50 years and have taken various forms. Fertiliser, fuel, education, housing and health subsidies are some of the examples. Just consider what it takes to train a student at our universities and the actual tuition. You can as well add the student allowances. The fertiliser subsidy is perhaps the most common one and has become so popular in the last eight years. At some point politicians tussled with each other to claim bragging rights over whose idea it was, never mind that it is taxpayers’ money.
A couple of weeks ago, i was in town trying to identify who are our great exporters. Noting that we rely heavily on smallholder tobacco farmers, why would we not scratch the back of those that export to earn us foreign exchange? It is kind of a bonus and thank you note like the West does to its farmers to flood our markets with their goods. So no need to wait for the global free trade talks. There is always a trickledown effect job wise that could lead to some decent jobs.
For some years Malawi has been subsidising foreign jobs through fertilisers. Why not reciprocate? Subsidise the tobacco farmers but in return sell them the tobacco and reward those that have taken steps to become exporters. It could go beyond tobacco farmers to all export oriented industries. It is a rendition of some imagination to think that our big corporations can seek some tax reprieve if they undertake an aggressive stance towards exports instead of leading us into petty trading. I believe that subsidies, in whatever form, direct or indirect can act as our best tool to unlock the currently unavailable jobs.
After all, there is an export strategy that requires a couple of influential CEOs to smell some coffee and see the dollar outside the window.
Government does not earn forex but give you a chance to earn more and in return the favour you do the nation is jobs. I believe someone will soon be brave enough to cut the fertiliser subsidy and allocate the resources to the export-minded business. I dream to, never mind the colours, but surely all the seven in the rainbow.
