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Ci dessous, un article du "Finantial Times" qui fait le point sur les problèmes économiques et sociaux en Algérie et leurs effets sur les jeunes Algériens. L'Etat est épinglé pour n'avoir pas pu créer les conditions d'un vrai partenariat entre les universités et les entreprises algériennes pour former des cadres opérationnels en entreprise.
Algeria: Urgent need to end frustration
The warning by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Algerian president, delivered to a national conference on youth some months ago could not have been more stark. If Algeria failed to offer its young hope for a better future with brighter prospects, then there would be many more suicide bombings. The president was referring to a series of attacks in the capital and elsewhere by a militant group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, or AQM.
The bombings revived memories of Algeria’s civil conflict in the 1990s which pitted armed Islamic militants against the security forces in a ruthless confrontation marked by atrocities committed by both sides.
An estimated 200,000 people lost their lives. Algeria’s speedy descent into chaos at the time was sparked by the army’s interruption of an election in 1991 when it became clear it would be won by an Islamic populist party that had captured the imagination of the country’s youth with its promises of a more just society.
Radical supporters of the party, most of them young, fled to the mountains, taking up arms against the state. While no one is predicting a return to that level of violence, there is a realisation that addressing the frustrated hopes of Algeria’s predominantly young population is key to the country’s prospects for long-term stability.
“The problem of the future of youth is more than ever imposed on the authorities,” said Mr Bouteflika in his speech. He called for “ideas, analysis and especially large, co-ordinated action”.
Seventy per cent of Algerians are under 30, confronting their government with a huge challenge to provide education, work and housing in an economy that may be flush with cash from oil and gas exports but which remains, for the most part, state-controlled, undiversified, and slow to deliver.
The country suffers from a grinding housing shortage which, coupled with joblessness, means that young people have to defer marriage, often well into their 30s, adding to their sense of hopelessness.
Algeria needs to create 400,000 jobs every year to maintain unemployment at the current level, which stands officially at 12.3 per cent, though it is thought to be much higher among the young.
Unemployment has fallen from a peak of 30 per cent in 2000, but experts say most of the jobs created have been low quality, with little productivity and not much pay.
In 2005, the government embarked on a five-year $140bn public works programme aimed at providing employment and setting the economy on track. Despite its scale, the impact on long-term job creation remains in doubt. “This won’t be a sustainable solution,” says David Robalino, senior economist at the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa department. “Plus many of the jobs are for people with technical skills. A lot are in construction but Algerians do not have the skills. So they are importing workers from China. The unemployed graduates from universities will not take these jobs.”
He and others also point to the mismatch between education and the demands of the labour market. For decades, free university education has been geared towards producing graduates destined for jobs in the public sector. The system, critics say, remains unresponsive to the demands of an economy seeking to diversify and attract private investment.
Some investors complain that many young Algerians lack the commitment to build careers in private enterprises. “The idea of working hard at a career in a private company or multinational is not very strong because most people still work for the public sector,” says an executive in a foreign company working in Algeria. “They see work as opportunistic. Long-term commitment is still not the spirit.”
But, he says, young Algerian women provide one of the brightest spots in the picture. “They work harder. They are more consistent and they meet their commitments,” he says.
Social scientists argue that, in a country where women’s work is still frowned upon unless it is in a prestigious position, young females have been acquiring qualifications as a way of wresting some control over their lives.
The hittistes, or those propping up the walls as Algerians call the unemployed young men hanging about on street corners to escape boredom and overcrowding in their families’ cramped flats, have often been cited as a symbol of the country’s social and political problems in the 1990s. Despite the return of security, the hittistes are still out on the streets and young men still queue up in front of embassies dreaming of escape to a comfortable existence in Europe.
The more determined place their lives in the hands of people smugglers who often lead them to death by drowning as they try to cross the Mediterranean in small, unseaworthy boats. “In the 1990s youths tried to bring about collective change, even if it was through radical Islamic movements,” says Mr Jabi. “Now there is a lack of confidence in collective projects or organised politics. Instead they are looking for individual solutions, and they often pick negative ones such as drugs or illegal immigration.”
source : The Financial Times (02/06/2008)
Algeria: Urgent need to end frustration
The warning by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Algerian president, delivered to a national conference on youth some months ago could not have been more stark. If Algeria failed to offer its young hope for a better future with brighter prospects, then there would be many more suicide bombings. The president was referring to a series of attacks in the capital and elsewhere by a militant group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, or AQM.
The bombings revived memories of Algeria’s civil conflict in the 1990s which pitted armed Islamic militants against the security forces in a ruthless confrontation marked by atrocities committed by both sides.
An estimated 200,000 people lost their lives. Algeria’s speedy descent into chaos at the time was sparked by the army’s interruption of an election in 1991 when it became clear it would be won by an Islamic populist party that had captured the imagination of the country’s youth with its promises of a more just society.
Radical supporters of the party, most of them young, fled to the mountains, taking up arms against the state. While no one is predicting a return to that level of violence, there is a realisation that addressing the frustrated hopes of Algeria’s predominantly young population is key to the country’s prospects for long-term stability.
“The problem of the future of youth is more than ever imposed on the authorities,” said Mr Bouteflika in his speech. He called for “ideas, analysis and especially large, co-ordinated action”.
Seventy per cent of Algerians are under 30, confronting their government with a huge challenge to provide education, work and housing in an economy that may be flush with cash from oil and gas exports but which remains, for the most part, state-controlled, undiversified, and slow to deliver.
The country suffers from a grinding housing shortage which, coupled with joblessness, means that young people have to defer marriage, often well into their 30s, adding to their sense of hopelessness.
Algeria needs to create 400,000 jobs every year to maintain unemployment at the current level, which stands officially at 12.3 per cent, though it is thought to be much higher among the young.
Unemployment has fallen from a peak of 30 per cent in 2000, but experts say most of the jobs created have been low quality, with little productivity and not much pay.
In 2005, the government embarked on a five-year $140bn public works programme aimed at providing employment and setting the economy on track. Despite its scale, the impact on long-term job creation remains in doubt. “This won’t be a sustainable solution,” says David Robalino, senior economist at the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa department. “Plus many of the jobs are for people with technical skills. A lot are in construction but Algerians do not have the skills. So they are importing workers from China. The unemployed graduates from universities will not take these jobs.”
He and others also point to the mismatch between education and the demands of the labour market. For decades, free university education has been geared towards producing graduates destined for jobs in the public sector. The system, critics say, remains unresponsive to the demands of an economy seeking to diversify and attract private investment.
Some investors complain that many young Algerians lack the commitment to build careers in private enterprises. “The idea of working hard at a career in a private company or multinational is not very strong because most people still work for the public sector,” says an executive in a foreign company working in Algeria. “They see work as opportunistic. Long-term commitment is still not the spirit.”
But, he says, young Algerian women provide one of the brightest spots in the picture. “They work harder. They are more consistent and they meet their commitments,” he says.
Social scientists argue that, in a country where women’s work is still frowned upon unless it is in a prestigious position, young females have been acquiring qualifications as a way of wresting some control over their lives.
The hittistes, or those propping up the walls as Algerians call the unemployed young men hanging about on street corners to escape boredom and overcrowding in their families’ cramped flats, have often been cited as a symbol of the country’s social and political problems in the 1990s. Despite the return of security, the hittistes are still out on the streets and young men still queue up in front of embassies dreaming of escape to a comfortable existence in Europe.
The more determined place their lives in the hands of people smugglers who often lead them to death by drowning as they try to cross the Mediterranean in small, unseaworthy boats. “In the 1990s youths tried to bring about collective change, even if it was through radical Islamic movements,” says Mr Jabi. “Now there is a lack of confidence in collective projects or organised politics. Instead they are looking for individual solutions, and they often pick negative ones such as drugs or illegal immigration.”
source : The Financial Times (02/06/2008)
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