The South African government hopes to provide the nation’s youth with a “hand up” to meaningfully participate in society and the economy, as consultations for the updated National Youth Policy (NYP) 2015 to 2020 get under way.

Deputy Minister responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation in the Presidency Buti Manamela told media on Wednesday that government’s aim was to revamp the previous five-year policy, which lapsed last year, into a youth development programme able to catalyse the potential of the country’s youth.

Speaking at the release of the draft five-year policy in Pretoria, he explained that the improved policy had been adjusted to align youth programmes, initiatives and guidelines with the current challenges faced by the youth.

The draft NYP would be out for comment until February 28, with the finalised policy expected to be published in March.

Led by Manamela, the youth desk in the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) – which had been charged with implementing the prior policy – the policy implementation aimed to correct the “mistakes” made in the former policy, which failed to take into account limited resources, legislative mandate and a lack of authority to drive the plan.

The finalised policy was expected to respond to youth challenges, be inclusive and evidence-based and was required to “shape young people as agents of change” and not just passive recipients of government services.

The new policy would build on the successes of previous policies, further articulate the youth-specific proposals of the National Development Plan, strengthen existing interventions, shed failed initiatives and introduce new ones, closing gaps and “stubborn challenges” that needed new approaches.

“One of the biggest mistakes of the past youth policy period 2009 to 2014 was assuming that all youth development efforts would be spearheaded through the NYDA itself. This was tantamount to planning for failure, as it was inconceivable that one organisation would cater for all the youth of our country,” Manamela said.

The NYDA could not be “everything” to youth development, he noted, indicating that the task was just too large for one organisation to tackle.

While the NYDA would remain a major catalyst for youth development under the auspices of the Minister responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation in the Presidency, government, business and society would need to drive the interventions required to uplift the youth and enable their constructive participation in the economy.

“It is the responsibility of government not to give the youth a hand-out, but a hand up,” Manamela assured, adding that government was needed to help shape the youth as active and productive citizens, particularly as the large number of unemployed youth presented a threat to social, political and economic stability.

The document identified four priorities, namely enabling economic participation, facilitating skills development and education – quality and access – promoting health care, combating substance abuse and reducing morbidity and mortality owing to risky behaviour and facilitating nation building and social cohesion.

“In a job-scarce environment, unemployment among young people between the ages of 15 and 35 is at 36.1%, which is almost double that of adults aged 35 to 64, which stands at 15.6%,” Manamela pointed out.

Of the 25% who are unemployed in South Africa, nearly 70% were between the ages of 15 and 35 years.

The labour absorption rate for adults – at 57.8% – was nearly double that of young people – at 30.8%.

About 60% of unemployed youth below 35 had never worked and of the one-million youth leaving school each year, 65% left without a grade 12 certificate and less than 4.3% of those aged 18 to 29 went on to study at a higher education institution.

Further, the youth’s increasing “risky behaviour” led to morbidity and mortality rates that were higher than that of the adult population.

Young people faced the highest HIV/Aids infection rate, with 15.9% of South Africans between the ages of 15 and 49, and 8.5% of those between 15 and 24, living with the disease.

“Teenage pregnancies, high maternal mortality, high levels of violence and high HIV prevalence rates, are factors that have a negative impact on youth in South Africa. Four-and-a-half per cent of teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 19 were reported pregnant in 2013,” government explained in the policy.

In addition, of the total 5 698 deaths in South Africa in 2013 owing to traffic accidents, 2 515 were youth, indicating that nearly half of all traffic accident deaths in the country occurred among the youth.

Similarly, 69% and 59% of the total number of deaths resulting from assault and intentional self-harm, respectively, in the country occurred among those aged 15 to 34 years.

There was a direct correlation between the high levels of violence and motor vehicle accidents and the abuse of alcohol.

Meanwhile, Manamela believed that “a lot of work” had to be done to build a nonracial society, pointing to high levels of hate crime and a lack of solidarity in communities.

He also noted that less than 4.3% of the black youth aged between 18 and 29 enrolled in higher education, compared with 18.7% of white people and 9.2% of Indian/Asian people.

“Only 1% of African schools are [the] top performers on high school certificates compared with 31% [of] formerly privileged schools,” Manamela stated.