ECONOMIC HOUSEHOLD PLANNING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Lack of economic planning in household level is indeed one of major factor that explains why most of families are still hallowed in poverty.  Training household members how to develop their vision and how to attain them is the first step towards alleviating poverty at household level. Different stakeholders of development such as government, non-government institution, churches and others have realized this and initiated training of economic planning and entrepreneurship at household level. The council of churches in Tanzania (CCT) runs a training in household economic planning and entrepreneurship for adults especially youth and women each year. This year I have been fortunate enough to be one of the facilitators of this program. We’re facilitating this training to fifty youth from Shinyanga and surrounding region. Since the workshop is still on-going, this entry will partially highlight my experience of the seminar and its socio-economic importance to the society.

A little survey done during the seminar proved that most youth have engaged at least to one economic activity. The engagement to these activities has enriched the youth with a lot of experience. Unfortunate, the experience they have isn't a good one hence a lot of them are discouraged with enterprising activities and life in general. Thus seminars like this of economic household planning and entrepreneurship gives them hope which is very important. The hope they gain from the seminar will give most of them the drive to restart their enterprising activities which will effect to raising the living standard of many households across the country. Rejuvenating hope to youth across the country is more or less the same as gearing economic development.

During the seminar a lot of issues facing young people in the country were raised.  Training for youth especially on economic matters provides a platform for youth to speak out the major socio-economic challenges that they face in the ground. I think this would be a very good place for policy makers to gain insight and feedback. The feedback will be contributory in shaping future policy particularly the ones which aim to solve youth problems. Lack of enterprise is one of the reasons which cause mass unemployment to the young generation. Most of the youth in the seminar pointed out that the lack of entrepreneurial skills and knowledge is the reason that many of their business have failed. Furthermore, the access to credit has been a major reason for failing of many start-ups business. Unfortunate, many youth have bad experience with creditors; many creditors have issued loans and credits to people without supplying them enough knowledge on loan repayments. This has made most of young people to carry a large burden which they didn't know hence failing to repay and finding themselves incurring penalties and harassment. Therefore it’s very important to carry out such seminar as they highlight the problem which youth face and most important is that they shed light to solution hence bringing hope to the young generation.

Finally, household economic planning and entrepreneurial training   seminars like this instill knowledge and skills to women and youth which provides handy tool for daily activities. During the seminar the participants were taught how to make priorities, budgets, record keeping and planning. Sometimes people aren't poor because of insufficient resources but rather due to lack of planning and disorganization which causes significant waste hence giving poverty gets a chance. Therefore, teaching these simple techniques brings a huge transformation. For instance, many participants after constructing their budget they discovered how they wasted lot of money buying airtime or other less important things.

In conclusion, the government and other stakeholders of development should conduct regular training varying from different aspects of life so as to improve the life of women, youth and households across the country. Such training's are significant as they highlight the root cause of problems, they bring hope, provide solutions and most important they give knowledge and skills which are very important for people who want to improve their living standards.