Unlocking the Potentials of Youth
Written by Nice Charles Msangi
The youth group is a much-needed asset in developing countries such as Tanzania. This is because such a group embodies energy, ideas, skills, and the capacity to learn and take leadership roles in society and workplaces. However, for these capacities to be realized and result in meaningful outcomes, young people’s mindset must be in tandem with the productive goals and be geared towards creating innovative and new opportunities for themselves and the wider society.
Like other parts of the world, young people in Tanzania crave an enabling environment across political, economic, technological, cultural, and social spectrums to allow them to fit in the rapidly changing world. To realize the change, they are aspiring for, young people must take the lead, be change agents and bring about change for themselves and society. For that to happen, young people’s potential must be identified, unleashed, and nurtured.
POTENTIAL UNLEASHED
What does it mean to unleash potential? The literary meaning of ‘unleash’ is to release or become unrestrained. Every human has the inner potential to become whom she/he wants to be and flourish. What determines one’s ability to realize his or her full potential are the inhibiting conditions, which cut across issues of family and socioeconomic backgrounds, geographical location, educational background, and social and cultural capital. These conditions constrain one’s potential and ability to imagine, aspire, act, and convert opportunities into realities. This calls for mechanisms to unleash potential, particularly for young people. However, while unleashing the potential of youth requires the involvement of many stakeholders and sectors, the critical question is, “How can youth themselves be architects of unleashing their potential?”
HOW CAN YOUTHS UNLEASH THEIR POTENTIAL
Unleashing one’s potential requires a combination of many factors and mechanisms. Nonetheless, apart from external stimulants or triggers, youths can unleash their inner, cultivated, and uncultivated potentials under certain conditions of possibilities. Thus, there are several areas that youths must endeavor to work on if they are to unleash their potential.
- Have an open mind and strive towards lifelong learning
Unleashing potential requires an open mind, which allows possibilities for immersing into new territories, and uncomfort zones, accepting criticisms, and becoming vulnerable in complex and challenging terrain. Only those who possess such an open mind get opportunities to allow their potential to be put to the test, challenged, and exposed to new and complex issues. An open mind is closely linked to one’s ability to treat learning as a lifelong project rather than a once-off exercise. Youth continuously learning and developing inquiry capacity are likely to unleash their potential in their areas of interest. These elements can also be taught in training and coached daily at the family level and in social spaces.
- Taking Risks and having grit (perseverance)
Taking risks is one of the most frightening things one can endure. However, the most successful individuals are those who take risks and have the grit or courage to bounce back after unsuccessful attempts. However, most young people do not want to take risks, are overwhelmed by fear of failure, and want quick results. Lack of capacity to take risks is potentially due to peer pressures, lack of grit, and misconceptions that failures define an individual’s ability and potential.
- Stay consistent and disciplined.
Unleashing potential demands consistency in one’s actions, behavior, and attitude. Consistent is imbued with elements of self-discipline, which is not extrinsically but intrinsically driven. Nevertheless, most youths are inconsistent in their actions and ill-disciplined in decision-making, resource utilization, and taking up opportunities. Lack of consistency and ill-discipline has made many youths mistrusted and labeled as unruly and dangerous to society. Youths need to develop consistency and discipline to unleash their potential.
- Networking and building a social capital
The world is increasingly becoming a networked society (Castells, 2009) regarding human interaction and integration. One’s ability to develop networks is fundamentally essential in unleashing his or her potential. Similarly, developing substantial social capital is central to building a support system that can enable one to unleash potential. However, most Tanzanian youths do not have the necessary skills to network and build meaningful social capital. Surprisingly and anecdotally, even those who claim to have the skills and know-how of networking and developing social capital, their networks and capital are not geared towards enabling them to unleash their potential. Instead, the networks and capitals developed predominantly limit one’s ability to open up horizons and new frontiers of thinking towards realizing potential.
The elements mentioned above are not exhaustive as there are more areas that youth need to work on to unleash their potential, engage in productive activities, earn an honest living and live a meaningful life. While the argument is that youth must strive towards unleashing their potential, we are cognizant that their ability to do so hinges on other actors across different sectors. Families, schools, colleges, universities, training institutions, peers, friends, role models, influential people, and government and private sectors are critical in supporting youths to unleash their potential.
Sahara Sparks 2022 foreground this fundamental call by inviting critical local and international stakeholders to devise resolutions on how to unleash youths’ potential in Tanzania and beyond, particularly in the digital era. The 2022 Sahara Sparks theme, ‘ Potential Unleashed,’ is timely and pertinent, given that debates about youths’ potential are fundamentally missing in policy terrain, media, and literature. Such a tendency to overlook youths’ potential and how to unleash them is peculiar given that youth are a critical group, which, if it continues to be bedecked by elements of poverty, staggering unemployment, limited opportunities, and voicelessness, may threaten societal well-being.
