Jumuiya Ya Kaunti Za Pwani (JKP) in Partnership with Generation Kenya have today launched the Jumuiya Innovation Lab.

This was during a consultative forum on youth employment creation held at a hotel in Mombasa County.

The one day stakeholder engagement also brought together the national and county government ministries of education and youth, policy makers, industry and universities.

The stakeholder engagement was aimed at Creating awareness of and exchanging input with key stakeholders on the Jumuiya Innovation Lab(JIL) thinking and officially launch the Generation & JKP training and up skilling program.

The Jumuiya Innovation Lab is a workforce and MSME incubator that seeks to consolidate the thinking around how the Jumuiya can create employment opportunities and harness the latent talent existent among the youth in the region.

Youth unemployment remains a big challenge in the region as it is exacerbating poverty, marginalization and crime rates.

According to JKP C.E.O Emmanuel Nzai, the innovation lab is also aimed at structuring the youth empowerment space and bringing all stakeholders together.

“The Jumuiya Innovation Lab shall be set up across the coast targeting 10,000 youth through to 2022 through either business development support or vocational education” said Nzai.

Adding “This will go along way in tackling the high unemployment rate which is at 45% in the region".

The establishment of the Jumuiya Innovation Lab has been identified as one of the anchor flagship projects of the Jumuiya 2030 strategy which is geared towards changing the story of the region.

Nzai also noted "Achieving the Jumuiya 2030 is not possible without an able and skilled workforce and growing the private sector that creates jobs for the coastal people.

He revealed that they will be working closely with local institutions including the Technical University of Mombasa among others and that 400 youth will be involved in the pilot project between now(July) and  December .

This flagship project also seeks to combine intervening strategies and policies in the JKP (6) counties to align in closing the school transition gaps.

It will also facilitate self-employment with incubation of MicroSmall Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and workforce development for employability and economic productivity.

Generation Kenya as the thought partner and implementation partner of JKP will help the setup of the Jumuiya Innovation Lab, coordinate different workforce development and youth empowerment efforts at JIL and provide workforce skilling and placement for youth.

The JIL will be a one-stop shop for youth to decide about their career and to receive the necessary information on how to realize it.

It will comprise of two components, Center for workforce skilling, which is to provide the youth with a center where they can find potential career paths

The centre will also help the youth get to know the vocational education required to enter specific careers and can be connected to youth economic empowerment organizations to help them with relevant trainings and job placement.

The other component is Micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) incubation, to skill and incubate at least 1,000 MSMEs at the Coast in various sectors such as agriculture, blue economy, trade and logistics.

As a basis for the operations and success of JIL, both Generation and JKP Secretariat will ensure that TVET capabilities are strengthened so that they are able to provide relevant high impact vocational training.