The Challenges Facing Education

In Eswatini, often income and gender-based inequalities, poor relevance of school curricula to labour markets, lack of support for the school-to-employment transition, including provision of vocational training are further keeping many adolescents and young people from achieving a better future and empowered livelihoods.

Children Need Support and Protection

Roughly 120,000 children in Eswatini are orphans and grow up without their parents. The vast majority have lost their parents to AIDS, a disease which affects the country’s youngest segment of population most of all. Most parents of children who are HIV-positive cannot afford retroviral therapy. Many of these children are cut off from basic health services and education. Nonetheless, Eswatini has been quite successful with regards to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Poverty in Eswatini

Unemployment, heavy dependence on agriculture despite unpredictable weather, HIV/AIDS and high rates of inequality contribute to Eswatini’s struggle to develop economic independence.

Unemployment

Unemployment, inequality, and poverty are high in Eswatini partly due to weak job creation in the formal economy. The 2021 Labor Force Survey puts the unemployment rate at 33.3%, the highest in over a decade.

Youth Challenges

Insufficient job opportunities, limited representation, and participation in the governance space. Discrepancies between graduation rate and employment creation due to economic downturn post-pandemic. Reduce youth unemployment by 50% by 2030. Of the population lives below the poverty line.

Women Challenges

In Eswatini, women face various challenges due to cultural norms, discrimination, and gender inequality. Here are some of the challenges that women face in Eswatini:

• Discrimination and violence
• Limited access to education and healthcare
• High rate of teenage pregnancy
• Limited political representation
• Gender-based violence