David Junia

Fenny Tutjavi

Young people should accumulate a great deal of social wealth to solve youth unemployment in Namibia, which was estimated at 50% in 2022. 

Social wealth further capacitates youth with life skills, such as mentorship and referrals.  

Dimitri Zenghelis, who is a special advisor to the Wealth Economy Project, an outfit which brings together leading economists, practitioners and decision-makers to discuss and advance wealth accounting, defines social wealth as comprising personal relationships, civic engagements and social networks as well as the social norms and values that shape acceptable behaviour. 

There are four types of wealth: time wealth (flexibility and freedom to do what you want); health wealth (physical and mental); social wealth and financial wealth.  Financial wealth, which encapsulates monetary possession, is the most sought type of wealth. However, social wealth should be the most sought-after wealth because it can be a tool for youth to build and keep meaningful relationships. 

Building meaningful networks strategically positions youth for more opportunities and achievement of their dreams, projects and careers through the community of practices it creates with experts in their spaces. 

Social wealth is counted only when relationships that individuals build provide utilities in their lives, whereas individuals associated with relationships that do not provide utilities are considered socially poor. 

These individuals also miss opportunities stirred in socially wealthy rings. Research has shown that aspects of social wealth provide value to their possessors.  

Youth who admire successful and influential people should learn a thing or two from them. Successful people seem to have it all, especially the ones who have climbed the corporate ladder to the highest bureaucratic positions.  What successful people have done differently from the rest is being able to make the right connections through mastering networking, and how to build and keep meaningful relationships. 

Research has indicated that connections have provided successful people with happiness, identity, self-worth, knowledge, skills, financial support, emotional support, values, preferences, habits and more.  The reality is that individuals are not born well-informed and skilful, and neither are people taught in classrooms how to accumulate subtle skills, such as accumulating social wealth. 

Accumulating social wealth is a learned skill, associated with tamed behaviour.  Experts have coined the term social capital to describe social networks, particularly those where members have a sufficient level of trust for network members to communicate effectively and provide each other with valuable resources. A person who has social capital has access to one or more social networks that enable them to exhaust opportunities through information and resource accessibility.

Trusted individuals have more social wealth because trusted individuals will not only feel better about themselves but also find it easier to access resources within their social networks.  For example, if a fresh graduate has a bad relationship with their university (lecturers), this makes the graduate have less social wealth in the most deserving setting (university). This can cause graduates to miss opportunities, such as referrals and good word of mouth from the university.

In general, social networks suffer from stingy individuals. The network youth build may have stingy individuals who would not mentor, refer youths for opportunities and provide benefits to the less fortunate youth. 

Asa Romeo Asa penned an article, titled ‘Stingy People are Obstacles to a Robust Economy’, where he argues that “Namibian communities have some successful people (economically and socially wealthy) who unfortunately reduce themselves to buying gallons of alcohol for the youth, rather than funding some of their dreams, projects and careers”.

Even though stingy individuals can be an obstacle for youths to accumulate social wealth and also taste the benefits it encapsulates, youth should accumulate as much social wealth as they can to develop skills that pay off in the labour market through the mentorship of willing socially wealthy individuals. 

An effective technique to build social wealth is via networking. Investopedia defines networking as the exchange of information and ideas among people with a common profession or special interest, usually in an informal social setting. Professionals use networking to expand their circles of acquaintances, find out about job opportunities in their fields and increase their awareness of news and trends in their fields or the greater world.

Some think Investopedia’s definition of social wealth is polite. Frankly, networking is a technique of sorting useful individuals from the rest, depending on the qualities and features the person is seeking. 

For example, if a youth is going to attend an event that has a networking session, the youth should know the type of individuals to add to their network. It can even go as far as having a checkbox to tick out the features and characteristics that the ambitious youth seeks. 

It is said that everything we create in life is with or through other people. Youth who are fortunate to interact with influential people (socially wealthy figures) – whether face-to-face, on the phone, via the Internet or at events – should master how they portray themselves to these people.  The ability to sell their dreams, projects and careers should be effective to socially wealthier figures.  When that is done, social wealthier figures can then reciprocate with the right amount of placement by plotting the ambitious youth within their vast circles of endless opportunities.  Youths should add contacts that would likely provide utilities to their lives and utilities such as mentorship. 

In conclusion, a Joint Economic Committee’s report, titled ‘The Wealth of Relations: Expanding Opportunity by Strengthening Families, Communities and Civil Society’, states that institutions to which we are connected and what they can do for us are related to economic outcomes. 

The effort invested in social wealth accumulation through mentorship and referrals could be the solution to social issues, such as unemployment. 

*Fenny Tutjavi is a youth activist, LDM board secretary and a KAS leadership programme alumni. He is pursuing a Bachelor’s Honours Degree in Public Management, majoring in international relations and Politics at the University of Namibia. - fennytutjavi@gmail.com 

*David Junias is a researcher and writer. - davidjunias@gmail.com