Some youth statistics

More than 1 billion people today are between 15 and 25 years of age

Nearly 40 % of the world’s population is below the age of 20

85 % of young people live in developing countries

Around 60% of young people live in Asia alone, or over 650 million persons

Youth employment statistics

88 million youth - 47% of the global total of 186 million - are classified as unemployed

Youth are two to three times more likely to be unemployed than adults

59 million young people (15-17 years old) are engaged in hazardous work

Sub-Saharan Africa – youngest population, highest levels of youth unemployment, 60 – 80% in many countries. Employment question is essentially a youth employment question

Many more are underemployed, working long hours with little income in the informal economy

Secretary-General’s Youth Employment Network

A commitment of the Millennium Declaration: Develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work

Led by the heads of the UN, the World Bank and the ILO

UN General Assembly Resolutions A/RES/57/165 and A/RES/58/133 relating to Youth Employment

A political commitment

Resolutions ask countries to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) on youth employment by September 2004.

Development and implimentation should be in partnership with the ILO, WB and UN , abd with the specific involvement of young people.

Lead Countries

Nine countries have stepped forward to volunteer as lead countries for the YEN:

Senegal, Namibia, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Rwanda, Azerbaijan, Brazil and Iran

Interest from many others including Mali and Nigeria

YEN High-Level Panel’s 2003 Recommendations- Employability: invest in education and vocational training for young people and improve the impact of those investments;- Equal opportunities: give young women the same

opportunities as young men;- Entrepreneurship: make it easier to start and run

enterprises to provide more and better jobs for youngwomen and men;

- Employment creation: place employment creation at the center of macroeconomic policy

Youth Participation and the YEN

Youth are an Asset - not a Problem

“The youth around this table are a tremendous resource. Engage them. Listen. Build together. Let's get beyond lip service.”

“Normally when we need to know about something we go to the experts, but we tend to forget that when we want to know about youth and what they feel and what they want, that we should talk to them”

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Managing Director, The World BankYEN High-Level

Panel meeting July 2003, Geneva

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia

“Young people should be seen as engines of growth rather than a problems to be addressed”

From commitments..

To participation…

13 youth representatives attend the July 2003 meeting of the YEN High-Level Panel , giving them partiy with the YEN’s High-Level Panel.

World Bank President , James Wolfhensohn in discussion with Youth Leaders at the World

Bank’s Youth Development and Peace

consultation. Paris September 2003

To partnership…

High-Level Panel Recommendations 2001Importance of youth: Youth are an Asset - not a Problem Youth are partners of today - not tomorrow

High-Level Panel Recommendations 2003 Invite to youth organisations to participate in the design,implementation and monitoring of NAP’s Asked youth to take on an advisory role for the YEN in relation to

appropriate and effective youth employment programmes. Asked youth to present a Youth Platform on youth involvement

in the YEN

1. YEN Youth Consultative Group (YCG)

2. Lead Country activities

Current developments

The YCG will: Represent the concerns of young people

on the function, direction and priorities of the YEN

Interact with the High Level Panelists and input into the decision making of the YEN.

Support youth groups in Lead Countries to mobilise themselves to particpate in the NAP process

Support youth groups in other countries to lobby governments

1. YEN Youth Consultative Group (YCG)

Youth Partners

Workers and Employers – youth branches Regional Youth Platforms International Youth Organisations Youth Branches of the political internationals Students organisations Local and grassroots organisations and

individuals

2. Lead Country activities

Brazil

Youth voice their hopes and concerns, at a special seminar on youth employment, organized by the Government of Brazil with the support of the ILO, hed in Salvador, Brazil, September 2003.

Azerbaijan

A grouping of NGO’s and other civil society organizations, formed a National Coalition on Youth Employment in June 2004, which will work closely with the Government to develop the countries NAP.

Indonesia

Youth organisations have helped the I-YEN – Indonesian Youth Employment Network co-ordinate a series of national consultations with youth. There views have been fed into the drafting of the Indonesian NAP

Dates of YEN and youth partner activities 2004

• World Youth Festival, 8 - 14 August, Barcelona, Spain

• World Bank Youth Consultations, September, Sarajevo, Bosnia

• YEN High-Level Panel, September, Washington DC, U.S.A

• Youth Employment Summit, October, Mexico• Youth Business International Summit, October,

Buenos Airies, Argentina• Malente Symposium: Youth Employment,

Empowerment and Participation, 18-20 October, Lubeck, Germany,

The Bigger Picture..

UN, ILO, WB commitment to 3 year work plan and fund raising•Knowledge Development (inventories, stocktaking, good practices, data needs, innovative research)

•Supporting Lead Countries in development of national action plans

•Country pilots

Ideal Youth involvement

•1. National coalitions on Youth Employment created by Sept. 2004

•2. Recognised youth input into NAP plans submitted to the UN Sept. 2004

•3. Formal role of youth in a recognised in structures created to implement and review NAPs

Nairobi Meeting Aims

1. Raise awareness of the importance of youth employment as central development issue.

2. Empower and mobilise youth to motive governments and other stakeholders for action on youth employment and in the development of NAP’s.

3. Record suggestions regarding effective strategies for mobilisation youth.

4. Collect information, advice, best practices from youth on participation for potential ‘toolbook’ on youth and NAP’s.

Contact details

Justin Sykes Communicatons and Public Information Officer

The Youth Employment Network (YEN)

International Labour Office CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland Tel: +41 (0)22 799.6587 Fax: +41 (0)22 799.7978 Email: sykes@ilo.org

http://www.ilo.org/yen