Youth, Employment and Development: Challenges, Solutions and UN Collaboration in the Arab Region

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Youth, Employment and DevelopmentChallenges,
Solutions and UN Collaboration in the Arab Region

• Tariq A. Haq
• Employment Development and Strategies Officer
• ILO Regional Office for Arab States, Beirut

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Youth-specific difficulties in transition from
education to employment

• Lack of employment experience
• Insider-outsider effects related to strict
  labour market regulations
• Wage and job reservations mismatch between
  aspirations and LM realities
• Constraints on self-employment and
  entrepreneurship development
• Lack of organization and voice

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Main features of the Arab labour force

• Around 12.5 million unemployed, coupled with high
  underemployment
• Highest (and increasing) unemployment rates in
  the world
• 3 million new youth entrants to the labour market
  annually - pressure to create jobs for these new
  entrants just to maintain current unemployment
  levels
• Youth unemployment rates are much higher than
  adult unemployment rates, averaging 25.6 in
  2003 (cf. 21.0 in Sub-Saharan Africa), estimated
  at 26.7 in 2005

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contd.

• Average female unemployment rate of 16.5 was
  5.9 points higher than the male rate of 10.6
  in 2003
• Unemployment for young women in MENA countries
  ranges from 13 in Bahrain to almost 39 in
  Algeria
• Unemployed women are mainly young new labour
  force entrants (with primary secondary
  education), and laid off workers following
  restructuring and privatization - in Jordan,
  Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt

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Need for a comprehensive employment policy

• Based on a deep and reliable economic and labour
  market analysis identifying potentials and
  challenges for young people (requires LMI)
• Appropriate measures need to be applied (and
  regularly assessed) for interventions on the
  supply and demand side of the labour market and
  their better matching for enhancing
  employability, promoting employment and improving
  social security of young people
• Should be formulated, implemented and evaluated
  in partnerships of governments at various levels
  with the social partners, youth organizations and
  other NGOs, with possible assistance from
  international organizations

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Targeted Active Labour Market Policies for young
people

• Well functioning employment services
• Re-skilling of work force bridging the skills
  gap to match labour supply with demand linking
  training programmes with employment
• Entrepreneurship training in basic business
  skills, especially for young women and men
• Employment subsidies for disadvantaged youth

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ILO Response

• ILO Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Youth
  Employment in the Arab States (2004) ILC 2005
  General Discussion on YE
• ILO-UN-WB Youth Employment Network (YEN)
• 4 Es Employment creation, Entrepreneurship,
  Employability, Equality
• Knowledge sharing through lead countries
  (Syria, Egypt)
• National Action Plans (UN GA Resolution)
• School-to-Work Transition Surveys (Syria, Jordan,
  Egypt)
• Know About Business (KAB)

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Potential UN Collaborative Action in the Region
Country Level

• Build on YEN framework of collaboration at the
  country level, working with other agencies in
  their fields of competence, e.g.
• UNESCO and ILO in Vocational Education and
  Training
• UNIDO, ESCWA and ILO in enterprise development
• UNDP and ILO in social protection and gender
  equality
• UNICEF in literacy and basic education
• WHO and ILO in HIV/AIDS
• Establish tripartite country-level forums of key
  stakeholders, including youth representatives, to
  address youth employment issues

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Potential UN Collaborative Action in the Region
Regional Level

• Involve other important regional institutions,
  including the Arab League, ALO, and GCC to
  establish
• A Pan-Arab political commitment
• An Umbrella for national policies, activities,
  awareness raising and knowledge sharing on youth
  employment in the Arab world
• Towards an Arab Youth Employment Network

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Contact

• Tariq A. Haq
• Employment Development and Strategies Officer
• ILO Regional Office for Arab States, Beirut
• haq_at_ilo.org
• www.ilo.org
• www.ilo.org/youth
• www.ilo.org/yen