Resources on: Youth and Employment
Documents and articles
African Youth Charter
Conference of African Union, Ministers in Charge of Youth,
26 – 28 May, 2006, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
African youth: a huge potential between instability and uncertainty
“It has a huge potential. It may also turn into a significant menace – if this youth has no other horizon than recruitment by a rebellion or radical indoctrination. It's imperative to provide it with other perspectives." These remarks by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy in an interview last August in the newspaper Le Parisien provide the motivations for the Summit theme.
African nations set to tackle youth unemployment
The 4th Ordinary Session of the Labour and Social Affairs Commission of the African Union held in Cairo, Egypt recently, during which issues aimed at getting Africa to attain the Millennium Goals were discussed. Strategies were mapped out to ensure the attainment of the goals.
Being “Real” about Youth Entrepreneurship in Eastern and Southern Africa: Implications for Adults, Institutions and Sector Structures
SEED Working Paper No. 72, by: Francis Chigunta, Jamie Schnurr, David James-Wilson and Veronica Torres, Programme on Boosting Employment through Small EnterprisE Development Job Creation and Enterprise Department International Labour Office, Geneva.
Engagement of young people in support of the MDGs and Youth Employment
After a brief overview of the session, presentations will be made by five main actors representing the local communities, the public sector, the private sector, the youth-led organisations and the international institutions. This session will present case studies and strategies applied for an effective participation of the young people at the local level, particularly the most vulnerable categories of youth in Africa. Particular reference will be made on the Millennium Campaign and the Youth Employment Summit (YES) and a World Partnership Program proposal between member states, local communities, organizations of youth and the private sector in Africa in the context of‘’ the Millennium Challenge: working with the young people so that the world progresses! 1000 young initiatives to achieve the MDGs'.
Entrepreneur Situation in South Africa
It is our belief that South Africa's stability barometer is increasingly going to be youth employment. While there has been broad acknowledgement of this problem, very few programmes are functioning of a sufficiently large scale to have impact on this situation.
In South Africa 7.5 million out of 14 million young people aged between 16 and 35 are unemployed. Of these, half have been unemployed for more than 2 years and over 20% have been unemployed for more than 5 years. In rural South Africa the youth unemployment rate is 73% and 53% in urban area's.
Expert Group Meeting and Youth Roundtable Strategies for Creating Urban Youth Employment: Solutions for Urban Youth in Africa, Nairobi, 21-25 June 2004. (Report of the meeting.)
The Expert group meeting and Youth Roundtable was organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and the Youth Employment Network (YEN) Secretariat, held in Nairobi at the Gigiri Conference Center from 21-25 June 2004. It brought together experts, practitioners and young people to address policies and programmes for urban youth job creation.
Search for Common Ground in West Africa – Regional Youth Strategy
West Africa is currently grappling with a crisis among its youth, brought on by years of war, unemployment and marginalisation. Over the past two decades, youth have been at the core of armed conflicts in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone, both as victims and as perpetrators. In each instance, national conflicts took on regional components, with combatants from neighbouring countries being recruited across porous borders to fight alongside indigenous fighters. Commanders and warlords recruited these combatants both domestically and regionally, attracting them with assurances of payment and the chance to loot with abandon.
Strategies for creating employment for urban youth, with specific reference to Africa (Draft)
Paper for Expert Group Meeting on “Strategies for Creating Urban Youth Employment: Solutions for Urban Youth in Africa” organized by the Division for Social Policy and Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and the Youth Employment Network, 21-25 June 2004, Nairobi, Kenya.
Stimulating Youth Entrepreneurship in Kenya
June, 2006, Research Paper. A preliminary survey among the Kenyan youth shows that a small but growing number of college graduates are choosing to venture into small-scale businesses on graduation. The researchers interviewed some youth entrepreneurs and found that their experiences in college may have positively influenced their attitudes towards entrepreneurship. This research aims at exploring the link between the experience in colleges and the intentions towards entrepreneurship among college graduates.
Stimulating Youth Entrepreneurship:Barriers and incentives to enterprise start-ups by young people
By Ulrich Schoof, Small Enterprise Development Programme, Job Creation and Enterprise, Development Department, International Labour Office, Geneva.
The world’s population is growing at a time when traditional, stable labour markets are shrinking. More than 1 billion people today are between 15 and 24 years of age and nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population is below the age of 20. The ILO estimates that 47 per cent of all unemployed persons globally are young women and men and 660 million young people will either be working or looking for work in 2015.
The Impact of Information and Communications Technology Training on Youth Entrepreneurship and Job Creation
A report prepared by the Youth Development Trust for the IDRC, April 2003, The Youth Development Trust (YDT) is a civil society organisation facilitating, amongst others, skills development and the creation of employment and self-employment amongst young people.
There has been a focus and drive by government and other stakeholders on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the creation of Small Medium and Macro Enterprises (SMMEs) to address the critical levels of unemployment in South Africa. YDT considered it essential to interrogate the assumption that the ICT sector is the solution to this ever-increasing problem. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was approached with a proposal to consider funding an exploratory study into ICT training and its impact on job creation and self-employment amongst South African youth.
The World’s Youth 2006 data sheet
Populatio N Reference Bureau, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 520 | Washington, DC 20009
Telephone: 202-483-1100 | Fax: 202-328-3937
Website: www.prb.org | E–mail: popref@prb.org.
Workforce Development in the Arab Middle East: Developing Public/Private Partnerships for Youth Employment
Improving the employability of youth, and the productivity of employing organizations, are key development goals everywhere. In the Arab Middle East, progress towards these goals is essential to equitable economic growth, to the development of democratic institutions – and thus to peace. This Prospectus outlines a Program of capacity building for public/private partnership development that will contribute to improved employment for youth in the Region.
Young People and Employment
Expanding young people's access to "decent and productive work" is one of the MDG targets. With half the world's unemployed between the ages of 15 and 24, the challenge is considerable. This is especially so in poor countries of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, where youth populations are still growing. The world's highest youth unemployment rates are in sub- Saharan Africa, the poorest region. Furthermore, when young people do find work, many are trapped in low-wage jobs with few opportunities to learn skills.
Youth and Employment in the ECA Region
Paper prepared for the Youth Employment Summit, Alexandria, Egypt, September 7– 11, 2002.
Africa’s population is very young. Young people make up more than 50% of the population of most member states of the ECA. These young people are a potential resource for growth and social development if gainfully and productively engaged. But they could also be a source of devastating social tension and conflict if not. In many countries, the degree to which youth can contribute to the possibilities of their countries in particular and the continent in general is constrained by circumscribed life chances, with the lack of job opportunities being one of the major circumscriptions.
Youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: an assessment of existing interventions, World Bank, February 7, 2006
Uses framework from Global Inventory to analyze interventions in 4 sub Saharan African countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia & Burkina Faso.
Youth Employment: a Global Goal a National Challenge
The world is facing a growing youth employment crisis. Latest ILO data indicate that of the world's estimated 191 million unemployed people in 2004, about half – or nearly 86 million – are aged between 15 and 24. In many economies, young people are more than three times as likely as adults to be out of work. Today, both industrialized and developing countries are failing to increase employment opportunities for young people.
Youth in African Cities
Youth dominate the demographic landscape of many African cities. They cannot be put aside with phrases like “youth are the future”, but must be taken as partners in social change and development that are taking place in the present.
Youth Caucus on the CFA Consultation Document
Commission For Africa, 10—11, January 2005.
We the youth from Southern Africa gathered in Pretoria, South Africa from the 9th to the 11th of January 2005. On the occasion of CFA youth consultative meeting, organised by Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) in partnership with the SADC Youth Movement. We are highly excited about the CFA initiatives, intentions and objectives it aims to achieve. We are grateful towards the UK government in particular the Prime Minister Tony Blair for the CFA initiative; that seeks to mobilise the G8 and the EU to intensify aid for Africa’s development.
Youth unemployment and regional insecurity in West Africa
Source: United Nations office for West Africa (UNOWA), Date: 31 Dec 2005.
In recent weeks, television networks across the world have shown footage of scenes that many viewers found shocking. Waves of mainly West African youths were witnessed flinging themselves against the steel wire surrounding the Spanish enclaves in Morocco in a desperate bid to find a passage to what they regard as opportunity -- the opportunity to work for a decent living, an option that appears all too often lacking in their countries of origin.
Links
Are African youths enterprising?
Are you a young African entrepreneur trying to make it? What made you succeed or fail? What help do you need to succeed? How tricky is it for young people to access finance to start a business in your country? What's the best way to engage young people? Are the youth doing enough to create job opportunities for themselves?
The Global Fund for Children
The Global Fund for Children’s mission is to advance the dignity of children and youth around the world. GFC pursues its mission by making small grants to innovative community-based organizations working with some of the world’s most vulnerable children and youth, complemented by a dynamic media program that, through books, documentary photography, and film, highlights the issues affecting children and celebrates the global society in which we all live.
Expert Group Meeting and Youth Roundtable Strategies for Creating Urban Youth Employment: Solutions for Urban Youth in Africa, Nairobi, 21-25 June 2004.
The Expert group meeting and Youth Roundtable was organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and the Youth Employment Network (YEN) Secretariat, held in Nairobi at the Gigiri Conference Center from 21-25 June 2004. It brought together experts, practitioners and young people to address policies and programmes for urban youth job creation.
Ninth G8 Labour and Employment Ministers Conference Meeting the Challenge of Demographic Change London 10-11 March 2005
Labour and Employment Ministers from the G8 countries and the European Union Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities met in London on 11 March 2005, together with representatives of the ILO and OECD, to discuss the theme ‘Meeting the Challenge of Demographic Change’. In preparation for the meeting, consultations with representatives of the social partners were held on 10 March 2005.
Youth Employment in Africa:Bi-Monthly Highlight
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), approximately 88.2 million young people are unemployed around the world, accounting for 47 percent of all the 185.9 million unemployed people globally. Eighty-five percent of these young people live in developing countries.
Youth Employment Network
The YEN operates as a Network of Networks, whose strength lies in bringing to scale the accumulated knowledge, experience and constituencies of a diverse range of partners. It aims to identify, educate and motivate partners to work together toward a common development agenda: mobilizing the resources of stakeholders, including young people themselves, toward more and better youth employment possibilities, as a contribution toward poverty reduction.
Youth in Africa's Labor Market Workshop, Feb. 7, 2006
As the international development community centers its attention on the MDGs, improving outcomes for children and youth—the groups most directly related to achieving these development goals—is a growing priority. In Africa, the challenge of youth employment is especially large. Young people aged 15-24 years account for 36 percent of the working-age population in SSA. Due to population pressure, the number of young people looking for work is expected to increase by 28 percent in the next 15 years, equivalent to about 30 million people.
Youth and ICT Skills in African Labour Markets, With Particular Reference To Ghana
Globally, the role of ICT as a catalyst for national development has long been acknowledged. The potentials of ICT have been dramatized by rapid transformation of production, distribution and exchange, and consumption systems as well as the way work is organized. Skills required by employers, especially in the area of ICTs has hence changed and highlighted the need for accelerated development of ICT infrastructure, including facilities for ICT skill enhancement among the youth. It is important to note that whilst many developing countries, including those in Africa, have embarked upon programmes for installing ICT infrastructure with a view to expanding access and usage the related issue of training especially for young and new labour market entrants has been largely ignored, especially in Africa.
Youth Employment Network Youth COnsultative Group
This site will provide the YCG member organisations with an on-line space in which to share youth specific developments on the YEN as they unfold and before they become public knowledge. This site will give users the opportunity to add content themselves through a simple proceedure. Furthermore the site offers facilities for collaborative drafting of documents and ability to discuss these drafts or other matters through discussion forums.
Young people and the Millennium Development Goals
The paper outlines how young people can be included and empowered as part of the strategies that Member States and the United Nations system are creating for the achievement of the MDGs. It can be used as a lobby tool and guide for programmatic action, but ultimately, it is a call to all Member States, UN specialized agencies, and civil society to create mechanisms for youth to participate in the implementation of the MDGs and take advantage of the work and activities youth are already leading.
