March 23, 2016
Unemployment and Youth

Not without a Voice - the need for revisionist thinking on youth and jobs

By Karen Newman

Just last month, the UN in conjunction with The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth at the opening of the UN’s annual Youth Forum. This annual Forum provided the perfect opportunity to generate not only renewed interest in creating jobs but in re-thinking in earnest what policies need to be installed in order to support youth in combating accessing the labour market and obtaining decent jobs.

The Initiative provides a unique partnership with governments, the UN system, businesses, academic institutions, youth organizations and other groups to scale-up action to generate opportunities and pathways for quality employment in the global economy and to support young people in cultivating the skills required to participate in today’s job market. What does this mean exactly, well if you acknowledge the body of research that exists despite some encouraging signs, the instability of the global youth situation continues and the global youth unemployment rate today remains well above its pre-crisis rate of 11.7 per cent in 2007.  According to the ILO, overall, two in five or 42.6 per cent economically active youth are still either unemployed or working -yet living in poverty. In the face of such statistics, it is likely that the situation for young people in today’s labour market is challenging to say the least.

It is said that millennials put great value on sustainability and the legacy of what they will leave behind as well as issues linked to the environment and creating meaningful work. If we look to the 2013 edition of the Global Employment Trends for Youth (ILO, 2013a) the main findings suggest that “it is not easy to be young in the labour market today” in the context of a stubborn jobs crisis, long job queues and increasing scarcity of stable employment. Perhaps this is why the initiative was identified in 2014 by UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination as an important issue based prototype for agencies and member states to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to the ILO, decent work involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men

The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its emphasis on youth employment in Goal 8, also provides a viable chance to not only mobilize broad global partnerships to support action on a grand scale. However, the reality is that increased investment is needed to improve the failings of the labor crisis on the current generation as well as to foster more inclusive labour markets and real work opportunities. How can green jobs, tech jobs and apprenticeships be brought into the fold and recognize the need to bring young people in rural areas not only into the conversation, but perhaps to transition from informal to more formal marketplaces.

Interestingly enough, the new Global Initiative will focus on fostering multi-stakeholder alliances and country level action and partnerships, all of which are central to some of the work that is now underway as part of the SDG Fund.  Consider that the SDG fund is the first mechanism working to bring together UN agencies to effectively collaborate on key development areas linked to inclusive growth, food security and water and sanitation. Initiatives are already underway in 21 pilot countries, including Cote D’Ivoire, Mozambique and Sierra Leone where the fund works with mineral extractive industries to generate employment growth opportunities, especially for youth and women. Working with the ILO, this SDG-F joint program focuses on the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado where the extractive sector is very active. The project will promote and facilitate gender-sensitive employment policies and workforce skills to improve small business production and linkages to markets through multinational enterprises.

Given that the new Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth has outlined on a number of next steps to promote decent jobs for youth and build on innovative strategies for scalable youth employment responses, its encouraging that there are already viable partnerships underway to keep the global spotlight firmly focused on the needs of young people and secure livelihoods. Consider also the work that the ILO and the SDG Fund have put in place in Bangladesh--working to provide jobs for vulnerable women in conjunction with local government partners. A key feature of this joint program with the ILO is to bring vocational training with strong private sector partnership into a social protection program. The approach for titled, Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO) recognizes the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and provides women and youth with the solid training and skills for future employment.

Perhaps the learning from these joint collaborations can serve as an important part of the operational roadmap for the new initiative. As the ILO’s Director-General Guy Ryder reminded constituents that working poverty affects as many as 169 million you and in low income countries, nine in ten young workers are trapped in informal employment with little chance of improved conditions. There is not a bright future with this many young people facing limited skills training and opportunities for viable vocations.

What will merit our attention is the programs that work to get all actors on board and coordinate activities that bring young people into the fold. For the SDG Fund, and ILO this means supporting combination of efforts that place priority on job creation and target the specific disadvantages of young people are required to reap the benefits of public and private investments and of other measures to restore economic growth. Young voices must be heard, but more importantly they must be engaged.