SECRETARY-GENERAL'S YOUTH EMPLOYMENT NETWORK TO MEET IN GENEVA

SECRETARY-GENERAL'S YOUTH EMPLOYMENT NETWORK TO MEET IN GENEVA

High-level Panel to Debate Forward-looking

Strategy to Create Employment for Young Men and Women

NEW YORK, 10 July -- With the world’s major economies slowing down and threatening the growth prospects of developing countries, the unemployment of youth -– those between the ages of 15 and 24 –- accounting for 41 per cent of the world’s unemployed, is becoming a focus for United Nations concerted action.  On 16 July, in Geneva, United NationsSecretary-General Kofi Annan, along with James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, and Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), will meet with a High-Level Panel of the Youth Employment Network convened after the Millennium Summit.

The High-Level Panel, which consists of 12 eminent persons, will gather on this occasion at ILO headquarters in Geneva.  The Secretary-General plans to hold a press conference on 16 July following his meeting with the High-Level Panel and the heads of the World Bank and the ILO.

      The Youth Employment Network was created in recognition of the urgency to address youth unemployment, particularly in developing countries.  It has its roots in the Secretary-General's Millennium Summit Report, in which he stated that:  "Together with the heads of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization, I am convening a high-level policy network on youth employment -- drawing on the most creative leaders in private industry, civil society and economic policy to explore imaginative approaches to this difficult challenge.  I will ask this policy network to propose a set of recommendations that I can convey to world leaders within a year.  The possible sources of solutions will include the Internet and the informal sector, especially the contribution that small enterprises can make to employment generation." (“We the Peoples:  The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century”)

The Millennium Summit (New York, 6-8 September 2000) reaffirmed the emphasis the Secretary-General placed on the employment of young people.  There, heads of State and government resolved to “develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work” (United Nations Millennium Declaration, resolution A/RES/55/2 of 8 September 2000)

The objectives of the Youth Employment Network are to formulate a set of recommendations on youth employment that the Secretary-General will present to the General Assembly during its fifty-sixth session; to disseminate information on good practices; and to promote and sponsor the creation of jobs for young people.

Background

According to United Nations estimates, over 1 billion young women and men live in the world today.  This means that approximately one person in five is between the ages of 15 and 24 years.  The ILO estimates that around 66 million young women and men are unemployed throughout the world.  Young people account for about 41 per cent of the globally 160 millionpersons who are classified as unemployed –- declaring themselves to be without work, to be searching for work and/or available for work.

Youth unemployment rates are typically two to three times higher than the adult rates, and are alarmingly high in many countries.  In many developing and some developed countries, more young women are unemployed than young men, or have lower participation rates.  Out of the 98 economies for which recent information is available, no less than 51 have youth unemployment rates of over 15 per cent.  According to the ILO, the most seriously affected regions are parts of Southern Europe (for example, Greece at 30 per cent, and Italy, 33 per cent); Central and Eastern Europe (particularly the Russian Federation at 27 per cent; Croatia,

30 per cent; Poland, 30 per cent; Slovakia, 32 per cent; Bulgaria, 33 per cent, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 49 per cent); the Caribbean (including Jamaica, 34 per cent; Dominica, 41 per cent; and Saint Lucia, 44 per cent), South Asia (especially Sri Lanka at 29 per cent), the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt, 34 per cent; and Morocco, 35 per cent) and the Republic of South Africa (56 per cent). 

However, this is only part of the picture.  Hundreds of millions more young people work fewer hours than they wish, and still others, largely in developing countries where 85 per cent of the world’s youth live, work long hours with little gain and no social protection in the informal economy.  

These statistics, sobering as they are, reveal little of the heavy toll that unemployment and underemployment takes on young people, their families and communities through economic hardship, human suffering, social exclusion and lost production.  Rapid globalization and fast-paced technological developments have offered many young people unprecedented new opportunities for education, innovation and productive and rewarding work.  But they have also added to uncertainty and insecurity by exacerbating already vulnerable situations, and widening the gap between those young people with well paid and productive work, and those with low wage and poor quality jobs.  Many young people are failing to gain a firm foothold in the labour market or they end up confined to low-paid dead-end jobs that offer no real prospects for the future and little protection, security or effective voice.  Some are excluded from both the labour force and education and training systems.  Not surprisingly, there is a sense of frustration and hopelessness among many who feel left behind by the new knowledge economy.

Nevertheless, experience shows that when given the opportunity, young people can be intrepid innovators, productive workers, enterprising entrepreneurs, active union members and valued consumers.  Young women and men are invaluable partners for social development, bringing creativity, enthusiasm and leadership to the table.  Permanent and profound damage is caused when their contributions are excluded.

Recommendations

The Youth Employment Network has begun to formulate a set of policy recommendations, the result of consultations and deliberations among the Network’s High-Level Panel, its technical members and its secretariat, which is composed of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Labour Office.  The recommendations aspire to launch a policy dialogue and to mobilize partners for action.  They call for:

-- Incorporating youth employment into comprehensive employment policies and stimulating broad-based employment-intensive growth as the best means to create employment for young people;

-- Backing up youth employment initiatives with strong institutions;

-- Ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality education and creating effective school-to-work transition pathways;

-- Bridging the gap between the informal sector and the knowledge economy;

-- Drawing on the creativity of youth to harness the employment potential of the information and communications technology revolution;

-- Exploiting the new opportunities opened up by the rapidly expanding service sector;

-- Helping young entrepreneurs to access the support they need, be it through easy-to-understand labour market information services or through help in setting up small businesses or through access to capital;

-- Responding to youth aspirations for a better future through job security, social protection, rights, and representation at work;

-- Creating an enabling international environment for the mobilization of financial resources and action on youth employment; and

-- Creating partnerships and networks locally and internationally.

Members of High-Level Panel

The following eminent persons have accepted the Secretary-General’s invitation to become members of the High-Level Panel of the Youth Employment Network.  It acts in an advisory capacity, providing its views and expertise on the proposed policy recommendations, as well as mobilizing public opinion and action for youth employment:

Saiduffin Abdullah (Malaysia, President of the Malaysian Youth Council); César Alierta (Spain, Representative of the International Organization of Employers and Executive President of Telefónica); Ruth Cardoso (Brazil, Chair of Comunidade Solidaria); Hernando de Soto (Peru, President of the Instituto Libertad y Democracia); Bill Jordan (United Kingdom, Secretary General of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions); Allan Larsson (Sweden, former Minister of

Finance and European Union Director General of Employment); Rick Little (United States, President of the International Youth Foundation); Maria Livanos Cattaui (Switzerland, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce); Geeta Rao Gupta (India, President of the International Center for Research on Women); Magatte Wade (Senegal, Director General of AGETIP-Senegal); Ralph Willis (Australia, former Parliamentarian and Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations); and Rosanna Wong (China, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups).

For further information, please contact:  Marie Heuzé, Director, UN Information Service, Tel: 4122-9172325, Fax: 4122-9170030, e-mail: mheuze@unog.ch; Tina Micklethwait, Deputy Director, Department of Communications,

International Labour Organization, Tel: 4122-7996602, Fax: 4122-7998577,

e-mail: micklethwait@ilo.org.

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