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Jun 13th, 2007 - 10:40:19 |
Kaanaeli Kaale
3,469 SACCOS already registered - Minister
Daily News Reporter in Dodoma
Daily News; Wednesday,June 13, 2007 @00:04
UNTIL May 31, this year, there were 3,469 registered Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOS), the Deputy Minister for Planning and Economic Empowerment, Mr Gaudence Kayombo, told Members of Parliament here yesterday.
Mr Kayombo said leaders and members of SACCOS groups have received management and operational skills from various state and private institutions. These include Rural Financial Services Programme and the College of Business Education.
The Rural Financial Services Programme has been active in ten regions of Mbeya, Ruvuma, Kilimanjaro, Rukwa, Dodoma, Morogoro, Iringa, Arusha, Manyara and Shinyanga. The programme is under the Prime Minister's Office.
Until June 1, this year, a total of 3,250 committee executive officers from 554 SACCOS groups and 157,800 members from 669 SACCOS groups had received adequate training in organising and running SACCOS groups, Mr Kayombo told the legislators.
He also said the Savings and Credit Co-operative Union League of Tanzania (SCCULT) was also busy training SACCOS leaders and members. The CRDB Bank had also trained 55 SACCOS leaders and members.
He said this fiscal year the state intends to set aside funds that would be spent on training SACCOS members and small-scale entrepreneurs around the country. The money would be channelled through the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives.
He was responding to a question raised in the House by Ms Jenista Mhagama (Peramiho-CCM), who wished to know the number of registered SACCOS groups in the country. She also wanted to know how the groups were benefiting from CRDB and NMB loans.
May 19th, 2007 - 05:05:44 |
Kaanaeli Kaale
Government committed to end youth unemployment
DAILY NEWS Reporter
Daily News On Saturday; Saturday,May 19, 2007
PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has said that the government is strictly engaged in working out strategies to solve the problem of youth unemployment in the country.
President Kikwete made the comments yesterday when he met representatives of a joint committee of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Dar es Salaam.
The president said the government was currently making use of its experts and worked out policies to grapple with the youth unemployment, which he said had the potentials to spark off a prairie fire if viable solutions were not sought.
“Unemployment among the youth is one of the priorities of our government. I am pleased to hear that the international community through UNDP and ILO has shown interest to support the government in addressing this problem,” said Mr Kikwete.
Mr Kikwete mentioned agriculture, livestock keeping and fisheries as areas with high job creation potentials. He reaffirmed that the government was striving to improve the sectors to enable a substantial number of youths to secure employment.
The president said that the government was also working closely with the private sector in the efforts to solve the problem.
May 4th, 2007 - 02:40:12 |
Kaanaeli Kaale
A REPORT ON NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT FORUM WEEK
VENUE: KARIMJEE HALL, DAR ES SALAAM
DATE :March 13, 2007
PARTICIPANTS : All the tripartite members
GUEST OF HONOR: Minister for Labour, Employment and Youth Development
The three days forum was on the first day held at Kilimanjaro Kempiski Hotel officiated by Prime Minister.
It was said that a National Youth Employment Policy (NYEP) is in final stages of formulation with a focus on vocational training and decent job creation so as help realise President Jakaya Kikwete’s one million jobs plan by 2010.
The Minister for Labour, Employment and Youth Development
Mr John Chiligati, made the declaration while officiating the National Employment forum week in Dar es Salaam. He said that the multitude of unemployed youths roaming streets in urban areas was a time bomb waiting to explode.
An employment creation policy and strategy being finalized are tailored at addressing the problem of youth unemployment with a focus on education as key to self-employment, the minister asserted.
It was further noted that the implementation of the NYEP needs the participation of other stakeholders including social and development partners.
At the forum, unemployment nightmare was referred to as a ticking time bomb that can be defused through collective and well-collected efforts. National Youth Employment Action Plan (NYEAP) is a blueprint to that effect.
The minister counselled the youth to stop being choosy about jobs and change their mindset aiming at getting white-collar jobs while disregarding the informal sector.
He also declared that they have fully participated in formulating the NYEAP which is based on 4Es, that is employability, equity, entrepreneurship and employment creation.
Jurgen Schwettmann, the International labour Organization (ILO) director in Dar es Salaam, congratulated the Ministry of Labour Employment and Youth Development (MLEYD) for formulating the draft NYEAP that was being discussed at the forum.
He declared that they are aware that the draft of National Youth Employment Action Plan has been developed from a long and extensive consultative process including multi stakeholder workshops on employment programming. Three workshops were devoted exclusively to youth employment programming with many youth groups involved.
The ILO is looking forward to a quick finalization of the action and thereafter its implementation during the next fiscal year.
Nevertheless, one seasoned journalist challenged the organizers about youth presentation saying ‘the bigger number here is old mean and women but there are very few young person; why?’ He remarked saying that was improper and they have to involve as many youths as possible in the future.
However, Juma Mwinshaha from Tanzania National Intuition for the Blind said many a times people with disabilities are denied their right and often they are not considered in decision making concerning various development issues.
Mwinshaha was also representing YES Tanzania said people with disability are human beings just like any other, so they need to be recognised and respected in the society as well as be involved in conferences and decision and policy making as every body else.
Prepared by
Pendo Paul Ndovie
Tanzania Media and Youth Development Association (TAMEYODA)
Apr 28th, 2007 - 07:22:08 |
Kaanaeli Kaale
YES Tanzania on Internation Women Day
YES Tanzania has commemorated International Women Day by introducing improved firewood stoves, tree growing for income generation and environmental conservation at Madale Youth Settlement Cooperative Society.
If such efforts initiated by YES Tanzania to sensitize women groups in Tanzania to use alternative source of energy bear desired fruits, each year the country would be able to save about 210,000 hectares of its potential forests.
The event supported by UNDP also saw the introduction of other activities such as an alternative to koroboi for lighting and cheap tractors for farming.
For a country like Tanzania, where Kerosene and firewood accounts for 98.2 percent of energy sources in its rural areas mainly for lighting, the introduction of alternative source of energy is increasingly becoming significant.
Available statistics indicate that 95.6 percent of households rely upon firewood collection in rural areas.
By the end of 2006, a total of 14 regions out of the 21 regions of Tanzania were experiencing acute wood fuel scarcity.
Over 77.1 percent of rural areas population use Kerosene wick lamp (koroboi for lighting), which is despite having poor quality and causing high pollution, Women have to spend considerable amount of money to buy kerosene for it.
Besides, unavailability of light at night risks women into various sources of house violence.
The ongoing trend of rampant cutting of tree has led to massive destruction of environment in 14 of the 21 regions of the Mainland Tanzania.
If the trend continues, it is very likely that Tanzania will experience acute wood fuel scarcity in a few years time.
So far women in these regions spend over 8 hours and walk 8 to 10 kilometers per round trip for fetching wood fuel. In the process of fetching wood fuel in the wilderness women are exposed to various forms of sexual violence and risks for being attached by snakes and wild animals.
Experts suggest that it is rather easier to preserve the trees we have in our forests instead of imagining to destroy them, hoping that the ones we plant now we will use them a few years later.
It is estimated that trees take between 40 and 100 years before they are harvested.
This is the major reason that led UNDP in collaboration with the ministry of Energy and Minerals to start working on strategies for ensuring sustainable and affordable energy services for household activities.
The fruits of such awareness have led them to initiate campaigns like cooking and lighting and for agriculture production.
Loina Sanga (26) a resident of Madale, at the outskirt of Dar es salaam City, explains that the use of alternative source of energy has helped her to cut down the usage of firewood from five bundles to one in one week.
She thanks YES Tanzania for sending them an expert who taught them to make their own firewood stoves that consume little firewood compared to the local one (Mafiga Matatu stove).
“YES Tanzania have really offered us the best gift, for we will really make good use of the facility given to us, “she says
After all, only seven percent of fire was used in the local firewood stoves (Mafiga Matatu), while 93 percent of it is lost.
She explains that unlike the local one that takes longer period before the food is ready, the modern firewood stove not only take shorter period before the food is ready but also serves as an oven since it can preserve the cooked food in the next 12 hours.
Another young woman who enjoyed the use of modern firewood stove Maria Sebastian; a member of Madale Youth Settlement Cooperative Society says that, ever since she learnt to use the facility, she felt relieved because she now has time for other activities.
“At past we used to spend great part of our time to search for bundles of firewood to save our need, now we simply need a single bundle for the whole week,” she says
Sebastian says that the modern firewood stoves came at the right time because now she will have time to engage in their sewing workshop,” She adds
While at past women had perfect knowledge of trees suitable for fuel, but now days women have regularly been associated with witch craft abuses simply because their eyes turned red due to excessive usage of unsuitable trees.
According to Bariki Kaale, each year a total of 42million cubic meters get destroyed by the public for firewood and coal usage.
He says that if the public will be sensitized on the use of alternative source of fuel, the country will be able to reduce the usage of about 210 million trees.
About 90 percent of energy used in the country depends on firewood and coal, therefore a total of 42million cubic meters spent each year for local firewood stoves.
“If all women decides to use modern firewood stoves, the firewood and coal usage will be reduced by half and therefore reach approximately some 21million cubic meters in a year,” he stresses.
Kaale wants the government to establish mechanism that would abolish firewood usage throughout the country so as to protect the remaining forests reserves from been depleted by those who look for firewood.
Unlike modern firewood stoves which do not use a large bundle of firewood, the old fashion one uses five bundles of firewood compared to the modern one which uses only a bundle.
Kaale believes that the strategy is achievable compared to the cost of planting trees that take while before they are harvested.
Apart from other advantages to the family, usage of modern firewood stoves will cut down the usage of trees for over 50 percent and also conserve environment and help the preservation of water sources.
He says only 8 percent of energy used in the country is oil, and 2 percent is electricity.
"Despite all that, only 1 or 2 percent out of the 10 percent of the population who consume electricity are in the village areas," he explains.
He adds: "That means about 99 percent of Tanzanians in rural areas still depend on firewood and kerosene as their source of energy,"
Although, the Country has extensively launched various campaigns to plant trees, the efforts can only help as plant as far as 12 million trees compared to massive loss of 210,000 trees each year.
“Through using modern firewood stoves, you will be able to save 210,000 trees each year,” he says them.
Normally a single hectare has the capacity to have as many as 1000 trees.
Kaale says that of recently, there have been unusual circumstances with regard to climate change in the country, the situation he addressed it as due to environmental hazards.
"Look, it has been raining unusual, and not periodical, this is something that we must learn so as to avoid the situation from happening in the future," he explains.
He says, unlike the past when it has been raining heavily, and at the proper rainy seasons, things are not the same now, for we have been experiencing rather short rains.
The campaign to use modern firewood stove reaped fruits in some parts of the country notably Lushoto as the tendency for women in the district to use the modern stoves has tremendously increased since then.
Efforts to educate women to use modern firewood stove has gone hand in hand with the knowledge to use alternative Kerosene wick lamp since the oil lamp has been blamed for various hazards to human healthy.
Phineas Magesa is an executive secretary of the association of solar energy in Tanzania:
He advocates that instead of women to keep using koroboi, it is time they should also consider to use a lamp that does not use kerosene.
The use of the lamp will adequately save foreign currency simply because; it uses farm products to manufacture it.
"You need simply a bit of cooking oil to enable your lamp function, it is the easiest and cheapest lamp compared to the one using kerosene," he says.
The experts warn that unless immediate steps to use alternative source of power is taken soon, most Tanzanian forests will be depleted due to such malpractices.
Mar 1st, 2007 - 08:37:30 |
Kaanaeli Kaale
Joining Forces with Young People: A Practical Guide to Collaboration for Youth Employment
A product of the Youth Consultative Group of the Secretary-General’s Youth Employment Network (YEN)
Preface
There are more than 1 billion young people aged 15-24 in the world today, and 85 per cent of
them live in developing countries. While for some, rapid globalization and technological change will offer new opportunities for productive work and decent incomes, millions of other youth across the world will face much bleaker prospects. Many risk failing to gain entry into the workforce. Discrimination, unless addressed, will make it even harder for young women to fully contribute to the development and growth of their nations. The vast majority of jobs available to youth could continue to be low paid, insecure, and with few benefits or prospects for advancement. Effective polices and programmes that address these concerns must be put in place if these scenarios are to be averted.
Increasingly, governments around the world are trying to determine what constitutes effective practices that work to improve the job prospects for the next generation. While the policies and programmes needed may vary from one context to another, one universal factor appears to be emerging: effective youth employment strategies involve young people.
Policy interventions addressing youth are nothing new, but in recent years there has been increased emphasis placed on identifying the right mix of actors needed for successful policymaking.
Although logic may suggest that in developing policies for young people, youth themselves, as the intended beneficiaries, should be a key stakeholder, unfortunately such logic has not prevailed in most youth employment policy initiatives. Often policymakers have committed to engage youth groups as partners but too frequently this has meant little more than 'consultation' leading to the formulation of strategies perceived as being 'what is best' for young people. Such policy-making has led to initiatives that have often failed to address the underlying concerns of young people and the causes of youth un(der) employment and have lacked the backing of youth.
The Secretary General’s Youth Employment Network (YEN) sees youth participation as central to its mandate of supporting Lead Countries in the development of National Action Plans on youth employment (NAPs). The YEN, in partnership with youth, has been seeking to change the prevailing thinking: Rather than viewing youth as a target group for which employment must be found, young people should be engaged as partners in devising solutions to a common problem. The YEN strongly believes that engaging youth in collective solutions for employment will add value to the policymaking process and the outcomes, as they have an essential understanding of their situation vis-à-vis the labour market.
In 2004, a number of major international and regional youth organisations mobilised themselves into a Youth Consultative Group (YCG) to advise the High-Level Panel of the YEN on how best to involve youth in its ongoing work and to explore, through their extensive networks, how to support active youth participation in youth employment policy development around the world.
It builds on their global work, including a review of youth participation in the development of the 41 NAPs submitted to the United Nations in 2006 and experiences in the YEN Lead Countries, the YCG in partnership with the YEN Secretariat, has produced this guide for youth to facilitate and motivate young peoples’ participation in youth employment policymaking. This guide is part of ongoing efforts by the YEN to systemise the substantive and meaningful engagement of young people in the development and implementation of youth employment strategies.
This publication might also provide guidance for other stakeholders, primarily governments, on engaging with youth, demonstrating the added-value of youth involvement through highlighting good practices on youth participation, empowerment and capacity building in relation to youth employment policymaking.
The first section of this guide provides a brief focus on the broader debate around why youth should be in engaged in the policymaking process, highlighting the main issues, debates and literature in this regard, including the questions of defining who youth are and how to ensure effective representation. This section will explore why a focus on employment is so critical for youth and the added-value their involvement in policymaking can bring.
The second section explores concisely the concepts of participation and empowerment, determining what is meant by these terms. This section will also explain the different levels of participation that can be achieved and identify the relevant tools and methods used by youth groups to achieve sustainable participation as well as by youth-serving organisations to build the capacity of youth and to empower them to participate effectively.
Furthermore this section provides detailed guidance on what youth can do to get involved in youth employment activities at different levels and will chart successes and challenges faced by youth involved in youth employment policy processes through a series of case studies.
The third section of the guide gives guidance to youth on how to go set up youth employment related projects. As well as practical tips this section highlights a number of successful examples of youth led employment related projects. Full profiles of over 30 projects can be found in Annex 1. This section also highlights ways in which the YENs Youth Consultative Group (YCG) can support youth organisations in setting up or scaling up these employment-related activities as well as helping them to better participate in policymaking processes.
The forth section of the guide catalogues a range of useful tools, resources and potential partner organisations which can assist youth organisations to participate more effectively in decision-making processes.
Whilst focusing specifically on the employment question the rationale behind this guide is to provide practical information and good practices on participation which could also help youth engage with decision-makers on a range of youth development issues.
The publication of this guide is in line with the commitment of the YCG to support both their constituents and other youth groups, through the provision of practical advice, tools and lobbying support, obtain their rightful place amongst those decision-makers responsible for the drafting and implementation of youth employment polices. This guide serves as a reflection of the YCG members own experiences. It is also an expression of hope on how the participation of young people in policymaking processes can go from strength to strength.
Introduction to the YEN and its Youth Consultative Group
The Youth Employment Network (YEN) was established in 2001 to give effect to the global commitment of “developing and implementing strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work”, resolved in the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000.
A partnership formed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the ILO Director-General Juan Somavia and the former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, the YEN brings together policy-makers, employers and workers, young people and other stakeholders to pool their skills, experience and knowledge in an attempt to find new solutions to the youth employment challenge.
The YEN is working with 20 “Lead Countries” to assist them in developing appropriate and effective National Action Plans on Youth Employment (NAPs).The YEN is also promoting young people as assets - as catalyst for development - rather than as passive beneficiaries for whom employment must be found.
At the YEN’s 2nd meeting of its High-Level Panel of experts and practioners in 2003, 13 youth organisations were invited to be full and active participants alongside members of the Panel, government delegations and senior staff from the ILO, UN and World Bank. They provided the meeting with their view as young people on the strategic objectives of the YEN and presented a proposal on their own involvement in the Network’s activities including the suggestion that a sustainable YEN youth advisory group be created.
This proposal was realised during the 3rd High-Level Panel meeting in September 2004 in Washington D.C., where representatives of international and regional organisations were formally constituted as a Youth Consultative Group (YCG) for the YEN. At the conclusion of this meeting the High-Level Panel welcomed the creation of such a Youth Consultative Group and underscored the importance of the YCG in its concluding remarks by recognising that ‘participation of youth organisations at all levels is essential to a successful implementation of the YEN mandate of supporting governments in the development of National Action Plans on youth employment’.
The YCG is working to realise two main objectives; at the global political level, the YCG works to represent the concerns of young people on the functioning and strategic priorities of the YEN through interaction with the HLP and other structures of the YEN. Here YCG acts as an advisory body to the YEN with regard to monitoring the participation of youth organisations within the YEN processes such that youth perspectives are sufficiently integrated into its policies and programmes.
At the national level, the YCG acts as a catalyst and resource to support youth participation in the development, implementation and review of National Action Plans (NAPs) in the YEN Lead Countries and beyond. The YCG works with different youth groups at the national level by providing practical advice, tools and lobbying support to help assist the effective and substantive participation of youth in the NAP processes.
The YCG consists of representatives of 13 youth organisations drawn from a wider pool of 30 organisations . These organisations are large membership-based, international or regional youth organisations and organisations with extensive constituencies and a global reach. The composition of the YCG aims to reflect the global spread and representation of youth organisations and include student organisations, political groupings, regional youth platforms and social partners. In order to ensure good representation of all regions of the world, the YCG member organisations have the mandate to regularly review the composition of the pool. The YCG strive to strike a balance within the group between developed and developing countries as well as relating to gender.
More information on the current work of the YCG, and the support that it can offer youth organisations interested in engaging in the issue of youth employment, can be found on page 50.
“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”
– Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
A: Why should youth be engaged in policymaking?
Introducing the issue
The past decade has seen a growing recognition of the importance of youth participation in decision-making, as successful efforts by Governments to engage youth have led to better policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. This, in part, has been driven by a growing consensus that youth participation is not only a demonstrated value - it is a political right. Public recognition of young people as key players in social development processes has been strengthened through the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the most widely ratified international agreement, which recognises that participation is a right of all children and young people.
“All children have a right to express their views and to have them taken into account in all matters that affect them.”
The right of youth to participate in policymaking process is also supported by a number of UN General Assembly Resolutions, including two specifically focussing on youth employment (see Box I).
Yet, far too often, the roles played by youth in these policymaking processes are minor and have a limited impact on influencing policy. Why? Youth continue to face institutionalised prejudice in many quarters that see youth as lacking expertise, intelligence, or drive. Despite the increase in the number and range of mechanisms to engage youth, young participants continue to see their roles undermined by governments and policymakers, consciously or unconsciously, based on these perceptions.
Youth participation must lie at the centre of the creation of policies for youth. Just as the recipient of any policy must be engaged to ensure their concerns are effectively addressed, youth are no exception. They must be viewed as partners in devising solutions to common concerns. Rather than being viewed as a problem or risk to be contained or solved, youth should be recognized as social actors with skills and capacities to bring about constructive resolutions to their own problems. Policy makers should not only invite young people into policy discussions but also listen and act upon their advice.
Þ The policy processes that have been most effective are those which have committed to empowering young people by working with them to allow their own experiences to inform the development of appropriate interventions and services For example UNAID/WHO report in their 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update that most of the reported progress in slowing down the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic could be attributed to successful youth programming.
Focusing on employment
The same patchy results with regard to youth participation in policymaking initiatives generally can be applied to the specific focus topic of this guide, “youth employment”. Whilst there is certainly no “one-size-fits all” solution to the complex and multifaceted challenge of youth employment as highlighted in Box II, the YCG sees the lack of substantive youth participation as a key factor contributing to flawed policy development over the years.
Þ It is clear that any proposed solutions to the youth employment challenge which do not take onboard the expectations, frustrations and aspirations of young people vis-a-vis the labour market, will struggle to meet the needs of youth.
In the Secretary-General’s report on the “Global analysis and evaluation of national action plans on youth employment”(A/60/133), the YENs YCG produced an analysis of the degree of youth participation in the development of these 41 plans, or progress reports towards plans, submitted to the UN. Their report highlighted only eight countries which mentioned the involvement of youth in their submissions. The evidence from these submissions indicates that:
- There are certain governments which take the involvement of youth organisations in youth employment policies seriously. This is demonstrated by the active involvement of youth organisations in the policymaking process through expressions of their views, testimonies and opinions on youth employment issues. This engagement, in cases, is an ongoing process facilitated through the creation of mechanisms, such as youth advisory groups or a youth ‘seat’ in national coordinating structures tasked with designing and implementing polices.
- There are also governments which have made some efforts to consult with youth organisations in the NAP process. This consultation, however, has often been passive in nature - through meetings and surveys that give youth the opportunity to offer their ideas and opinions but rarely involve them further in the policy process. They are not given equal standing with other stakeholders in defining policies on youth employment.
In drawing conclusions from this analysis, the YCG suggested that whilst it was evident that some Governments are meeting their commitment to involve youth in the development of National Action Plans, the majority of Governments do not involve youth in the preparation of youth employment policies nor in their implementation. These Governments continue to rely on stakeholder groupings that often exclude civil society actors.
As such the YCG recommends that significantly more effort must be made not only to promote youth employment as a central development issue for Member States, but also to ensure the active involvement of youth and youth organizations in policy development at all levels.
A number of country examples of youth engagement in youth employment policymaking processes can be found in Section B of this guide.
What is the added value of youth participation?
On a fundamental level it is clear that youth have the best understanding of the realities of their own lives (whether it is education, health or the challenges associated with finding a decent job) and as such have much to offer policy makers. Designing a youth policy involving young people themselves stands a much greater chance of success, as interventions will have greater ownership and legitimacy amongst youth. Ignoring this dynamic can have potentially negative consequences. (See Box III.)
Broadly speaking, youth participation encourages youth to become active members of a democratic society. By involving and empowering youth through the political process, young people develop important skills and improve self-confidence. They also gain a greater understanding of human rights and governance that is important in both newly formed and well-established democracies.
For youth themselves, active and fair participation in decisions affecting their lives provides hope and dignity, fostering a better understanding of community issues and a sense of inclusion and belonging. Such participation benefits governments, families, and societies as a whole by providing civic role models to other youth whilst counteracting the immense potential social costs that can be created through apathy, frustration and social exclusion of young people.
Youth are the future but also the present: demographic shifts in many developing countries mean that while youth constitute the majority of the population , they often represent some of the most vulnerable and most powerless. Given that youth represent such a demographic majority today, there is an increased pressure on policymakers to ‘get it right’ by and for youth. This is vital in order to meet their needs today, and also to create the right pre-conditions for their future impact on society as parents, civic leaders, employers, workers and politicians. In order to get it right, active and equal engagement with youth in these efforts is essential.
Finally and specifically relating to youth employment, by encouraging youth to become active participants in policy development they can become long-time advocates in the fight against un(der)employment, as concerned and youth-friendly employers and employees in later life.
What are the consequences of not involving youth?
Despite clear progress, too often still there is a failure or even a refusal to recognize the legitimacy of young people’s contributions to programmes, policies and decision-making.
Examples of these negative attitudes by policy-makers toward youth include:
· The perception that policy making is an activity that is for “experts” and not young citizens.
· Young people’s perceived lack of skills, expertise or knowledge.
· The existence of stakeholder attitudes which frustrate youth participation (consciously or unconsciously block it).
· Views of the roles of youth in society, especially patriarchal or highly stratified societies.
· Lack of knowledge and skills about how to increase involvement of young people in the institutions and decisions that affect their lives.
The consequences of not involving youth can range from the development of ineffective policy at the very minimum to more serious consequences for society as a result of the consistent exclusion or alienation of youth, especially in poorer countries.
With the former when youth and youth organizations are not consulted in the policymaking process, their needs are likely to be ignored or insufficiently addressed. With regards to the employment issue, there are several cases in which failure to seek youth input has resulted in serious consequences, as most recently seen in France (see Box IV).
With the latter, the exclusion of youth from policy making processes and power structures, whether deliberate or unintentional can create significant tensions in society which, through the symptoms of alienation and disenfranchisement can manifest itself in forms that can represent a serious threat to the social fabric, such as crime and violence.
In the worst cases a poor economic and social environment can foster conditions in which youth are manipulated by leaders who do not have their best interests at heart, and are recruited or forced into armed conflicts, not only within their own borders but also in neighbouring countries (see Box III).
Which youth?
Defining Youth
Internationally there is no generalized definition of the term “Youth”. According to the United Nations definition (United Nations, 1992), youth comprises young people aged between 15 and 24 years, a definition which will be used for the purposes of this guide.
However, countries vary considerably in their definitions of youth and childhood from as low as age 7 and ranging up to age 39 depending on cultural, social, economical and political factors. In general terms, youth can be defined as the stage in the life cycle before adult life begins, affected by factors such as the average age at which they are expected to play adult roles in the community.
In Uganda, for example, youth are those from 12 to 30 years, while in Nigeria and Bangladesh, they are between 18 and 35 years. The Youth Policy Act in India, for instance, defines the group it addresses as ranging in age from 15 to 35 years. This relatively wide age span suggests that the process of achieving an independent, self-sustaining livelihood can take a relatively long time, particularly in poorer societies.
As an illustrative example, in the course of 2005 and 2006, United Nations Volunteers (UNV) conducted a survey in 36 countries (see Table 1) to examine the status of youth and the potential for youth volunteering in Africa. The research results show how broadly definitions of youth range in Africa alone.
Table 1: Definition of youth by age range
Definition of youth Countries Total no.
15-25 Angola 1
15-35 Benin; Burkina Faso; Eritrea; Ghana; Lesotho; Mali; Mozambique; Rwanda; Sierra Leone; Tanzania; Uganda 11
15-30 Chad; Kenya 2
15-29 Ethiopia 1
14-24 Cape Verde 1
14-35 Gambia; South Africa 2
14-25 Malawi 1
14-30 Niger 1
16-30 Namibia 1
18-35 Guinea-Bissau; Madagascar; Nigeria; Senegal; Togo 5
10-29 Botswana 1
None Burundi; Comores; Congo; Guinea 4
No information Cameroon; DRC; Swaziland; Zambia; Zimbabwe 5
Total 36
Source: Data drawn from UNV country survey 2006
Ensuring Representation
Youth are not a homogenous group. They confront diverse realities. Differences in age, sex, experience, marital status, interests and preferences, family background, income and religion amongst others can create a wide gap between the wants, needs, aspirations and expectations of youth all over the world. The options and constraints they face vary widely as well.
Any policy focusing on youth must meet and be consistent with the cultural diversities of each society. The “Lisbon Declaration” recognises “that the formulation and implementation of strategies, policies, programmes and actions in favour of young women and young men are the responsibility of each country and should take into account the economic, social and environmental diversity of conditions in each country, with full respect for the various religious and ethical values, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions of its people, and in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Therefore it is important that young people participating in decision making represent those most affected by the decisions taken. Cultural sensitivities and traditions must be taken into consideration when trying to establish an atmosphere conducive to the involvement of all youth. This presents a challenge even for mainstream youth organizations trying to reach marginalized young people.
Successful youth policy depends on effective representation. All parties should be accountable both to themselves and their peers or representative networks; they must not act for an individual need but for the collective good. It is essential that all parties recognize the need for constructive cooperation and communication. The differing views and abilities of youth should be recognized and respected.
Youth representation in policy making should seek to guard against excluding the interests of disadvantaged youth, such as:
· The rural and urban poor who often lack access to education and health services, face deprivation and limited income-earning opportunities, and are at risk from exploitation;
· Adolescents who have dropped out of school, either due to poverty, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS or other factors, or because they are girls and therefore not expected to continue schooling;
· Pregnant adolescents, whether married or not, who are at high risk of pregnancy-related complications, including premature delivery, prolonged labour, and maternal mortality, including from unsafe abortion. In many societies, adolescents who are pregnant outside of wedlock can face severe social repercussions, including ostracism or even violence, at a time when they need support;
· The millions of married adolescents who may need support in family planning, parenting, employment skills, and continued education;
· Young single parents who often need help with child care, as well as other social supports
· Groups of young people who are HIV-positive, or at particular risk of HIV/AIDS, such as sex workers or migrant youth;
· Young refugees or displaced persons who may be deeply affected by the absence of role models, breakdown of social and cultural systems, personal traumas such as the loss of family members, exposure to violence or sexual exploitation, and the disruption of school and friendships;
· Racial, linguistic and ethnic minorities, including indigenous youth who may be discriminated against, marginalized and underserved, as reflected in their low health and educational status;
· Teenage boys and girls who live on the street, have been orphaned or abandoned, who are at extremely high risk, including that of sexual exploitation, and often have no access to social support;
· Young people with disabilities.
· Specific attention should also be paid to the fact that gender inequalities persist even within these sub-groups of youth
Source: World Youth Report 2003
National Youth Councils or similar structures can offer effective mechanisms to ensure substantive and representative youth participation in policymaking processes. A national youth council can be seen as a youth NGO platform uniting all the major youth and student NGOs in a country with the purpose of representing the views of youth in Government processes.
Over 100 Member States have such national youth NGO platforms, but many of them need to be strengthened and involved directly in the process of the preparation and coordination of youth related policymaking.
Furthermore the existence of a National Youth Council is not always a guarantee of adequate and effective youth representation. It is critical that NYCs be non-governmental and independent in accordance with the principles of open and democratic society. Unfortunately the ability of many NYCs to impartially represent the perspectives of youth are limited by their strong political linkages, such as having their funding solely come from the government and their being staffed from youth wings of the ruling political parties.
The European Youth Forum, a member organisation of the YENs Youth Consultative Group, which represents the interests of NYCs in more than 30 countries, believes that the independence of NYCs is essential for their legitimate functioning and in 2001 drew up the following list of rights and privileges for their effective functioning:
· The right to choose their own representative organisational structure, hereunder the right to decide upon its own statutes
· The right to elect its own leadership and representatives through democratic procedures,
· The right to determine composition of statutory bodies and working structures,
· The right to take decisions on issues of membership,
· The right to select its working methods, including the right to have closed meetings for its members only, to set its own agenda, determine frequency and dates of meetings, etc.
· The privilege of accountability only to its own members
· The privilege of financial support from government given freely without infringing upon the rights mentioned above
Source: 2001 European Youth Forum Paper on the Independence of National Youth Councils
In the formulation of the YEN Youth Consultative Group in 2004 the issue of representation was closely addressed. The YCG consists of representatives of 13 youth organisations drawn from a wider pool of 30 organisations (see pages 5 and 6). These organisations decided amongst themselves which 13 organisations would represent the wider group – this was not imposed by the YEN or its High Level Panel. The process of selection took place at a meeting where the wider group was present and the composition of the YCG was determined to reflect the global spread and representation of youth organisations and include student organisations, political groupings, regional youth platforms and social partners.
In order to ensure adequate representation, the YCG member organisations have the mandate to review the composition of the pool on an ongoing basis and have the ability both to replace organisations which are unable to meet their commitments and also include new youth structures which meet the commonly agreed membership criteria (see box V. below). The YCG also strives to strike a balance within the group between developed and developing countries as well as relating to gender.
“We must not allow for there to be a ‘hope gap’, where youth fall into a cycle of unemployment and start to believe they will not emerge from it, Young people’s involvement in finding solutions to unemployment is essential, and for that involvement to exist, the hope for a decent job must be kept alive.”
- Juan Somavia ILO Director General
B: Engaging with Youth
1. Youth Participation and Empowerment
1.1 What do we mean by this?
The World Youth Report 2007 defines effective youth participation and its related aspects as follows:
“Youth participation is the active and meaningful involvement of young people in various aspects of policy and programme development. When effective, the engagement satisfies the right of young people to participate in their own development, makes productive use of their perspectives and experiences, and fosters respectful exchanges in which both youth and non-youth stakeholders increase their understanding of each other’s abilities and limitations.
Effective youth participation represents a progressive look on the role that young people play in society. Young people are no longer seen as passive recipients, the root causes of society’s problems, or solely victims of social and political forces. Instead, youth are seen as stakeholders in society, with vested interests and contributions, and deserving in the share of power to make decisions at all levels. There are several reasons behind this paradigm shift that serve to highlight what is at stake with meaningfully involving young people in decision-making”. (UNDESA, 2007)
The UN Programme on Youth/DESA defines empowerment as a process of capacity-building needed to partake in society. Youth empowerment means participation in decision-making, and also the participation of young men and women in society, through access to education, employment and health, as well as to resources, such as land or credit. Empowering young people means allowing them the opportunity to make decisions that affect their lives.
This publication will focus on political participation which relates to influencing local, regional, national and international policy.
1.2 Understanding Different Levels of Participation
When talking about participation it is important to look closely at the quality of participation - quality is measured not only by its scope, such as the number of young people who are invited to participate, but also by its quality. Participation quality is evident when people have some effect on the process, influence a particular decision, or produce a favourable outcome.
The UN Programme on Youth/DESA has identified different levels of participation (see Box VII.). The higher the level of participation, the more control, influence and responsibility young people will have on the outcomes. There is a difference between ad-hoc and structural participation. Ad-hoc refers to participation of a time-bound or finite nature while structural participation signifies a more continuous involvement over a longer period of time. There is also a difference between direct and indirect participation. Direct participation implies direct contact with the decision-making person or body. Indirect participation refers to having one’s opinion represented by someone else, for example a youth council or youth worker.
Young people can decide themselves on which level, and in what ways, to participate, although the choice will probably be dependent on the willingness of the organization and its representatives to listen to youth. Ideally governments, international organizations and national organizations should support young people in their endeavours to obtain resources for comprehensive youth empowerment programmes. However, cultural differences, unfamiliarity with youth issues, or a lack of understanding can be reasons preventing youth from reaching a high level of participation.
The problems arise when young people are unnecessarily or arbitrarily prevented from participating at a level that they desire, or if their participation is masked as being at one level when it is really at another. Both of these limitations undermine youth development, generate resentment and erode their sense of self-worth.
2. Tools and Methods
Whilst it is clear that youth participation is vital in order to ensure that policies affecting young people’s lives adequately represent their needs and concerns, to ensure that youth organizations maximize their capacity for participation, there may be a need to make use of some key tools and methodologies.
These strategies can be employed either to push decision-makers to agree on youth participation processes in the first place or to improve the quality of existing participation mechanisms in order to reach the required levels of participation as referenced above.
These tools and methods can be grouped into three broader clusters which can be equated to the ideal stages of evolution of any youth participation strategy. The above mentioned levels could occur within any of the following stages.
Getting a foot in the doorLobbying and campaigning for social change. RecognitionPartnershipParticipation
Getting into the roomPartnership and networking models for successful youth participation.
Getting a permanent seat at the tableCapacity building and skills development to participate effectively and to create sustainable partnerships.
2.1 Advocacy and Awareness Raising
In general, advocacy can be defined as a process of trying to effect change in policies, practices, attitudes, beliefs or actions through influencing people and/or organizations that are in positions of power. Advocacy directed purely at political structures is also called lobbying.
Advocacy differs from awareness raising (see below) in that it is aimed at influential people (as opposed to the general public).
Methods of Advocacy
• Governing structures vary a lot between countries, but usually there are a few different layers. This may include a local or municipal level, a state or provincial level, a national level and maybe even a regional level. Try to target efforts towards the right level of government. Find out which level deals with the issue that is being advocated towards. Engagement may rely on a sequential process, where for example, local government may need to be targeted and their support gained, before attempts are made at reaching out to key decision-makers.
Þ In relation to youth employment, municipalities can offer strong entry points for youth, where for example, youth work programmes could be linked into the delivery of municipal services (see the YES Brazil example in section D of this guide).
• There is often a high turnover in government departments, especially in the Foreign Service where civil servants are frequently sent abroad. Try to keep a paper trail, which is a copy of correspondence or notes on interactions. This way, those bureaucrats arriving in new posts can be quickly updated on the project background and any agreements made with their predecessors.
Þ In relation to youth employment maintaining a good report of correspondence is critical as often the responsibility for this issue can be spread across a number of Government Ministries (Labour, Youth, Education etc).
• Remember that there is a difference between elected officials (short-term elected positions) and those who work in the civil service (career civil servants with continuity). Cultivating relationships with both of these types of government actor is critical to raising awareness and understanding of youth issues from the side of political decision-makers.
• Try all methods of communication; written correspondence, phone calls and face-to-face meetings are all good options.
• Be persistent, but be polite. If a person does not address enquiries, ask if they know the right person to contact about a particular issue. Always thank a contact person for their time and be prompt in any follow-up.
• Many countries have a Permanent Mission to the United Nations. If contacting a government about an issue related to the work of the United Nations, it may also be worthwhile to inform the representatives for that country’s Mission.
Adapted from the UN Programme on Youth/DESA WPAY Toolkit
Awareness Raising
Beyond advocacy work which is often directed exclusively at governments, awareness raising and campaigning can have an equally important role in assisting youth to undertake a successful participation strategy. Successful campaigns can take on a variety of forms, yet most employ some of the following methods:
· Phone-ins to radio stations
· Letter writing campaigns
· Distributing information packages to officials and the media
· Protests with media coverage (perhaps using celebrities)
· Boycotts
· Organisation of focussed fora tied to key political activities such as elections
· Mobilising of members of parliament to champion issues
· Use of the legal system
· Joining committees or groups
· Training officials
· Writing press releases
· Conducting media interviews
· Talking and networking with others
Adapted from the UN Programme on Youth/DESA WPAY Toolkit
Advocacy and Awareness Raising (Lobbying and Campaigning) for Youth Employment
Youth organizations in some countries have been the driving force behind encouraging governments to commit to development of youth employment policies. Active youth have mobilised to convince government officials at the highest levels of the rationale of becoming Lead Countries of the YEN, including in Georgia, Iran, Nigeria, Namibia and Rwanda (see page 21).
In countries where the issue of youth employment is of critical public concern, but the national government (both the legislative and executive functions) or other key decision makers, such as parliamentarians, have yet to commit to comprehensive strategies to improve employment outcomes for their nation’s youth, or have existing weak commitments, young people have a vital role to play in pushing for a change in attitude and motivating their decision-makers to take action.
Getting governments and other decision-makers to act upon existing national or international commitments (see Box IX.) or to sign up to new commitments on youth employment should be a central aim of youth organisations in partnership with other active social groupings including youth serving NGOs, civil society organisations (CSOs) focusing on vulnerable groups in society, supportive parliamentarians, National Youth Councils etc. This can be done in a number of ways:
1) Work in partnership with National Youth Councils, where they are representative of youth, and sufficiently independent of government (see the discussion on page 12/13), and with other youth partners, to arrange meetings and establishing contacts with the Ministries of Youth, and of Labour or their equivalents, bringing copies of all relevant documentation. Access to ministers could be sought with CSO partners or supportive parliamentarians. These meetings can be used to alert government to their commitments to develop a National Action Plan on Youth Employment under UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/57/165 on promoting youth employment and any other international mandates.
Þ Two new tools are available to assist in NAP development: Firstly the YEN Secretariat’s Resource Directory for Lead Countries of the YEN and secondly the ILOs Guidelines for the development of National Action Plans on youth employment. Section D of this publication provides information on these two products.
2) In the development of youth employment strategies governments may not always need to start from scratch - there may be existing policies or those under development, such as a National Youth Policy or a National Employment Policy in which a youth employment focus or strategy could be specifically highlighted and strengthened.
Focussing on existing processes or policies targeted towards youth may get more traction than lobbying for completely new processes. Furthermore, adding to an existing national policy provides a strong national mandate for action on youth employment where none may have previously existed.
To distinguish youth employment from all the challenges governments may be facing, it should be presented as a key entry point in the fight against poverty and social instability. We cannot seriously talk about halving poverty by 2015 (Millennium Development Goal #1) without talking about jobs and employment creation. Lead Country governments recognise this - President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal calls youth employment a ‘matter of national security,’ and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda cites effective youth employment strategies as vital in his country’s aim to become a lower middle income country by 2020.
3) Ask governments for a national consultation on youth employment or to set up a commission to study the problem which would bring together relevant government ministries (youth, labour, education and finance etc) with representatives of international institutions and bilateral agencies, academic institutions, workers and employers groups, civil society, and of course, youth. The benefits of such a multi-stakeholder consultative process or commission are that they enable all key national actors to be engaged and they allow for a much more holistic and inter-connected approach to youth employment policy development. Furthermore youth organisations could push for a commitment by the government to empower these commissions with policy drafting authority.
4) Offer, in partnership with other youth organizations, to run a survey of youth aspirations which could feed information directly from youth into national policy developments. Such a survey could serve to help governments better understand the needs of youth and help link any policies developed more closely to the real situation of youth in the labour market.
5) If the government seems unwilling or unable to move on this issue then youth organizations and civil society groupings can push for change through the launch of a national campaign. This could involve mobilizing youth across the country to start a letter writing campaign to ministers or holding meetings to raise awareness amongst youth where government officials are invited to attend. Youth organisations could work with other stakeholders to lobby government through supportive parliamentarians or celebrity figures in the country. Certain countries, such as Uganda, have youth parliamentary structures, in which youth are engaged and encouraged to act as champions in the legislature, through such activities as the creation of a parliamentary caucus on youth employment or through the sponsoring of bills specifically related to the issue. Municipal councils and other local government structures also offer avenues for youth to assert their rights in relation to employment. YMCA Columbia for example has a deliberate strategy to put youth representatives forward as local councillors in municipal elections, drawing support from the young populations in many of the poor urban areas were they work. As such they have been successful in one district of Bogota where a YMCA member is now a councillor and works directly with youth to fight injustices together and teach other youth the importance of asserting our rights as political beings
6) If young people are passionate about the issue of youth employment but are struggling to gain voice and recognition as individuals in their country then a solution may lay in either joining or starting a youth organisation. Membership based youth organisations offer an effective platform to join with others to mobilise support and resources for campaigning on youth employment issues.
Operating as part of a legally registered entity also may enable youth to access existing government resources and consultative processes and / or approach international institutions including the United Nations and its specialised agencies, the World Bank and bilateral development partners for advice and possible political, technical and financial support.
Youth may wish to join or start a youth NGO working specifically in the field of youth employment. The Youth Employment Summit (YES), a partner organisation of the YEN, is one such organisation dedicated to the issue of employment. YES has over 80 operational YES Country Networks - youth run initiatives that facilitate the collaboration of strategic in-country stakeholders who share the YES Global Campaign vision, mission and goals. The YEN is working to include YES country networks amongst the youth consultative structures being set up in a number of its Lead countries (see below and pages 23-28). For more information on how to join a YES Country Network or set up on where none exists, visit http://www.yesweb.org
Already youth have done much in both the YEN Lead Countries and other nations to raise awareness of the issue of youth employment and to push governments to meet their UN commitments. Youth organizations and individuals have gained increased access to governments and policy-makers through the Network and have begun to provide youth inputs into the various National Action Plan development processes, as called for in UN Resolutions 57/165 and 58/133. Their involvement is leading to increased voice and acceptance for youth in policy initiatives on youth employment. Some of these examples are listed below:
Georgia, Iran, Namibia, Nigeria, and Rwanda: youth as the catalyst to action
Youth organizations in these five countries have been the driving force behind encouraging their governments to become Lead Countries. Indeed these countries joined the network primarily through the lobbying work of active youth, who armed with the facts presented strong cases to senior officials in their countries and convinced their governments of the urgency of action on youth employment and of the benefits of joining the Network. In Georgia it was an active member of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement, a member organisation of the YEN’s YCG. In Iran and Rwanda it was the country co-ordinators of the international civil society organisation and YEN partner, the Youth Employment Summit Campaign (YES). In Nigeria it was largely the result of persistent lobbying by a young woman who runs an NGO focused on promoting leadership and professionalism in Nigerian youth.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: campaigning to turn commitments into action
YWCA-Congo has been leading an extensive lobbying campaign on the issue of youth employment since 2004. YWCA-CONGO has also reached out to a number of youth organizations to form a national coalition on youth employment which has continued to lobby the Congolese Government to move on its commitment as a YEN Lead Country and to develop a NAP as well as sensitizing a wider range of national stakeholders to the need for urgent action on youth employment.
The coalition has been reaching out to relevant stakeholders via print media and radio, though seminars, and through a recent survey on youth attitudes to work. Specific activities have included an interview on youth employment and the YEN on Radio Okapi, the radio station of MONUC; the United Nations Mission in Congo; and articles in a number of the national newspapers and magazines on YWCA-Congo’s efforts to push for the development of a NAP.
Following these efforts the coalition, led by the YWCA-Congo, have met Government officials to discuss the possibility of Congo developing a NAP and as a result of these interventions, youth employment has risen up the political agenda in DRC. Most recently the YEN’s Core Agencies – the ILO, the UN and the World Bank’s offices in DRC have come together to develop a joint project on youth employment to provide support to the Ministry of Labor in developing a NAP. The youth coalition has pledged its active support to this proposal and the NAP process.
Ghana: lobbying for a national focus on youth employment
Ghanaian youth led by the YES Country Campaign have been carrying out a major advocacy and lobbying campaign to alert the government of Ghana to the importance of the youth employment issue and to highlight the need for a comprehensive youth employment strategy for the country. They have also been urging the Government to step forward to join as a Lead Country of the YEN. This campaign has involved a series of events and meetings with youth organisations, the World Bank and the UNDP, as well as awareness raising activities with the media, including an article in a national newspaper.
South East Europe: Working with media to boost youth employment
The Citizens Pact for South East Europe, a group of NGOs and municipalities, and EXIT, the largest music festival in southeast Europe, sponsored a joint campaign at its 2006 event to boost employment opportunities for youth. The MTV Foundation and the ILO’s Youth Employment Programme supported the campaign to increase public awareness of youth employment as a key development issue. Youth led activities during the festival included workshops on skills development and information sessions about the dangers of trafficking alongside tools and skills required to seek decent work opportunities. The youth wing of the Serbian General Workers Union also carried out information sessions and distributed documentation on workers rights. According to estimates of the National Employment Office, young people make up one-third of all unemployed people in Serbia.
2.2 Partnerships and Networking
Partnerships are formed when different people or organizations work together to achieve a common benefit or purpose to maximise impact and efficiency.
Determining the organizations and groups with which to build partnerships will depend upon the specific needs. It is useful to revisit what the project aims are, and what are the needs of the communities in which the project will work. In looking at the issues worked on, what are the existing opportunities and challenges? Some possibilities for partnerships include:
· Working with the government to change policies and laws or encourage the government to provide community services.
· Working with the business sector to capitalize on their skills (such as marketing or management) to improve the quality of the projects or to encourage the business community to take on social leadership roles.
· Working with religious organizations to provide community services or influence social attitudes.
· Working with the media to raise more awareness on important issues or reach a wider audience.
· Working with other NGOs to reach vulnerable communities, provide more services, share knowledge and skills, garner more influence, or broaden successful pilot projects.
· Working with Members of Parliament to raise awareness of issues in the Legislature
Key features of partnerships include:
· Mutual dependency in sharing risks, responsibilities, resources, competencies and benefits;
· Working together under a process of shared decision-making and problem-solving;
· Voluntary formation based on choice, not on regulation and coercion;
· Joining of forces where the sum of the results of the partners working together is greater than the sum of the partners working individually;
· Providing access to new information and ideas, to knowledge and skills, and to increased financial support and political leverage.
Some examples of partnership models are outlined below:
· Getting involved in reviewing existing legislation and policies on youth employment and make views known.
· Coming together with other youth or youth organisations to articulate experiences and concerns, develop campaigns for the realization of youth rights, and lobby for the necessary changes at all levels.
· Taking advantage of the increasing opportunities to elect or be elected by peers to serve as an advocate, working with institutions to lobby for youth employment issues.
· Defining structures, policies and priorities for action through the growing number of youth-led organizations throughout the world.
· Seeking out training as youth journalists, run radio programmes, develop video tools for the promotion of youth employment issues and/or publish journals and newsletters.
· Participating in local, national and international conferences as organizers, speakers, delegates and/or rapporteurs, in order to impact on such events.
· Participating in the development of democratic political structures that parallel those of elders and provide opportunities to inform and influence key economic, social and political agendas.
Youth advisory structures
There are many different examples of structures to support the formal involvement of young people in decision-making processes. Their structure and composition depends on different contexts and as such no single model can be applied exclusively. Nevertheless, the basic involvement of young people should always take into account the aspects of representation and sustainability. Box XI highlights some key criteria for youth consultative structures based on the work of the YENs and its YCGs with youth groups in some of its Lead Countries.
Partnership for youth engagement in employment policy-making
Following successful campaigns, especially in the YEN Lead Countries, some youth organizations have managed to get a foot in the door and persuade decision-makers in their countries to institutionalise mechanisms for youth participation in the development of employment polices. Youth advisory structures have been set up in several YEN Lead Countries and have provided essential input and an increased voice from youth during the policy formation process (see box XI and examples below).
Furthermore, youth organisations have formed partnerships beyond the government in Lead Countries to assist them in generating solutions to youth employment challenges faced by their members and partners. These include:
· Working with the business sector to set up initiatives to help youth gain valuable skills and employability.
· Working with NGOs and faith-based organizations to help spread awareness in local communities of the youth employment challenge and resources available for youth.
· Engaging parliamentary officials to address the youth employment challenge through policy and law.
· Working with bilateral and multilateral institutions to reach vulnerable communities, provide more services, garner more influence, and/or broaden successful pilot projects on youth employment.
Involving worker’s and employer’s organisations in policy-making and programme implementation is likely to increase the effectiveness of such policies. It helps ensure a commitment on the part of employers’ and workers’ organisations to successfully design and implement programmes, which will enhance effectiveness and improve quality.
In recent years youth employment has become a policy priority for employers’ organizations and trade unions alike. The policy prescriptions advocated by the social partners at the national level may differ, but there is a common concern about the socio-economic costs of joblessness and un(der)employment among young people. As actors in the labour market, employers’ and workers’ organizations have responsibilities to youth. In addition, they have a key role to play in the design and implementation of policies and programmes conducive to decent work opportunities for young people.
Some of these partnerships have been highly successful, whilst some have faced significant challenges. Some of these examples are listed below to give guidance and frank advice to youth organisations wanting to embark upon partnerships for youth employment.
Azerbaijan
In 2004 more than 20 youth NGOs and other civil society organizations, led by the Azerbaijan National Assembly of Youth Organizations (NAYORA) formed a Youth Employment Coalition of Azerbaijan (YECA). The coalition worked with the Government, including the Ministries of Labour, Education and Youth, workers’ and employers’ organizations and other stakeholders to provide youth inputs into the development of National Employment Strategy (NES) by the Government of Azerbaijan. They collected perspectives on youth needs in a NES from young people in all regions of the country, which where prepared in a report that was submitted to the Government. In November 2004, NAYORA held a youth conference entitled “Challenges and Opportunities facing Young People in Azerbaijan”, to highlight these youth priorities and contribute to strategies for improving the lives of young people.
Successes: Mobilisation of youth groups into an effective lobbying body. One of the key members of YECA the YES Country County has been successful in lobbying the Government to host the next YES global summit in Baku in 2008.
Challenges: The coalition has been weakened by delays – the National Employment Strategy took over one year to be endorsed by the government (end 2005). The YECA has no official standing status within the NAP process and this has meant there is no mechanism through which to leverage support to operationalise youth recommendations.
Current status and lessons learned: Given time delays and the lack of mandate the coalition has become less operational over time and has been unable so far to lobby effectively for the explicit development of a Youth Action Plan with the NES.
Brazil
In response to the challenging situation of youth in the Brazilian labour market, the Federal Government, in June 2003 launched the “First Job” Programme (Programa Nacional de Estímulo ao Primeiro Emprego – PNPE) to promote youth employment through providing employment related skills and training to poor and inexperienced youth and through a wage-subsidy scheme in partnership with Brazilian employers. The program is being implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MTE), in collaboration with other ministries, state and local governments, businesses, employer’s and worker’s organizations, and local NGOs.
Following this example many other ministries started to develop youth employment programs including the Ministries of Education and Agrarian Development. In 2004 the Federal Government created an inter-ministerial Working Group on youth to identify synergies between all national youth employment programs.
In late 2005 the Federal Government created two important instruments: The National Youth Secretariat (linked directly to the Federal Presidency) and the National Youth Council.
The National Youth Secretariat is responsible for leading the process of design and implementation a National Youth Policy in partnership with relevant line ministries and The National Youth Council (NYC), an advisory mechanism that has 2/3 of its members from youth civil society. The National Youth Secretariat is also implementing the “ProJovem – National Program of Youth Inclusion” that aims to give professional training to poor youth and a monthly stipend of US$ 45 for one year so they can finish school.
Furthermore, and underscoring the strong national focus on youth, a “special commission for youth public policies” has been set up within the Brazilian Congress and in partnership with the Government and the NYC, this “special commission” coordinated a national discussion, involving all social actors, that led to the development of a “Youth Statute” and a “National Youth Plan”. Together, these two mechanisms will ensure the rights of youth are emphasized in future national legislation and will define the challenges and goals of Brazil in the next 10 years. These two mechanisms are now with Congress waiting to be voted upon.
Successes: The Brazilian government, Congress and civil society are mobilized and committed to the youth issue, especially with regard to youth employment promotion.
Challenges: The Congress has yet to approve the “Youth Statute” and “National Youth Plan”. Only when these two mechanisms become state policy will the rights of youth be considerably strengthened. Brazil will only overcome the challenge of the youth unemployment if the country economy grows more and grows in a way that creates more and better jobs. Strong political leadership is needed to ensure this.
Current status and lessons learned: The presence of an officially recognized National Youth Council strengthens the opportunity for youth to provide substantive input into policy responses to the youth employment challenge in Brazil. It is now recognized that solution to youth employment will only come through synergy with other policies, especially those relating to education.
Indonesia
Indonesia launched its National Action Plan (I-YEAP) in 2004. Feeding directly into this drafting process were the findings of two ILO led activities in 2003: a series of Youth for Youth consultations and a school-to-work transition survey. In the youth consultations, covering 3 provinces, more than 400 young Indonesians were given the opportunity to express their views and to get actively involved in the Indonesia-YEN (I-YEN).
The survey carried out by the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration (MoMT) with the support of the ILO interviewed 2,180 young people between the ages of 15-24. The key findings have fed into the development of a Career Guidance Manual for the use by secondary and technical schools in pilot regions and A Pocket Guide for Youth Seeking Work, the latter providing young Indonesians with information on how to profile themselves for work and what to do to seek work.
Successes: Effective generation of both quantitative and qualitative data on the situation of young Indonesians in the labour market.
Challenges: Low levels of youth participation achieved. No formal youth consultative mechanism created.
Current status and lessons learned: see page 34.
Egypt
In early 2006, the YEN in partnership with the GTZ, and with the support of the ILO and the Egyptian government, conducted jointly with youth organisations a Workshop on Youth Employment for 30 Egyptian youth
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