UN & Youth

 August 2004
 

ILO Calls For Action As Global Youth Unemployment Skyrockets To All-Time High 1

With youth unemployment worldwide skyrocketing to an all-time high, the United Nations labour agency on 11 August called for a combination of targeted and integrated policies to tackle the problem, thus significantly benefiting the global economy.

"We are wasting an important part of the energy and talent of the most educated youth generation the world has ever had," International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia said. "Enlarging the chances of young people to find and keep decent work is absolutely critical to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals."

These goals, set by the UN Millennium summit of 2000, call for achieving a set of specific targets by 2015, including halving extreme poverty and hunger and slashing child and maternal mortality rates.

Young people aged 15 to 24 represent nearly half the world's jobless although they are only 25 per cent of the working age population, and halving world youth unemployment rate would add at least $2.2 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) equal to around 4 per cent of the 2003 value, according to a new ILO analysis _ "Global Employment Trends for Youth 2004."

The relative disadvantage of youth is more pronounced in developing countries, where they make up a strikingly higher proportion of the labour force than in industrialized economies, the report says. Eighty-five per cent of the world's youth live in developing countries where they are 3.8 times more likely to be unemployed than adults, as compared with 2.3 times in industrialized economies.

But the problem goes far beyond the large number of young unemployed people _ 47 per cent of the total 186 million people out of work worldwide in 2003. The report says that young people also represent 130 million of the world's 550 million working poor who are unable to lift themselves and their families above the equivalent of the $1 per day poverty line. These young people struggle to survive, often performing work under unsatisfactory conditions in the informal economy.

The report puts global youth unemployment at 14.4 per cent in 2003, a 26.8 per cent increase over the past decade, with rates highest in the Middle East and North Africa (25.6 per cent), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (21 per cent), transition economies (18.6 per cent), Latin America and the Caribbean (16.6 per cent), Southeast Asia (16.4 per cent), South Asia (13.9 per cent), industrialized economies (13.4 per cent), and East Asia (7 per cent). The industrialized economies region was the only region where youth unemployment saw a distinct decrease from 15.4 per cent in 1993.

The report shows that the growth in the number of young people is rapidly outstripping the ability of economies to provide them with jobs. While the overall youth population grew by 10.5 per cent over the last 10 years to more than 1.1 billion in 2003, youth employment grew by only 0.2 per cent to around 526 million.

Policies to tackle the problem have been identified by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Youth Employment Network (YEN), a UN-World Bank-ILO partnership that pools the skills, experiences and knowledge of diverse partners at the global, national and local level.

 

UNAIDS and Youth 2

Young people are at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic - more than half of those newly infected with HIV today are between 15 and 24 years old. But they are also the world's greatest hope in the struggle against the disease. Educating young people about HIV and teaching them skills in negotiating, critical thinking, decision-making and communication, improves their self-confidence and ability to make informed choices and thereby avoid getting infected with HIV.

UNAIDS has piloted several initiatives to reach out to young people. Among these is an initiative with the National Cadet Corps which is one of the largest youth organizations in the country. The three-day camp brought together young cadets from each of the 16 Directorates of NCC to sensitize them on issues related to HIV/AIDS. The camp enabled them to assume leadership and act as peer educators on HIV/AIDS in their respective regions. With strength of over 1,300,000 cadets in the country the NCC can be a very effective organization to create awareness about HIV/AIDS.

To target in-school youth UNAIDS supported a Kathak Ballet "Chetna" to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS among 1800 Class 12 students from 20 schools in Delhi. The ballet pictured a story about a male and his wife who after the discovery of HIV positive states is disowned and discriminated against by the family and society at large. It is the wise counselling with clever narration of how HIV/AIDS is spread and "not" spread that finally helps the two to be taken back into the mainstream of society. After the ballet the students were invited to ask questions on HIV/AIDS to two resource persons and there was an outpouring of queries from the students: how does it spread? What is the government doing about it? How can you see if a person is HIV-positive? etc.

In another initiative to target the youth, UNAIDS in partnership with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and Vasant Valley School organized a consultation on Life Skills Education in schools in Delhi. At the consultation teachers, parents, school principals and students discussed success stories in Life Skill Education and developed a road map to take it forward in the involved schools.

During all the programmes it was clear that the young people want to acquire the knowledge and information to protect themselves and others and, furthermore, that many of them would like to take an active role in both prevention, care and reduction of stigma and discrimination.

 

UNHCR and Youth 3

Refugees are among the most vulnerable of peoples in the world. Forced to flee their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, they are unable or unwilling to avail the protection of their country. In some regions, refugees include persons forced to flee across international borders due to civil conflict, generalised violence and systematic violation of human rights in their countries of origin.

Approximately 17.1 million people worldwide are people of concern (refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees) to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR). In India, there are an estimated 200,000 refugees, mostly Tibetans and Sri Lankan Tamils. Of these, 11, 240 persons are under the mandate of UNHCR, the vast majority of whom are Afghan (9950 persons). The next largest group are the Mynamarese (1085 persons).

UNHCR New Delhi works closely with five implementing partners (NGOs) to fulfill its mandate in India. UNHCR's core mandate is protection: in lay terms, that is to ensure that refugees are not refouled (deported) to their countries of origin or to a place where their lives are in danger and that they are assured safety in the country of asylum. UNHCR New Delhi works with two legal implementing partners PILSARC (Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre) and SLIC (Socio-Legal Implementing Centre) and three implementing partners who provide assistance to refugees: the Voluntary Health Association of Delhi, the New Delhi YMCA and Don Bosco Ashalayam, who focus on refugee youth. (age group 18—35 years).

The Don Bosco Self Reliance Programme (BSRP) is a comprehensive skills building programme for the refugee youth. It aims to empower the refugee youth with vocational and life skills to become self-reliant. The programme began in January 2002 and has a plan to reach out to 2000 beneficiaries within a period of four years. The programme caters to three main groups of urban refugees namely the Indian Origin Afghans (Afghan Hindus & Sikhs), the Burmese and the Ethnic Afghans.

Programme Components

1. Vocational Skills Training: The programme offers various vocational courses. The students are admitted to these courses after understanding their aptitudes for these courses. The courses offered include Basic IT, English Language, Electrical Wiring, AC/Refrigeration, Web Designing, Programming, Desk Top Publishing (DTP), Office Management, Primary Teachers Training and Motor Driving. All the courses are of six months duration.

2. Short Term Certification Courses: Apart from the main vocational courses short-term certificate courses are conducted to prepare the students for specific jobs. These courses prepare the students for jobs like Receptionists, Sales personnel for branded show rooms, Office assistants, Stewards, Security guards and Counter Boys/Girls. Duration of these courses range form one week to one and half months.

3. Life Skills Training: It is a key component of the programme. It refers to the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. It is imparted through weekly sessions as part of the vocational training curriculum and tri monthly workshops conducted for a full day. It helps the refugee youth to face the problems and difficulties of daily life with a positive frame of mind. It encourages the refugee youth to unravel their hidden potentials.

4. Individual Accompaniment: It refers to the willingness of the staff to walk along with every programme participant like a sister/brother in facing the daily hurdles that would come up during the process of becoming self-reliant. The refugee youth has great appreciation for this approach as they feel it as great need to have a good guide in their journey through life.

5. Job Placement Support: The successfully trained candidates are assisted with job placement support in the informal sector to find suitable jobs in the market. It is done through networking with various employers and preparing the students for specific job requirements.

6. Post Placement support: After placing the candidates, employer's suggestions are asked to identify other skills required to enhance the competency of the candidates in the work place. The placed candidates are met on a monthly basis to add value to their existing skills and provide motivation to perform well in the workplace.

7. Income Generation Groups: Women form small groups to produce various saleable articles to increase the household income to support their livelihood needs. This is an option to women who are not willing to go out of their homes to find a work due to various constraints.

8. Open House Meetings: It provides a platform to the target group to voice and share their ideas, concerns, suggestions and problems regarding the programme. It brings us together like a family to listen to each other and share the concerns of all to arrive at consensus on improving the quality of the programme. The whole process improves the programme quality by eliciting better participation from the community. It is held in every three months at all the programme locations.

9. Programme Newsletter: Mitr _A friend is a quarterly newsletter of UNHCR-Bosco Self Reliance Programme. The purpose of Mitr- A friend is to act as a link between the urban refugees and to keep us informed about the various aspects of UNHCR-Bosco Self reliance programme. Its aim is to provide a platform for all the stakeholders to express themselves creatively. We chose the title Mitr to denote the companionship that binds us together.

10. Co curricular activities: Various co curricular activities are organized at a regular basis to increase the motivation of the programme participants to take learning seriously. Music, outdoor and indoor games facilities are provided in all the training centres. The various centres come together for various occasions like sports meet, inter area meet etc. to participate in various group events and competitions. These events are creatively organised to channelize the energy of the youth in the right direction.

 

UNIDO and Youth 4

As an important activity of the project titled, `Augmenting Youth Employment through Renewable Energy Entrepreneurship Development in India', the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) organized the National Workshop on `Renewable Energy and Employment Opportunities' at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 8-9 July 2004 in partnership with the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), and India Habitat Centre (IHC). There were 126 participants from Government agencies, civil society, private sector, donors and the Youth Employment Summit (YES) network. The uniqueness of this Workshop was the focus on linking employment initiatives with renewable energy development in the rural areas.

In his speech, Dr. George B. Assaf, UNIDO Representative and Regional Director, outlined the potential of Renewable Energy in creating more employment opportunities in the rural areas. He stressed that this approach is more in line with the new initiative of the Government of India, as expressed in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), to build rural infrastructure and create jobs for youth in rural areas. It would also contribute towards achieving Millennium Development Goals 1 and 7 on reduction of poverty & hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability, as well as the specific goals of UNIDO's Country Service Framework for India, the roadmap agreed with the Government of India for UNIDO's work in India. Concluding his speech, Dr. Assaf emphasized need to create partnerships between different stakeholders to promote youth entrepreneurship development programmes based on renewable energy technologies at the global, national, regional and local levels and thereby enhance opportunities for sustainable development.

Mr. A. M. Gokhale, Secretary, Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) stated that among renewable technologies available, only biomass energy has the highest potential to create more jobs. He added that this technology has been used by villagers across the world for centuries. Concluding his speech, he emphasized on the need to compile successful examples or case studies on the use of renewable energy and disseminate these experiences for wider application of renewable energy to other rural areas.

There were other informative and valuable presentations from civil society (YES Campaign, TERI, Winrock and others), academia (IISC, ASCI) and Government agencies (KVIC, TEDA, NEDCAP and MNES) and private sector (Wind Energy Associate). At the concluding session, as a consequence of deliberations in the Workshop, the following steps were outlined to map out future strategies and an action plan for the implementation:

· Document successful renewable energy initiatives and prepare a communication strategy for promotion of renewable energy thereby creating more jobs in rural areas

· Link up with youth organizations to create livelihood opportunities using locally available resources

· Submit action plans on the renewable energy to the Central & State Governments and civil society

 

UNFPA and Youth 5

Prepare adolescents for adulthood

In India, adolescents, who comprise nearly one-fourth of the population, have been identified as a core group in terms of influencing population stabilization in the country. This highlights the need to help them acquire knowledge, values and skills for making informed choices in life, especially related to their sexual behaviour. Special programmes have been designed in UNFPA's sixth country programme (CP6) to meet this objective.

§ Building life skills for facing future challenges

UNFPA has supported population education for nearly two decades. It now recognizes that adolescents also need skills for healthy living, reducing risky sexual behaviour and accessing health services. The emphasis is, therefore, on using interactive techniques for providing opportunities to adolescents to enhance their life skills, more specifically thinking, and social and negotiation skills to make informed choices. Capacities of adults working with adolescents and peer educators will be enhanced through use of the life skills approach with a focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. 

In Orissa, Balika Mandals (girls groups) were set up through the ICDS functionaries of the Women and Child Development programme for building life skills of tribal girls.

§ Integrating adolescent reproductive health in the school curriculum

Realizing that discussions on adolescent reproductive and sexual health (ARSH) with adolescents themselves can be facilitated by including it in the school curriculum, CP6 will support the efforts of the State Boards of School Education and the National

Open Schooling to integrate elements of ARSH in the curriculum.

§ Improving access to adolescent- friendly health services

Adolescents have several concerns and misconceptions on matters of reproductive health, which when not resolved, can affect their health and development. These needs can be addressed only through socially accepted services that are readily available and friendly to adolescents. CP6 will support pilot initiatives and strategies aimed at reaching out to adolescents to address their reproductive health service needs.

Young people have access to telephone counselling (located in the university or hospital system) for information on sexuality and reproductive health. Around 66% of the callers have sought information related to sexual and reproductive health concerns.