Kazakh youth post their priorities in the MY World survey during an outreach compaign organized by UNV Kazakhstan on International Youth Day 2013, Astana, Kazakhstan (Photo: Ji Hyun Yang, UN Volunteer/UNV, 2013)
people there live better in the long term. In Serbia, more jobs and decent employment was the highest priority among the 28,000 people consulted. Unemployed people (58 percent), rural populations (35 percent) and women (34 percent) top the list of people who see unemployment as a top priority for Serbia. In Kyrgyzstan, women from rural areas were more concerned with this issue than were other stakeholders across the country. In Azerbaijan, almost 1500 internally displaced persons interviewed as part of the national consultation see a lack of livelihood opportunities as the primary obstacle to achieving self-reliance from government subsidies. In addition to weak job prospects, people think unemployment is motivated by three other drivers: wages that are insufficient for a decent standard of living; poor working conditions that
might provide temporary work but ultimately result in unemployment; and, in some cases, outright discrimination in employment, particularly among Roma and other ethnic minorities. In Albania, young women and men see the ‘lack of meritocracy’ and ‘family and network nature’ of the private sector as preventing their access to jobs. A lack of trust in public employment offices was also raised as an issue, with several young people admitting that they do not even make an effort to seek employment in the public offices set up to assist people to find jobs. The consultations tell a story of how high unemployment not only excludes people from earning their livelihood, it also propagates poor working conditions and workplace rights violations. People in Armenia, Serbia and Tajikistan raised this issue during their national consultations; when jobs are scarce, men are more
96 A M i l l i o n V o i c e s: The World We Wan t | A Sus tain able Fu t ure w it h Digni t y f or All
willing to accept any working conditions, even those that exceed working hours or other regulations. People also draw attention to how high unemployment entrenches a cycle of inequality. They talk about how in some countries accepting poor working conditions and longer hours is usually not an option for women and, especially, young women, and is inconceivable for people living with disabilities. A call for better management of migration and population mobility emerged from many of the region’s consultations, with attention drawn in particular to the impact on women. Women in Azerbaijan, Moldova and Tajikistan talk about how they are the de facto heads of household when husbands migrate for work. In Kazakhstan, on the other hand, women make up over half of those who migrate for work, and in Serbia rural women migrate more often to