Youssef Chahed, Head of Government

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

www.Kiva.org and www.lendwithcare.org, through online loan schemes.In 2011, the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Youth Investment found that “less than one quarter of one per cent of loan portfolios of finance providers are directed to those under the age of 30…” That figure has doubtless improved, but in a recent PCI survey, 91% of youth reported that access to capital is the biggest obstacle for them trying to start a new enterprise or move into productive self-employment. In the history of youth job creation, access to finance is a challenge that never goes away.

Over-arching all these initiatives is the UN system’s work on youth job creation. From UNESCO’s Education for All and youth training programmes, to UNEP’s Green Economy initiative, almost every UN agency is doing something to help youth into what the ILO calls “decent work.” The ILO is the UN’s lead agency on youth employment, and its Global Employment Trends for Youth (GET Youth) publication 6 updates, every two years, global youth employment statistics.

GET Youth is an essential reference work for all in this field. The ILO also runs the Global Initiative for Decent Work – agreed by the heads of all UN Agencies in February 2016. Guy Ryder, ILO Director General, said, in launching the initiative: “In low-income countries, nine in ten young workers remain in informal employment which is sporadic, poorly paid and falls outside the protection of law.

This initiative will make full use of the expertise of participating UN entities and focus on “green jobs” for youth, quality apprenticeships, digital skills and the building of “tech-hubs” to promote youth entrepreneurship and support young people facilitate transition from the informal to the formal economy.”

6 See page 111.

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

The other big beast in the international Youth Job Creation field is the World Bank’s Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) initiative – a coalition of private sector, government, and third sector thought leaders who work together to “link, leverage and learn” solutions to the global problem of youth unemployment. Founded in 2015, it has published several valuable reports and analyses.

One of these, a Systematic review of 113 World Bank and IFC Youth Job Creation Projects, drew attention to the need for the Systems Approach we seek to promote in the Global campaign.

The Report stated:

We find strong evidence that programmes that integrate multiple interventions are more likely to succeed because they are better able to respond to the different needs of beneficiaries. Entrepreneurship training combined with access to finances provide best impacts. A combination of complementary interventions, such as training with job search, placement assistance in partnership the private sector, personal monitoring and follow up of individual participants, has more positive effects than isolated interventions. In countries with a strong, formal jobs sector, programmes that smooth the transition from school to work with work-based skills development are the most effective. In rural low-income areas, where youth are active in agriculture and non-farm self-employment, stimulating rural agribusinesses markets is effective Temporary wage subsidies paid to employers to hire youth and teach them with higher-level skills has positive employment impact. Depending on design, and matching skills delivered to employer’s needs, skills training can improve youth’s

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

employment prospects. The report also pointed out interventions that are less effective: Employment services interventions appear to deliver the weakest outcomes. In labour-abundant, low-income countries with weak institutions e.g. in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, interventions targeting formal employment may be regressive.

The report also lays out Key Policy Considerations which, like those identified in the Economist’s 2013 issue on ‘Generation Jobless’7are still highly relevant today: More than 50% of investments / interventions in our analysis are supply side measures but public investments must be based on a better understanding of the constraints to sustained and broadbased job creation on the demand side as well as greater employability skills on the supply side. We know policy- and system-levels interventions are critical to reach scale, but we don't have enough evidence on how active labour market policy affects youth. No one-size fits all: constraints and opportunities vary by person and by place. More data is needed on spatial + gender-based gaps where targeted policies / programmes may be necessary Youth inclusion and participation is important: primary research on youth is key to understand their perspectives on their environment & the constraints they face.

The event which arguably made the greatest impact on the youth Job Creation field was the agreement, in September 2015, all 193 UN Member Governments to sign up to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. For Goal 8, Target 5 promises, by 2030:

7 See page 93.

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

“… to achieve full and productive employment and decent

work for all women and men, including for young people and

people with disabilities….”

The World Bank calculates that this would generate up to $5 trillion growth in the Global economy. This is why the Parliamentary Network (PN) on the World Bank and IMF – under the leadership of its current chair, Jeremy Lefroy MP, UK and Vice-chair, Olfa Cherif, Tunisia – have sought to raise the profile of youth job creation amongst its parliamentary members. It has also sought to promote the policy solutions proposed by the World Bank and the many other governments and NGOs active in this field.

The Parliamentary Network on The World Bank and International Monetary Fund has done this by publishing 4 x editions of a Youth Job Creation Policy Primer all of which are available at: www.youthjobcreation.org – as is this Booklet, along with links to all the organisations, and data-sets referred to. We thank the Parliamentary Network on The World Bank and International Monetary Fund for its leadership and encourage its members to recognise that, in both the international arena, but more in their national arenas, solutions to youth employment usually start with the legislation, tax and procurement regimes that they manage.

The leadership of the on the Parliamentary Network on The World Bank and International Monetary Fund has proved invaluable –and its success is demonstrated by the fact that Youth Job Creation is now high on the agenda of many governments, UN institutions, donors, investors and the private sector. But the crisis is far from resolved. Which is why we need a Global Campaign for Youth Employment.

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

Ho ould a Glo al Ca paig for Youth E plo e t Work?

GOALS

1. To promote policies that will help UN Member states deliver on their UN SDG 8, Goal 5 promise to “achieve full and productive employment for all…” 2. To continue to push youth job creation ideas and policies higher up the agendas of all politicians, business leaders,

NGOs, educators and young people; 3. To emphasise the importance of multiple, integrated interventions: the Systems Approach which involves implementing several policies simultaneously. 4. To forge, and energize, partnerships between stakeholders, because youth job creation cannot be achieved by any one stakeholder alone; 5. To ‘accentuate the positive’ and promote solutions: RATIONALE:

Let’s examine those goals in more details: 1. Full Employment actually means about 3% unemployment because of the normal

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

churn of people changing jobs, taking time off for sabbaticals etc. Some experts now equate unemployment rates of 4, 5 or 6% as justifiable definitions of full employment. The key word, for Low Income Countries, is ‘productive’: for many millions of people in these countries, young and old, find themselves under-employed or as working poor - not earning enough to feed and keep their families in good health.

2. Prioritise Youth Job Creation:

Many more people and agencies are talking about youth job creation than they were ten years ago but there is very little additional investment in the field. The private and public sectors know that profits, and solvency, are better driven by reducing pay-rolls than increasing them. So job-rich growth must be prioritised for political and social reasons, not purely financial ones.

3. The Systems Approach:

Many governments and institutions persist with piecemeal solutions – a little skills training here, some wage subsidies there.

It is only by reviewing all possible policy solutions together and implementing as many as are appropriate simultaneously, that jobs will be created at scale across a nation or region. 4. Forging Partnerships:

Creating jobs is not something that can be done by governments alone. Yes they must lead – but they must work in partnership with NGOs, business leaders, educators and young people themselves. And we must look East, West and North – South to see what other countries are doing. For as the crisis of youth unemployment bites deeper all over the world, solutions of all kinds are popping up everywhere. The most important - 32 -

THE CASE FOR URGENT ACTION ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

partnership is with youth themselves: teachers and adults must level with them and explain the full extent of the problem. And they must give them the skills and the confidence that will enable them to be part of the solution.

5. FIVE: Promoting Solutions: people are right to be scared at the scale of the problem The need to create 6 million jobs a month, a million a month in Sub-Saharan Africa alone! A billion new jobs by 2030 just to maintain unemployment at current levels. 2 to 3 billion more by mid-century as tens of millions of traditional jobs disappear to digitization, automation and robotics; – and – The need to teach new skills and self-learning techniques as the World Economic Forum estimates that “65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist.” But failure is not an option: if we are going to keep bringing young people into the world, it is our duty to create decent jobs for them to do when they grow up. So: “Don’t tell me it’s impossible. Show me a solution!” That’s what our campaign is designed to do.