Expert Meeting on Youth Employment in the Arab States

ILO and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung will be organizing a two-day expert meeting on youth employment, aiming at raising awareness on the urgency of promoting decent work for youth.

The two-day expert meeting co-organized between FES and ILO, building on existing knowledge on youth issues and ongoing debates, aims to contribute to a better understanding of youth employment, and raise awareness on the urgency of promoting decent work for youth. It will also create a platform for interaction among relevant experts, actors, and stakeholders on the youth employment challenge; exchange views and share good practices on youth employment policies and programmes from within and outside the region; and develop networks and explore partnerships for addressing youth issues in the Arab region. Participants include government, worker and employer representatives, researchers, youth organizations and other relevant stakeholders.

This meeting will be part of a series of national events that will be organized in around 50 countries globally during the "Youth Employment Month" (March 2012) to support and inform the International Labour Conference 2012 discussions on the "Youth Employment Crisis". These events will help establish synergies across countries and increase worldwide visibility of such initiatives with an ultimate goal of raising awareness on the urgency of promoting decent work for youth.

Objectives

  • The meeting will discuss main issues related to youth employment in the Arab region, including:

  • Decent work and youth expectations,
  • The role of skills in a context of low labour demand,
  • The economic and social costs of migration,
  • Solutions for more social justice,
  • Empowerment strategies to ensure youth voices bring a meaningful contribution to policy making.

References