ASEAN Forum on Youth Employment: Effective Youth Employment Policies and Programmes for Better Employability of Young People

Background

The youth employment challenge has its own dimensions regardless of their stage of socio-economic development. The underlying problems are the large number of young people entering the labour markets every year, the lack of employment opportunities in particular in poor economies and post-conflict countries, and the low quality of education and training without a proper link to the labour markets. Underutilized young people incur significant economic costs as the national workforce is not being used to its full potential.

Moreover, young people are, in general, more dynamic, it is also mainly young people has option for migration if they cannot find adequate employment in their own country. Underutilization of young people in the labour market can trigger a vicious circle of intergenerational poverty and social exclusion.

Currently 75 million youth unemployed globally and 40 per cent of them is in the Asia and Pacific region. The global economic crisis in 2008 resulted in significant increase of youth unemployment, 7 million more youth unemployed as the aftermath of the crisis.

ASEAN Member States also share the same concerns on the issue and at the 4th ASEAN-SLOM WG in 2011 in Langkawi Malaysia, the meeting agreed that Indonesia to host the ASEAN Forum on Youth Employment in 2013 back to back with the 9th ASEAN - SLOM Meeting. ASEAN Member States have diverse experiences in tackling youth unemployment through various programmes and policies. Sharing experiences and lessons learned among the AMS could help improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the existing programs and policies.

Objectives

The Forum is expected to come up with possible follow-up actions that could be done by ASEAN Member States in tackling the youth unemployment in their respective countries through:

• sharing of experiences, best practices, policy, approaches and measures in tackling youth unemployment and development among ASEAN Member States;
• raising the awareness of the ASEAN Member States on the global issues on youth employment through discussion with international organization partners;
• strengthening cooperation and collaborations among ASEAN Member States in tackling youth unemployment issues; and
• formulating recommendations for further cooperation and joint programmes in ASEAN.

Programme

The one day forum will comprise a series of presentations and discussions with the international experts on youth employment and sharing of country experiences.