The conference was an important step for the ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the implementation of the ILO’s Partnerships for Youth Employment in the Commonwealth of Independent States Project. The participants discussed the experience of Bashkortostan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia’s Perm Region in promoting youth employment.

The forum was attended by officials from ministries and departments of labour, social protection and employment in the Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Tyumen Region, Perm Region, and Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Districts.  Representatives of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR), educational institutions, as well as employers and social partners from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also participated in the discussions.

RUIE was represented at the conference by LUKOIL – the funder of the Partnerships for Youth Employment in the CIS Project. Addressing the conference participants, LUKOIL's representative said, "LUKOIL supports the initiative of sharing experiences and best practices and makes every effort to strengthen cooperation between the government and social partners, the private sector and educational institutions."

As representatives of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR) noted, "further steps are needed to resolve the supply and demand mismatch in the labour market. This can be achieved through short-term and medium-term forecasting of the demand for skills and by providing a guaranteed placement in their first job for young graduates."

According to Mikhail Kirsanov, Director of the Russian Ministry of Labour and Social Protection Employment Policy Department, Ufa has recently become a venue for international discussion of youth employment issues.

"Last summer, Ufa hosted a summit attended by Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS countries, which addressed youth employment issues, among others. In January 2016, Ufa was a venue for a first-ever international meeting of BRICS labour ministers, which also discussed youth employment as one of its key themes. Today, once again, we are meeting in Ufa to share youth employment best practices from Russian regions and post-Soviet space," said Kirsanov. “We should focus more on prevention and provide career guidance in schools to help young people access the labour market."

Lenara Ivanova, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Bashkortostan, shared the results of a few regional projects aimed at promoting youth employment. In particular, she presented a roadmap adopted in Bashkortostan to provide career guidance to young people based on collaboration of educational institutions and businesses.

The conference featured roundtable discussions to showcase best practices of promoting youth employment in different contexts.

In addition to this, for the first time, the conference agenda featured a training seminar on labour marked data collection and analysis for representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Bashkorstostan and employment centers.

The Ufa Forum was attended by Mikhail Pouchkin, Chief Technical Adviser of the Partnerships for Youth Employment in the CIS Project implemented with support from LUKOIL, and Julia Surina, Junior Youth Employment Officer of the project.

Addressing the forum, Mikhail Pouchkin said, "a steady growth of inequality and the challenging global situation require a joint response from all interested parties. Combating youth unemployment is a global problem, as 197 million people worldwide are unemployed, and this number is significantly higher now than it was before the crisis. Under such circumstances, this project aims to achieve a better understanding of what approaches are most effective in promoting youth employment. The project will encourage the sharing of knowledge in this area among countries and regions, including government and corporate best practices in the subregion."