The World Bank

The Bank brings a core mission of poverty reduction to its work with youth. Its basic approach to youth is linked to a lifecycle and social risk management approach to human development. This means moving beyond survival goals to issues of basic education, health, social capital and a general flourishing condition for development. Youth are the basis for the future health and well being of their communities, and a key to breaking cycles of inter-generational poverty. Children and Youth: This site includes information on the Bank work on youth and includes links to its Youth, Development and Peace consultations in 2003 (Paris) and 2004 (Sarajevo)which have provided youth input into its Children and Youth Framework for Action. For more information on World Bank activities related to the Youth Employment Network, please contact the YEN's focal point: Jean Fares The World Bank Tel: 1-202-473.5266 Fax: 1-202-522.7247 Email: jfares@worldbank.org

The ILO

The ILO is exploring ways to increase youth employment, which will help end the vicious cycle of poverty and social exclusion. Among its member states, employers' and workers' organisations, the ILO advocates for increased awareness of youth employment issues and helps fashion youth employment policies. It also documents innovative ways to keep young people from dropping out of higher education, so they can enter the world of work with better training and higher-paid skills. The ILO has established a Youth Employment Team (ILO-YET).  The team will work to strengthen the ILO's technical activities and policy messages on youth employment within the context of the ILO's Global Employment Agenda. is site includes information on youth-related work at the ILO and lists the international labour Conventions and Recommendations relevant to Youth Employment. For more information on ILO activities related to the Youth Employment Network, please visit www.ilo.org/youth or contact the YEN focal point for the ILO: Giovanna Rossignotti ILO-YET Coordinator ILO Employment Sector Tel: +41 (0)22 799 7098 Email: youth@ilo.org

The United Nations

The United Nations aims to enhance awareness of the global situation of youth and of the rights and aspirations of young people. It works towards greater participation of youth in the social and economic life of their societies. Youth at the United Nations: This site includes information on a library of the main United Nations documents on youth since 1985, and Youth Profiles, a database that allows users to search and compare indicators from country to country and across regions. For more information on UN activities related to the Youth Employment Network, please contact the YEN's focal point: Donald Lee Officer-in-Charge Social Perspective on Development Branch Division for Social Policy and Development Department of Economic and Social Affairs Tel: +1-212-963.8762 Email: lee27@un.org

The High-Level Panel

At the invitation of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Director-General of the ILO and the President of the World Bank, twelve leaders and policy experts in the field of youth employment from throughout the world were appointed in 2001 as members of the High-Level Panel on Youth Employment.

The Panelists role has been to advise the core partners on youth employment policy as well as mobilize opinion and action in favour of youth employment worldwide, especially in developing countries where the majority of unemployed youth are struggling to overcome poverty in the informal economy.

The Panel produced a series of recommendations which where transmitted by the Secretary-General to the UN General Assembly in September 2001.

These recommendations focussed on four global priority policy areas or the four "E's": Employability, Equal opportunities, Entrepreneurship, and Employment creation.

In 2002 The High-Level Panel set up four Working Groups, to refine each of the four "E's" and to provide guidelines and practical examples for countries in preparing their National Reviews and Action Plans.

Following the 2nd High-Level Panel meeting in July 2003 the Panel agreed to continue working with the Core Partners in an advisory capacity in a number of areas:

• In mobilizing opinion and action at the country level for the development of National Reviews and Action Plans on youth employment as called for by the 2002 UN General Assembly Resolution on Promoting Youth Employment.

• In contributing to the 2005 five-year review of the Millennium Declaration with respect to youth employment and to its impact on the other Millennium Development Goals.

• In advising on the development of new indicators and statistics for youth employment, both to inform policy and to assist in monitoring the implementation of the Millennium Declaration.

• In working closely with youth groups to identify the most effective role for young people in the development and evaluation of National Reviews and Action Plans on youth employment.

The 3rd meeting of the HLP, hosted by the World Bank, saw a review of activities in the Lead Countries and a strong commitment by the Panel, the Core Partners and youth to mobilize the governments in the lead countries to prepare National Action Plans in time for the five-year review of the MDGs in 2005. The meeting also saw the launch of a YEN Youth Consultative Group comprising of representatives of large international and regional youth organisations.

The 4th meeting of the HLP was hosted by the All-China Youth Federation in Beijing.The meeting served as an opportunity for the High-Level Panel to appraise its own role and to determine its own future.In a letter to Kofi Annan outlining the outcomes of the meeting the Panel recognized that its mandate to deliver a strategy had been fulfilled and was now well advanced into the implementation stage.

The Panellists set out a series of recommendations on the future role and directions of the Youth Employment Network, as well as on the governance structure required to put these new strategic directions into effect.

Working Groups

Background and intended purpose

In 2001, the High-Level Panel of the Secretary-General's Youth Employment Network recommended that all governments, in consultations with youth, business, employer and worker representatives and civil society groups, prepare "national reviews and action plans" on youth employment. Within these plans, governments are invited to address four top policy priorities.

• Employability: invest in education and vocational training for young people - and improve the impact of these investments;

• Equal opportunities: give young women the same opportunities as young men;

•Entrepreneurship: make it easier to start and run enterprises to provide more and better jobs for young women and men; and

•Employment creation: place employment creation at the centre of macro-economic policy.

Following the discussion of these policy recommendations in the United Nations General Assembly in November 2001 in the framework of the follow-up to the implementation of the outcome of the Millennium Summit, the High-Level Panel decided to set up separate Working Groups on each of these four global priorities.

The deliberations of the four Working Groups were intended to provide more in-depth policy advice on the four strategic themes. This advice would be used for various purposes. For one, since the Panel had recommended that governments develop national reviews and action plans on youth employment, it was expected that the results of these Working Groups would provide further guidance on the preparation of these action plans. Also, the results of the Working Groups were intended to guide the implementation of action plans, or more generally, to support the implementation of policies, programmes and projects on youth employment undertaken by one or more of the broader Network's partners.

Organization of the Working Groups

Outcomes of the four Working Groups and next steps

Secretariat

The Yen joint Secretariat

The YEN Joint Secretariat consists of the YEN co-ordinating Secretariat based at the International Labour Office in Geneva and the focal points for the three core partners, the UN, the World Bank and the ILO.