BACKGROUND
The
whole region of the Middle East and North Africa is confronted with
an unprecedented need for employment, estimated to approximate 100 million
additional jobs by 2020. The countries of the region must double their
volume of employment to absorb the rapidly growing number of job seekers.
The mean labour force growth rate in the region is around 3 per cent.
The average level of aggregate unemployment is estimated at around 16
per cent. As half of the young people find themselves out of work, youth
unemployment makes up a big chunk of total joblessness, ranging from
37 per cent in Morocco to 73 per cent in Syria and close to 80 per cent
in Bahrain1.
In Egypt, in 1998, almost 94 per cent of
the unemployed were new entrants to the labour market; among them 90
per cent belonged to the 15-29 age group. The situation of young women
is even dimmer. In Egypt, in 1998, more than half of the unemployed
new entrants to the labour market were women, at a time the share of
women in the labour force was only 21.2 per cent. In the recently published
UNDP report on the Arab States, the results of a youth survey conducted
throughout the countries in the region indicated that half of them would
be ready to emigrate.
Unemployed
or underemployed, young men and women are ipso facto excluded from decent
work. There can be no question of them exercising their rights at work,
enjoying social protection or engaging in social dialogue. If unemployment
or underemployment extends over a long period, the consequences can
be particularly harmful. There is some evidence across countries that
youth unemployment is not significantly of a shorter duration than that
of adults. The longer an unemployment spell, the more difficult it is
for that person to find work because of the loss of skills and morale
or psychological damage.
There are
three major reasons why unemployment while young, especially for frequent
or long periods, can be particularly harmful:
The
question of youth employment cannot be meaningfully tackled if it is
not linked to community development, enhancement of standards of living
and poverty alleviation. It is by a determined effort to address poverty
issues that the challenge of achieving more equitable societies in the
Arab World will be met. Poor or unavailable health care or opportunities
for a quality education, as well as scant or non-existent social safety
nets will determine their future and only add to the present burden
of giving a better place to the youth population at the work place.
For
its part, the ILO has long put its normative function at the service
of promoting employment in general and youth employment in particular.
It has done so by dealing with employment policies, on the one hand,
and development of human resources and training on the other. The Employment
Policy Convention, C. 122 (1964), the Employment Policy Recommendation,
R. 122 (1964), the Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation,
R. 169 (1984), the Human Resources Development Convention, C. 142 (1975)
and the Human Resources Development Recommendation, R. 150 (1975) are
essential standards in this respect. With regard to instruments specifically
focused on youth employment and training, mention should be made of
the Unemployment (young persons) Recommendation, R.45 (1935). It was
followed by the Special Youth Schemes Recommendation, R.136 (1970).
Then, at the 86th session of the International Labour Conference in
1998, the ILO adopted a resolution concerning youth employment, which
constitutes the framework of the organization's blueprint for the promotion
of youth employment. The resolution specifically calls on the Governing
Body of the International Labour Office to ensure that the issue of
youth unemployment be included in discussions at regional or sub-regional
level meetings, including tripartite meetings when appropriate.
This
ILO resolution directly led to the initiative taken by the Millennium
Assembly of the United Nations to call the attention of world leaders
to the urgency of addressing the problem of unemployment and underemployment
of young people. In 2001, as a follow up to the outcome of the Millennium
Summit, the Youth Employment Network was formed between the United Nations
Secretariat, the International Labour Organisation and the World Bank,
and a High Level Panel of experts constituted. In a High Level Meeting
held at ILO Headquarters in Geneva (June 2001), the organization was
asked to take the lead in supporting the implementation of the set of
recommendations prepared by this High Level Panel. These recommendations
highlighted four global priorities to promote youth employment, namely:
employability, equal opportunities, entrepreneurship and employment
creation. The role of civil society, the business community, employers,
trade unions and youth organizations in this endeavor was also stressed.
Finally, it was expected that individual countries would aim to commit
themselves to share the results of their youth employment projects,
programmes and policies.
Regional
cooperation on the issue of youth employment is of particular importance
in Arab states. It is clear that more systematic exchange of experiences
between countries in the region would greatly contribute to enrich the
debate and to convince governments that solutions exist. In particular,
the sensitive question of the re-nationalization of the labour force
should be dealt with in an open-minded spirit since the Arab World is
a complex mixture of countries that send labour migrants on the one
hand and others that receive them, on the other hand. This question
is closely linked to the overall issue of youth employment.
OBJECTIVE
The
main objectives of the meeting are (i) to familiarize participants with
youth employment policies, including human resources development policies,
due regard being given to gender concerns; and (ii) to exchange experiences
on the most appropriate policies and programmes to address the youth
employment question in the Arab States, both at the country and regional
levels.
EXPECTED
OUTPUT
By the
end of the meeting, participants should be able to contribute to:
- The
formulation and implementation of policy measures aimed at increasing
demand for labour, including labour market policy measures specifically
targeted on youth.
- The
formulation and implementation of human resources development and
training measures that raise the level of employability of youth.
- Recommend
the main features of an integrated initiative aiming at reducing youth
unemployment both at community and country level and in the inter-related
context of Arab States (contribution to the design and implementation
of a "Pilot project to develop appropriate policies and action programmes
that combat youth unemployment").
PARTICIPANTS
A
total of 48 participants are invited to the meeting, namely, three participants
(Government, Employers and Workers representatives) from each of the
sixteen countries, as follows: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian
Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
In addition,
7 experts preparing background papers will participate to present the
papers.
VENUE
AND DATES
The
tripartite meeting of experts is scheduled to be held in Amman, Jordan,
from 06 to 08 April 2004.
1 ILO, Global Employment Trends, January 2003, p. 63-74. Cited in World Bank report to the World Bank/IMF Annual Meeting in Dubai, September 2003.
