Subregional conference sums up results of Youth Employment Project, identifies priorities for Phase 2

TURIN (ILO News) - On 13-16 February, a sub-regional kick-off conference for the second phase of the ILO Project “Partnerships for Youth Employment in the CIS" was held. The second phase will be implemented in 2018-2022 by ILO Moscow with financial support of the Russian company LUKOIL.

Новость | 16 Февраль 2018 г.
TURIN (ILO News) - On 13-16 February, a sub-regional kick-off conference for the second phase of the ILO Project “Partnerships for Youth Employment in the CIS" was held. The second phase will be  implemented in 2018-2022 by ILO Moscow with financial support of the Russian company LUKOIL.

The conference brought together the ILO constituents – members of the regional youth employment network established within the Project, ILO Moscow, ILO Rome, ILO Geneva officials and international experts. The participating countries included Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan as well as Brazil and China.

In her opening speech, Olga Koulaeva, ILO Moscow Director, spoke about the ILO Centenary Initiative on the Future of Work, new forms of employment, technological changes and policy response measures for the labour market sustainability. Aurelio Parisotto, Head of CEPOL Unit, Employment Policy Department of the ILO HQ, informed the audience on the global employment trends. He confirmed that the Department would render necessary technical support to the project that proved to be a good practice in terms of comprehensive approach, countries specific support and concrete actions.

During the first session the participants discussed the the results of the project’s phase I (January 2013- February 2018) and the strategy for its second phase (2018-2022).

Gianni Rosas, ILO Rome Director and Youth Employment Coordinator for Europe moderated a session on the trends and innovations of youth employment policy in the European Union.
 
In his overview of employment trends in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Mikhail Pouchkin, Senior Employment Specialist, ILO Moscow, focused on such issues as the importance of establishing partnerships and alliances, introducing life-long learning and strengthening the capacities of Public Employment Services (PES), especially in the situation of persistent youth unemployment,  widespread informal employment among youth, gender inequality and changing character of working relations.
 
Participants of the youth employment regional network highly assessed the project phase I and its achievements. These include  piloting of labour market programmes in the regions of Russia; improved cooperation between trade unions and government authorities in implementing policies and programmes in the Russian regions;  inputs of the project to the modernization of the occupational standards system;  significant achievements in Azerbaijan in strengthening PES, developing of national employment strategy, implementation of self-employment programme and support on the formalization of economy; project support in the development of action plan for YE promotion in Kazakhstan; improved regional cooperation between the countries, also through the voluntary peer reviews of YE policies; solid research materials produced within the project.

 Address by Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth​

During the phase II of the YEP CIS project, its subregional implementation will be mainly based on the UN Initiative for Decent Jobs for Youth which was launched by the ILO Director-General in 2016. The project foresees annual thematic policy reviews accompanied by the in-depth research on the topics prioritized by the stakeholders.