Press Release - Southern and Eastern African Youth Employment Knowledge Sharing Forum
The Southern and Eastern African Youth Employment Knowledge Sharing Forum kicks off.
14 July 2015
ILO News, Harare: Four days Southern and Eastern African Youth Employment Knowledge Sharing Forum kicks off on 19 July in Harare.
Africa is struggling with the challenge of Youth Unemployment. In Zimbabwe, the situation is no different where unemployment and informality affect mostly young women and men who constitute a greater percentage of over 3.7 million people engaged in informal economy activities.
The 2012 ILO ILC Resolution on the ‘Youth Employment Crisis: A Call for Action’ renewed the urgency for a multi-pronged approach to youth employment and entrepreneurship. The 2012 ILC resolution also seeks to promote of measures that foster pro-employment growth and decent job creation through the adoption of macroeconomic, labour market and employability policies.
The ILO Office for Zimbabwe is organizing a four-day Knowledge Sharing Forum where successful models of youth employment will be presented by countries from the eastern and southern African region. The Forum reflects ILO’s commitment to support governments; workers’ and employers’ organizations to contribute towards tackling the youth employment challenge, which is a priority in the country’s national development goals.
Based on the ongoing interventions that the ILO has been undertaking on youth employment in Eastern and Southern Africa, the knowledge sharing forum will showcase what works, experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of different approaches. The forum is expected to facilitate the development a road map for integrating labour market trends, in order to address the need for creating productive and decent employment for young women and men.
The Forum also seeks to create space where ideas could be exchanged and knowledge shared through peer to peer discussions and the display of products by youths from various countries. Participants will also get an opportunity to exchange ideas with technical specialists in the field of youth employment and entrepreneurship development with a view to institutionalizing the concept of knowledge sharing.
A number of high level officials representing government, social partners, ILO, the UN system, donors and civil society have been invited from Eastern and Southern Africa (Comoros, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Some of these officials will serve as resource persons to bring to the fore available information on experiences and good practices in their countries. Most importantly the event will feature youth who have managed to create productive and decent employment for themselves and others.
During the Forum Father Godfrey Nzamujo, Founder of the Songhai Centre in Benin and Dr Louise Fox, former World Bank Lead Economist for Africa and visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley will share experiences on addressing employment, in general and youth employment, in particular through respective policies and programmes.
Africa is struggling with the challenge of Youth Unemployment. In Zimbabwe, the situation is no different where unemployment and informality affect mostly young women and men who constitute a greater percentage of over 3.7 million people engaged in informal economy activities.
The 2012 ILO ILC Resolution on the ‘Youth Employment Crisis: A Call for Action’ renewed the urgency for a multi-pronged approach to youth employment and entrepreneurship. The 2012 ILC resolution also seeks to promote of measures that foster pro-employment growth and decent job creation through the adoption of macroeconomic, labour market and employability policies.
The ILO Office for Zimbabwe is organizing a four-day Knowledge Sharing Forum where successful models of youth employment will be presented by countries from the eastern and southern African region. The Forum reflects ILO’s commitment to support governments; workers’ and employers’ organizations to contribute towards tackling the youth employment challenge, which is a priority in the country’s national development goals.
Based on the ongoing interventions that the ILO has been undertaking on youth employment in Eastern and Southern Africa, the knowledge sharing forum will showcase what works, experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of different approaches. The forum is expected to facilitate the development a road map for integrating labour market trends, in order to address the need for creating productive and decent employment for young women and men.
The Forum also seeks to create space where ideas could be exchanged and knowledge shared through peer to peer discussions and the display of products by youths from various countries. Participants will also get an opportunity to exchange ideas with technical specialists in the field of youth employment and entrepreneurship development with a view to institutionalizing the concept of knowledge sharing.
A number of high level officials representing government, social partners, ILO, the UN system, donors and civil society have been invited from Eastern and Southern Africa (Comoros, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Some of these officials will serve as resource persons to bring to the fore available information on experiences and good practices in their countries. Most importantly the event will feature youth who have managed to create productive and decent employment for themselves and others.
During the Forum Father Godfrey Nzamujo, Founder of the Songhai Centre in Benin and Dr Louise Fox, former World Bank Lead Economist for Africa and visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley will share experiences on addressing employment, in general and youth employment, in particular through respective policies and programmes.