The closing session included presentations by the ILO Director, Ms Hopolang Phororo on ‘Rethinking Youth Employment Coordination’ and Mr Edmund Moshy from Tanzania on ‘Joint Programming and UN System Wide Action Plan’.
According to Ms Phororo
“Youth unemployment is a national priority, which is of interest to several players, it is also a national problem with no clear answers, it’s a cross cutting issue involving many players and no single entity has resources or autonomy to address it alone.”
To avoid overlaps and duplication, the Director proposed an integrated collective impact approach, where a group of actors commit themselves to a common agenda for solving youth employment by better aligning and synchronizing the various coordination elements.
Dr Kanyenze from LEDRIZ, Zimbabwe then presented the Forum Conclusions and proposed way forward as follows:
1.Knowledge Sharing and Network Building
In order to create the necessary critical mass that pushes for mainstreaming youth employment, organizations ought to go back and tease out how learning points from the forum can be integrated into national programmes and policies.
2. Clustering the issues and sharing responsibility for coordination
Given the complexity of the issues discussed and their diversity there is need to share responsibility for coordination. Thematic areas of focus include green jobs, value addition and value chains, public works, youth entrepreneurship and Business Development Services, Information Communication Technology and digital jobs, gender dimensions, and transitioning informality to formality. At the next knowledge sharing forum, each thematic area will be presented on the progress made and achievements within the spirit of peer review and mutual accountability.
3.Updating and Reviewing National Employment and Sectorial Frameworks
One of the key areas that emerged from the forum as requiring attention is the inadequacy of the coordination frameworks being implemented in view of the multiplicity of interventions .The forum recommended adoption of the integrated approach to address issues of coordination.
4.Reviewing / Creating Inclusive Frameworks for Social Dialogue
In most countries in the sub-regions of Eastern and Southern Africa, structures for tripartite consultations are exclusive and do not include youth representation. In view of the importance and urgency of dealing with youth employment, it is imperative that the youth themselves are accorded voice and representation. Hence, it is important to review existing structures for social dialogue to make them more inclusive (tripartite-plus), and in particular involve the youth.
5.Overall Coordination and the Next Steps
To take the forum forward, the ILO Country Office-Zimbabwe should assume overall responsibility for the coordination, and continuity of the initiative. It should monitor the progress with each cluster and energize its work such that by the next forum, all clusters would have made considerable progress and would be ready for a rigorous peer review that manages for results. On the basis of an analysis of progress achieved, it should convene the second youth employment knowledge sharing forum, preferably in the next two years as a biennial event.
