UN: Draft Strategy for Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth
HLCP Task Team on the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth
CEB/2015/HLCP-30/CRP.5 :: 28 pages
[Excerpt]
…2 Vision and objective of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth
The vision of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth is a world in which young women and men have greater access to decent jobs everywhere.

The objective of the Initiative is to facilitate increased impact and expanded country-level action on decent jobs for youth through multi-stakeholder partnerships, the dissemination of evidence-based policies and the scaling up of effective and innovative interventions.

This objective is directly linked to the achievement of the SDGs relating to youth employment and more specifically to the outcome document of the United Nations Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda titled “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, annexed in draft resolution A/69/L.85. The outcome document includes the following youth employment targets: (i) 4.4 “By 2030, increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship”; (ii) 8.5: “By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value”; and (iii) 8.6: “By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training”.11

The objective will be pursued by using the power of the United Nations system to convene multi-stakeholder partnerships and by pooling cutting-edge advice, expertise, resources and support. More specifically, the objective will be operationalized by:
a) engaging stakeholders and world leaders in high-level policy action on youth employment;
b) expanding and scaling up context-specific interventions at the national and regional levels for systematic and coherent policies and interventions on youth employment;
c) pooling existing expertise and enhancing knowledge development and dissemination on what works for youth employment, including through the development of tools and capacity building; and
d) leveraging resources from existing facilities and mobilizing additional resources…

…4 Key elements
The strategy includes the following inter-connected elements:
[i] A strategic multi-stakeholder alliance.
The Initiative addresses decent jobs for youth as an issue of global concern which requires the highest possible level of policy attention and action. It is a development imperative that builds on and transcends the action of any individual organization or actor. The alliance will be set up by leveraging the convening power of the United Nations system, its overarching policy frameworks and its multiple and diverse partners from governments and non-governmental entities. It will bring together major actors of substantive significance to the issue of decent jobs for youth, including national institutions, the private sector, the United Nations system and other multilateral organizations, representatives of academia, representatives of the social partners and youth organizations. It will be an umbrella forum for global advocacy and will raise existing activities on youth employment to a higher level of action and impact. The main functions of the alliance will be to: (1) advocate high-level policy commitment and action on youth employment; (2) support policy convergence and coherence; and (3) stimulate innovative thinking and resource mobilization to scale up youth employment interventions and their impact.

[ii] Expanded and scaled up regional and country level action on decent jobs for youth.
The Initiative will promote and monitor multi-pronged interventions through broad partnerships and joint action on decent jobs for youth. These interventions will focus on scalable and innovative solutions that have proved effective in improving youth employment outcomes at the regional and national levels with a view to developing sustainable policies and institutions. This element will respond to national development priorities, support United Nations country programming and be implemented through broad multi-stakeholder partnerships under the leadership of United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs). It will involve governmental and non-governmental institutions, private sector actors, representatives of the social partners, youth and other organizations active in the region and/or country. In particular, support will be provided to UNCTs that are engaged in the implementation of the employment and entrepreneurship priority of the Youth-SWAP.

[iii] Knowledge facility on decent jobs for youth.
The knowledge facility will promote the sharing of knowledge and experience, capacity building and peer learning, including through South-South and triangular cooperation mechanisms. It will facilitate the exchange of information and good practice on what works for youth employment, support the testing and evaluation of policy packages, encourage the development and implementation of innovative strategies and disseminate broadly evidence, guidelines and tools for the replication of effective and scalable youth employment responses. It will identify and document successful practices in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of interventions for decent jobs for youth. Finally, it will support policy and multi-stakeholder dialogue during the implementation of youth employment initiatives in pilot countries.

[iv] Funding modalities and resource mobilization.
This component will pool domestic resources and those available from existing funds.12 It will mobilize additional resources where required. Funding will support innovative initiatives that have the potential for wide replication and high impact in selected countries.13 Resources will principally be used to support youth employment action at the country and local levels, including work undertaken through the knowledge facility that is instrumental for country-level implementation. Resources management will be based on the criteria of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, accountability and transparency…

.

Press Release
UN initiative targets job creation and decent work conditions for young people
FAO to lead efforts for youth in agriculture and the rural economy
1 February 2016, New York – FAO welcomed today the launch in New York of the UN Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, which includes a focus on promoting decent employment opportunities for young people in agriculture and the rural economy.

Under the lead of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Initiative was developed by 19 international organizations that are committed to increasing the impact of youth employment policies and expanding country-level action on decent jobs for young women and men…

FAO will be leading one of the eight thematic areas of the strategy, on Youth in the Rural Economy, while contributing to others.

“Poverty and hunger cannot be eradicated without addressing the inadequacy of employment conditions and opportunities facing the world’s young people, especially for young women and those living in rural areas,” said Brave Ndisale, FAO Social Protection Division Deputy Director…

To date, in many parts of the world employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for young women and men remain limited, poorly remunerated and of poor quality, particularly for those living in economically stagnant rural areas of developing countries.

The majority of rural youth are employed in the informal economy as contributing family workers, subsistence farmers, home-based micro-entrepreneurs or unskilled workers. They typically earn low wages, are employed through casual or seasonal work arrangements and face unsafe, often exploitive working conditions that compel many to migrate to urban areas – or abroad…

FAO has placed the promotion of decent rural employment as one of its top priorities, and has established a specific programme of work targeting youth.