Aide-Mémoire

Background

In the Millennium Declaration adopted by the General Assembly at the Millennium Summit in September 2000 (resolution 55/2), Heads of State and Government resolved to “develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.” In preparation for this summit, Kofi Annan issued a report (A/54/2000) entitled “We the Peoples: the Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-first Century”, where he first proposed the formation of the Youth Employment Network.

Together with the heads of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization, the Secretary-General convened a high-level policy network on youth employment, comprised of leaders in private industry, civil society and economic policy. Twelve eminent persons where invited to become members of the High-level Panel of the Youth Employment Network (YEN), and they came together for their first meeting in July 2001 at ILO Headquarters in Geneva. At this meeting, Mr. Annan emphasized the need for both immediate action and long-term commitment to achieving the millennium goal on youth employment. He also invited the panel to continue working with him in an advisory capacity on an ongoing basis. Finally, he requested the ILO to take the lead in organizing the future work of the YEN and to assume the responsibility for hosting a permanent Secretariat.

The High-level Panel of the Youth Employment Network developed a set of recommendations on youth employment that were transmitted to the President of the General Assembly (A/56/422), where they were discussed on 19 November 2001 in the overall framework of follow-up to the Millennium Summit. The recommendations, which were favourably received by UN Member States, called for a global alliance for youth employment and a guide to action for achieving decent work for young people. Four top priorities for youth employment were identified: employability; equal opportunities for young men and young women; entrepreneurship; and employment creation. Separate working groups of the high-level panel were formed to address each of the four priority areas in greater detail. The UN has agreed to act as secretariat for the working group on employment creation, which aims to place employment creation at the centre of economic policymaking. 

Furthermore, a resolution on promoting youth employment, introduced by Senegal and co-sponsored by over 100 Member States, was adopted by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on 17 October 2002. The resolution encourages Member States to prepare national reviews and action plans in youth employment; invites the ILO, the UN and the World Bank to undertake a global analysis and evaluation of progress made in preparing these national reviews and action plans; and requests the Secretary-General to report on the progress of the YEN at the 58th session of the General Assembly.

Objectives

The Meeting is intended to serve several purposes. One is to allow for an interchange of ideas between experts and members of the S-G’s High-level Panel on strategies for employment promotion for youth. This interaction is intended to stimulate thinking on how to incorporate youth employment into broader employment and macroeconomic policies. Regional experiences will be highlighted, in an effort to explore the practicalities of implementing youth employment policies at the national level. Another purpose of the Meeting is to assist the working group of the High-level Panel in formulating policies and fleshing out their recommendations on employment creation for youth.

Specifically, the meeting will attempt to find answers to the following questions:

1.      What kinds of macroeconomic and other policies have worked to stimulate jobs for youth?

2.      What kinds of policies are counterproductive to job creation efforts

3.      What are some innovative approaches to creating jobs for young people?

4.      What are the elements of successful youth job creation efforts?

5.      What efforts can be taken to ensure that employment creation is placed at the centre of macroeconomic and other policymaking?