The Focal Point on Youth cooperates closely with the Technical Cooperation Unit of the Division for Social Policy and Development. This Unit works to translate international agreements – such as the World Programme of Action for Youth – into practical strategies and projects at the regional and national levels. It focuses on the needs, priorities and concerns of specific social groups, including young people, who are often overlooked in development work. As a result, technical cooperation establishes a two-way exchange: it builds capacity by linking practitioners in the field to the most recent research, trends and practices in youth development, and it injects experiences from the field into the intergovernmental dialogue and decision-making processes.

Cooperation is initiated most commonly at the request of a Government or United Nations counterpart.

Some areas of technical cooperation related to youth development include:

• Assistance to governments to develop, implement and monitor national youth policies
• Strategies for creating youth employment, fostering entrepreneurship, and supporting sustainable income-generating activities
• Trainings for adults and institutions on working in partnership with youth organizations
• Assessing and strengthening existing youth structures and networks, including the development of participatory leadership
• Promotion of youth volunteerism and civic engagement (e.g. development of youth service corps, formation or revitalization of national youth councils, non-formal learning programmes)
• Facilitating the engagement of young people as partners in peace and reconstruction in post-conflict countries
• Support for the social integration of specific youth sub-sectors (e.g. girls and young women, youth living with disabilities, young refugees, indigenous youth)
• Working with youth to reduce violence caused by small arms
• Integrating youth development priorities into national development planning, such as frameworks for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

ON-GOING ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

• Tackling Poverty Together: The Role of Young People in Poverty Reduction
• Supporting the Implementation of the Convention of the Rights of Young People in IberoAmerica
• Working with young people on reducing the use of illicit small arms
• Building Knowledge Networks for Youth Development In Africa
• Assessing National Youth Policies in Africa: Five Country Experiences
• Youth Policies and Strategies in the Context of the MDGs in the Arab Region

The technical cooperation advisers work closely with other parts of the UN system, such as UNDP country offices and other stakeholders who are actively involved in policy development and programme delivery.

For more information, please E-mail us at youth@un.org and reference TC or Technical Cooperation in the subject line.