Delegates Convene in Nairobi to Deliberate Youth Unemployment

{{Over 100 participants are meeting in Nairobi to share experiences on how to reduce youth unemployment in East Africa.}}

Drawn from government ministries, employers and workers’ organisations, the private sector, local and international non governmental organisations, business development services (BDS) providers and youth organisations, participants are meeting under the auspices of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to share experiences on creating opportunities for income generation, job creation and unleashing the potential of young men and women, a statement said.

With the global youth population reaching an historical high of 1.5 billion, economies worldwide are increasingly unable to provide young people with jobs.

The situation has reached critical proportions in developing countries where 1.3 billion young people reside, with youth employment growing by only 0.2 per cent over the past decade. Meanwhile the global youth population grew at a rate of 10.5 percent.

About 40 participants from Tanzania are participating in the meeting which started yesterday and ends tomorrow.

The forum, which is one of the efforts to arrest the growing youth unemployment in the region, is a joint effort by ILO’s “Youth Entrepreneurship Facility (ILO/YEF)” programme, the Africa Commission and the Youth Employment Network (YEN).

“The meeting will also be used as an opportunity to showcase and disseminate some of the main results achieved by the project so far, facilitating policy dialogue by regional level stakeholders based on some of the key results and initiatives that can be taken forward to support holistic programmes to support and engage young people through employment,” the statement released by the ILO Dar es Salaam office noted.

This occasion is designed for stakeholders to learn and share experiences in youth entrepreneurship in East Africa and beyond, the statement added. While there is a growing gap between the number of youth seeking employment and the opportunities available to them, there is also a growing recognition of the need to support and invest in young people as key resource in socio-economic development, the statement noted.

{agencies}