Experts discuss Arab youth job challenges

With unemployment among Arab youth the highest in any region in the world, climbing above 29% in 2014, more than 350 leaders and practitioners from civil society, government and the private sector gathered in Amman, Jordan, to share innovative and effective approaches to addressing the region’s youth employment challenge. Organised by Doha-based regional social initiative Silatech and hosted by the International Youth Foundation (IYF), the three-day “Arab Youth Employment: Promoting Innovative Solutions to Longstanding Challenges” conference concluded on Thursday. The conference was sponsored by the World Bank’s Solutions for Youth Employment Coalition and the Americana Group. It was also supported by the Jordan Chamber of Industry. The conference gave special attention to the process of developing successful youth employment policies and initiatives and creating opportunities for practitioners to replicate and grow effective programmes throughout the region. Silatech acting CEO Mohamed al-Naimi welcomed delegates from over 30 countries at the opening of the conference, stressing the importance of learning from the experiences of others in order to design programmes and policies that directly improve the economic prospects of young people. “We are gathered here in Amman for two main reasons. One, to share our findings and insights about the effectiveness of various youth-serving programmes and policies; and, two, to form collaborations and partnerships to scale up and replicate successful programmes,” he said.“We’re here to discuss current trends, gaps and best practice approaches for providing today’s Arab youth with the training and support they need to succeed in the face of high rates of youth unemployment across the region,” said William S Reese, CEO of IYF.During the plenary session, “Rethinking the Youth Employment Challenge”, Dr Nidal Katamine, Jordan’s Minister of Labour, Dr Omar Razzaz, chairman of the board of directors of Jordan Ahli Bank, and Dr Talal Abu Ghazaleh, founder and chair of the Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organisation, discussed why the youth employment challenge has been such a longstanding and difficult problem for the region, and ways in which the public sector, private sector, civil society and the NGO community can work together to address the issue. During the three-day conference, participants shared lessons and experiences on a wide variety of topics related to youth employment, including innovations in youth enterprise financing, engaging the private sector for youth employment, the importance of monitoring and evaluation of programmes, achieving scale and resilience in employment initiatives through technology, partnerships in policy-making, enabling entrepreneurship ecosystems and alliances and private sector-driven solutions for scaling up initiatives. Contributing partners during the three-day conference included the World Bank, International Labor Organisation, Oasis 500 (Jordan), Tamweelcom (Jordan), Mowgli (UK), Save the Children, United Nations Development Programme, Beyond Reform and Development (Lebanon), the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (US), Ahead of the Curve (Egypt), Tawasul (Oman), the RAND Corporation (US) and Future First Global. Besides, policymakers from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia participated in the conference.