Goal – Full Youth Employment by 2030
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Target 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
UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Problem – We need to create a billion jobs by 2030
About 75 million youth are registered unemployed worldwide but many millions more are under-employed. 620 million are idle or not looking for work, and 600 million more will join the workforce by 2030 with fewer than 300 million jobs awaiting them. So – the world needs to create about a billion jobs by 2030 (18 million a year in Africa alone) to meet SDG 8. There is no greater challenge in international development.
Automation: Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, says “automation will put half the jobs in the UK at risk”. That includes more than 98% of jobs in insurance and thousands of administrative and office jobs. Transportation jobs will also disappear as driverless cars and trucks fill our roads.
Lack of access to capital: 91% of youth told us scant access to start-up funding is the biggest obstacle to starting an enterprise. Many youth are also terrified of taking on debt.
Skills mismatching: In many countries, schools and colleges still focus heavily on Humanities not STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), resulting in too few engineers and IT professionals being trained.
Lack of focus on women’s employment: Women’s value as entrepreneurs and income-generators is often constrained by cultural attitudes, family traditions and, sometimes, government legislation.
Lack of focus on Household Enterprises (HEs): Statistics show that 80-95% of bottom-of-the-pyramid youth will earn mixed livelihoods in household enterprises and self-employment. But most schools still educate students as though they will all get jobs in the formal waged sector.
Inadequate metrics: World Bank & ILO researchers decry the “infrequent presentation of standardized programme cost measures alongside impact evaluation results.” Senior economists at both institutions, have so far not expressed any confidence in existing job creation impact measures.
The Solution – A Coalition of ALL Stakeholders
Goal of the Coalition: to Bench-Mark current policies and programmes to reduce youth un- and under- employment and to prepare & implement National Action Plans for short-term and long-term Youth Job Creation interventions
HOW? – Create Partnerships: the Global Campaign for Youth Employment (GCYE) is a coalition of parliamentarians, private sector leaders, job creation practitioners and youth activists who want to work together in partnership to achieve effective youth job creation. In every country we work in, we shall invite a government minister to convene a National Board that will include representatives of 5 x Key Stakeholders:
1) Other Government representatives from the Ministry of Education and others;
2) Private Sector leaders
3) teachers, academics and job creation practitioners,
4) donors and investors;
5) Youth leaders, student bodies and unemployed youth.
With technical assistance from GCYE staff, each National Board will manage the following tasks:
GCYE Task ONE: Bench-marking what is currently happening: a questionnaire, agreed by the National Board, will be prepared to identify what is – and what is not – happening in each country to achieve the maximum possible number of jobs both in the formal, waged economy, and in the informal, sole trader / self-employment economy. These questionnaires are based on GCYE analysis of hundreds of programmes, policies and schemes operating in different countries
GCYE Task TWO: Preparing and Agreeing a National Action Plan: As the bench-marking study proceeds, it will become apparent where the gaps in provision lie. Some of these will be expensive to fill – like the need to expand inward investment in infrastructure, industrial zones, skill training etc. But, by a combination of promoting youth agency, and adapting existing provision, other gaps will be very inexpensive to fill – like curriculum adjustments, peer-to-peer career counselling, school-to-employer links etc. Each component of the National Action Plan will be costed and agreed by the National Board along with a Schedule for Implementation with agreed KPIs.
GCYE Task THREE: Implementing and Evaluating each National Action Plan: The Low Cost / No Cost elements of the National Action Plan will be implemented immediately with Technical Assistance from GCYE staff. GCYE staff will also work with Government officials to seek the funding necessary to implement the costlier elements of the plan.
GCYE Task FOUR: Learning: throughout the process, there will be rigorous monitoring and evaluation of every step, against the agreed KPIs, to assess which interventions turn out to be the most effective and simplest to implement. After TWO Years, each National Action Plan will be reviewed for its impacts and cost-effectiveness. A Revised National Action Plan will then carry the process forward.
