Chairs: North Farmington High School
“Today’s young people are the most educated generation ever. They have clear ideas about fulfilling their aspirations at work and in society and want opportunities for personal autonomy and active citizenship. They want the chance of a decent job.
Achieving decent work for youth is a challenge shared by all countries across the world. On average, young women and men are two to three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. All too often, they work unacceptably long hours under informal, intermittent and insecure work arrangements, characterized by low productivity, meagre earnings and reduced labour protection.
Within the international community, the ILO has a special role to play in promoting youth employment. With its expertise, tripartite constituency and global alliances, it can act as a catalyst in mobilizing support and implementing integrated policies and programmes to effectively meet the Millennium Summit Declaration’s commitment on decent and productive work for youth.”
(From: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/yett/index.htm)
Links:
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http://www.rebeccablood.net/archive/2006/08/are_us_contracters_in_iraq_usi.html |
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Youth Unemployment
The world is facing a growing youth employment crisis. In Europe and Central Asia, young people are more than twice as likely as adults to be out of work. Both industrialized and developing countries are failing to increase employment opportunities for young people, and the opportunities they do present are more often part time or casual jobs with little or no chance of advancement.
Youth employment is extremely important. Working young people provide foundations for economies in the future. Productive and decent work also allows young people to reach goals and aspirations, improve their living conditions, participate in an actively expanding global society, and most importantly gives a sense of dignity. Thomas Friedman, an editor for the New York Times, even stated in an editorial that youth unemployment can spark extremism and terrorism. “Young people who grow up in a context of real economic opportunity…don’t usually want to blow up the world. They want to be a part of it,” he asserts in the article”War of Ideas, Part 6.” Aside from providing dignity and hope, employment also strengthens economies by creating a cadre of young consumers, savers and taxpayers who in turn create the conditions that attract domestic and foreign investment. It improves societies by reducing costs related to social problems, such as drug abuse and crime.
In industrialized countries, the main youth employment challenge is finding jobs for the millions of youth who enter the labor market each year. In developing and transition countries, the challenge is not just creating jobs, but finding decent jobs for young people who are often underemployed and working in the agricultural fields or the informal economy. Paradoxically, unemployment among better-educated young people is particularly high. This is partly explained by: economic development not always keeping pace with improved education, demographics, and mismatches between the skills taught and those required by employers. But the consequences are far-reaching, hampering the ability of companies and countries to develop competitive advantages.
So far, the ILO has helped countries to develop coordinated interventions on youth unemployment. Such work includes:
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Data collection on the nature and dimensions of youth employment, unemployment and under employment; |
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Analysis of the effectiveness of country policies and programs, technical assistance in forming and implementing plans of action on youth employment, and the development of tools and training materials; |
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Policy advice to strengthen in-country labor market policies and programs for youth employment, and capacity building for governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations; |
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Advocacy and awareness-raising activities to promote decent work for youth with a focus on employability, employment and workers’ rights; |
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Establishment of strategic private-public partner-ships on youth employment at international, sub-regional and national levels; |
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Promotion of inter-country and global peer networks linking ILO constituents and other stakeholders, to support better performance and share good-practices; |
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Collaboration with multilateral and other international institutions to that national level policies and initiatives affecting youth employment are coherent. |
Your challenge as the ILO is to develop a coherent strategy to combat youth unemployment with these guidelines and some new ideas. Good luck!
Forced Labor
Before I start discussing this topic, I’d like to apologize for not getting this background paper to you until now. There was some miscommunication between the chairs. Hopefully, you’ve used this time to intensely research your other topic, youth employment.
Four years ago, the first Global Report on forced labor drew attention to the gravity of forced labor problems throughout the world. The ILO defines forced labor as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.” Regardless of misconceptions, forced labor is defined strictly through the situation between a person and the “employer,” and not by the type of activity performed, however hazardous this action or the environment it requires may be.
Forced labor is an emotional subject, and governments are sometimes reluctant to probe into and recognize its existence within their national borders. Today, at least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labor worldwide. Of these, 9.8 million are exploited by private agents, including more than 2.4 million in forced labor as a result of human trafficking.
The ILO has attempted several steps before to solve the problem of forced labor. Such include:
· Luring an increased commitment to the adoption of new laws on the subject.
· Encouraging regional action plans or declarations against human trafficking that recognize forced labor and child labor dimensions.
· Document a range of abusive and unprotected working conditions of domestic workers in destination countries.
Forced labor affects a wide variety of people. Many times for women, sexual exploitation is their only option for living, and as a result, they are abducted, starved, and many times locked away. The sexual industry has become highly global and diverse in recent years. Forced labor also is prominent in the agricultural, construction, and textile industries, which all demand cheap and flexible labor.
The ILO has been trying to contest forced labor for many years, and the progress it has made is only, as they say, the tip of the iceberg. Please think about how forced labor affects your country, challenge existing laws and policies, and strategize new ways the ILO can deal with this grave problem.