YOUTH
ADVOCATES ADD VOICES TO GLOBAL DIALOGUE
More
than 30 hand-picked youth leaders from twenty five countries gather in New York
January 30- February 2, 2002 to set out a global strategy to make 2002 the year
of youth employment. Youth leaders from every continent will receive intensive
training in social entrepreneurship and alliance building at the YES Youth
Forum. The Forum, hosted by the Synergos Institute, is a preparatory event ahead
of the year’s biggest youth development event, the Youth Employment Summit
2002 (YES2002). I
want to sharpen my organizational and motivational skills in New York to put
youth employment high on the agenda in my country. I've come to New York with
the goal of implementing the vision of the Youth Employment Summit and to lend
my skills towards developing a youth friendly strategy to proactively address
youth employment in a tangible way. Dr
Ismail Serageldin, Director-General of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, and
World Economic Forum Managing Director José Maria Figueres-Olsen will welcome
30 youth employment leaders from 25 countries at a reception at the Synergos
Institute, Wednesday 7pm January 30 2002, at 9 East 69th Street NYC. The
Reception includes an hour-long inter-generational dialogue between the selected
youth leaders and members of the World Economic Forum. Dr
Serageldin believes the Youth Employment Summit is essential to target the
scourge of youth unemployment; “Let
us be clear. Half educated, unemployed youth with no prospect of being
integrated into a better future is a prescription for disaster. If young people
do not have a stake in the existing social order and political order, if they do
not feel there is a way forward for them, why should they sacrifice for a better
tomorrow? Why should they have an interest in protecting the stability and
social safety of that system?” As
a thousand elite leaders meet at the World Economic Forum’s ‘Davos in New
York’ Annual Meeting to focus on global issues, youth leaders are also in New
York to remind the world’s leaders of the urgent need to generate sustainable
livelihoods for the unprecedented number of young people entering the labor
market in the next 10 years. Over
the next ten years, although the growth rate of the world's labour force will
slow down, there will be still some 460 million new, young jobseekers… Growth
cannot in itself be expected to ensure that the needed 500 million jobs are of
sufficient quality to bring all the world's workers closer to the enjoyment of
decent work. To achieve this requires much greater attention to core labour
market issues, including investments in human capital, overcoming discrimination
and making employment a central goal of economic policy. International
Labour Organization World Employment Report 2001 The
Youth Employment Summit (YES2002) is a global initiative to promote employment
for young people all over the world. YES2002 has built a worldwide reputation in
youth leadership development since its inception in 1998. The goal of YES2002 is
to launch a Decade Campaign of Action in Alexandria in 2002, so that an
additional 500 million young adults, especially youth facing poverty, will have
productive and sustainable livelihoods by the year 2012.
YES2002 will be held in the Library of
Alexandria, Egypt, September 11-15 2002. |