Conference Tackles Youth Unemployment, Education Crisis in Latin America
Read All PostsOn June 21 and 22, 2011, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) in partnership with the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the US Department of State hosts a two-day high level discussion on how to most effectively address the issues of unemployment and social exclusion facing youth at risk in Latin America and the Caribbean in the years ahead.
"Latin America and the Caribbean is a region with a relatively young population, a major advantage for growth prospects,” said Nancy Lee, General Manager of the MIF. “However, 50 million at risk youth in LAC remain excluded from productive jobs. The MIF and our partners have worked for years to develop the most effective programs for building skills, placing young people in jobs, and helping them start businesses. Through this conference, we hope to spread knowledge of the best models so that they can be scaled up throughout the region to expand employment and entrepreneurship opportunities."
The Youth-Partnerships-Employability Conference is sharing proven practices and innovative solutions for tapping into the full potential of today’s youth from across the region. One of the many successful partnership models being discussed at the Conference comes from Jamaica, where IYF’s USAID-supported Obra initiative has inspired the creation of the Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) project, which has gained the combined support of the business, government and NGO communities. The goal of the project, which has already received pledges of over US$ 3 million from more than a dozen private and public sector organizations, is to create 2,200 quality jobs for vulnerable youth by 2013. Another successful example on the agenda is from Brazil, where IYF’s local partner worked with Walmart to provide disadvantaged youth with training, internships and jobs, as part of entra21, IYF’s region-wide youth employability initiative supported by the MIF. The program proved so effective that Walmart is now using the same curriculum in its retail training schools throughout the country.
The conference seeks to challenge leaders from the public sector, the business community, and non-governmental organizations to explore improved strategies for developing the capacity of young people through education, job preparation and expanded opportunities to be civically engaged in their communities.
“The inclusion of youth is not just a footnote, but rather a headline; we consider it a central component of our efforts on crime prevention in this region and around the world,” said Mark Lopes, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America, USAID. “Far too many young people in Latin America and the Caribbean are being pushed to the margins of society – unable to obtain a quality education or get a good job,” said William S. Reese, CEO and President of the International Youth Foundation. “At this conference, we are discussing how to scale up our most effective and innovative strategies, so that more of our youth will find success and realize their full potential in the years ahead.”
Critical issues on the agenda include collaborating with the public sector to increase the scale of youth programs; improving the transition from school to work; engaging the business community in youth employment programs; promoting job training and engagement strategies for youth living in violence-affected communities; and measuring the long term impact of youth programs.
To help lead this dialogue, IYF has assembled a highly distinguished group of speakers from the private, public and civil society sectors, including Mark Lopes, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean of USAID; Nancy Lee, General Manager of the MIF; Susana Barasatian, National Director of Employment and professional development, Ministry of Labor, Argentina; Bill Reese, President and CEO of IYF; and corporate, NGO, and youth leaders from across the region. Their mission: to deepen participants’ knowledge about proven best practices and programs in order to more effectively engage with youth at risk in the future.
Youth unemployment and social exclusion are global issues that require urgent attention. The conference aims to strengthen youth-serving institutions’ understanding of how to tackle these challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. The collective experience of these participants in promoting successful solutions will be valuable to donors, business leaders, implementing organizations, and youth themselves not only in the region but around the world.