IYF Shares Innovative Strategies To Promote Gender Equality in Youth Livelihood Programs
Read All PostsYouth unemployment rates have reached record highs, with profound implications for today’s young people, their communities, and the global economy. From Europe to the Middle East to Sub-Saharan Africa, young men and women face increasing barriers to finding decent work. In its 2012 report, The Youth Unemployment Crisis: Time for Action, the ILO warns: “To have four out of every 10 young people unemployed is a social and economic catastrophe.”
While the solutions to the youth unemployment crisis are many and varied, one key strategy to stimulate meaningful and sustainable economic growth is to promote gender equality in the marketplace. The International Youth Foundation (IYF) tackles this issue in its most recent issue of FieldNotes, a publication series aimed at promoting best practices and innovative approaches in youth development. Improving Gender Equality in Youth Livelihood Programs offers successful strategies for practitioners to become better informed about gender issues and thus tailor their programs and services to address the stereotypes and structural limitations that are keeping millions of young men and women from reaching their full potential.
The best practices and lessons learned identified in this FieldNotes are drawn primarily from IYF’s Youth:Work programs and other IYF initiatives in the Caribbean, India, Jordan, Mexico, and Peru.
Those learnings include:
- Involving families in programming to build support for youth to break traditional gender roles.
- Working with the private sector to help companies incorporate changes that better support women in the workforce.
- Offering life skills training to address gender, reproductive health, and self image issues that in turn can lead to positive changes in young people’s life choices.
After making the case that programs should incorporate gender considerations throughout the entire program cycle, the report concludes: “Life skills and technical courses can significantly change young people’s self-esteem, economic prospects, and outlook. However, creating greater gender equality throughout society will take the collective efforts of parents, the community, governments and the private sector.”