Executive Summary

Innovation for Decent Jobs for Youth was an event that provided a platform for governments, social partners, youth and civil society, private sector, foundations, UN entities and beyond to explore collaboration on innovations that work for decent jobs for youth under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The event was held at the International Labour Office in Geneva from 2-3 May 2018. It was a two-day event featured with conversation around innovations for Decent Jobs for Youth, and innovative financing for youth employment and exploring cutting-edge mechanisms with potential for wide replication and high impact on labour market outcomes of youth.

The event was well-evaluated by 237 participants from different sectors and countries who actively involved in diverse sessions of the event. The event also aimed to call for potential partners to join the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for youth, an inclusive alliance that brings together the resources and expertise of diverse partners to maximize the positive impact of investments into youth employment.

Event Participation

The event provided a platform for over 200 participants from governments, social partners, youth and civil society, private sector, foundations, UN entities and beyond to explore collaboration on innovations that work for decent jobs for youth under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Event Objectives

The event brings together partners of Decent Jobs for Youth and other key youth employment actors to:

  • Stimulate innovative thinking and collaboration on youth employment advancing Decent Jobs for Youth’s strategy for 2018-2019.
  • Exchange lessons learned and good practices on innovative financing to scale up action on youth employment.
  • Create an open space for collaboration and networking under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, launch new commitments for Decent Jobs for Youth, and highlight how existing commitments translate our guiding principles into action.

Statement by Jayathma Wickramanayake

'' Investment in youth can accelerate progress towards peaceful and sustainable future.We need coordinated planning, and investments with a focus on developing skills of the young people, compatible with the reality of age of the technology and labour market demands. ''

- Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth

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Speakers
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Sangheon Lee

International Labour Organization

Moussa Oumarou

International Labour Organization

Maria Luisa Silva

UNDP

Meredith Lee

Mastercard Foundation

Rie Vejs-Kjeldgaard

International Labour Organization

Hille Henebry

KfW

Sarita Bartlett

OBVIAM

Craig Churchill

International Labour Organization

Debra Hevenstone

Bern University of Applied Sciences

Milena Castellnou

Instiglio

Leo Van Loon

BuzinezzClub

Vic Van Vuuren

International Labour Organization

H.E. Socorro Flores Liera

Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations Office in Geneva

Roberto Suárez Santos

International Organisation of Employers

Plamen Dimitrov

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria

Anna Fendley

United Steelworkers

Noella Moshi

West Africa Vocational Education Academies

Gunilla von Hall

Svenska Dagbladet

Antonio Correa do Prado

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Kathryn Rowan

Nestlé

Florencia Spangaro

Citi Foundation

Alejandra Sáenz

International Youth Organization for Ibero-America

Susanna Pak

International Trade Centre

Kemal Huseinovic

International Telecommunications Union

Srinivas Reddy

International Telecommunications Union

Mariangels Fortuny

International Telecommunications Union

Ashish Shah

International Trade Centre

Frédéric Lapeyre

International Labour Organization

Donato Kiniger-Passigli

International Labour Organization

Beate Andrees

International Labour Organization

Sukti Dasgupta

International Labour Organization

Jayathma Wickramanayake

Office of the Secretary-General\'s Envoy on Youth

Heidi Strawson

Accenture

Deborah Martierrez

U.S. Department of Labor

Regula Schegg

Global Apprenticeship Network

Zuzana Vaněčková

European Youth Forum

Ashwani Aggarwal

International Labour Organization

Anita Tiessen

Youth Business International

Peter Wobst

FAO

Yann Wyss

Nestlé

Francesca Dalla Valle

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

El’vis Beytullayev

International Labour Organization

Maria Teresa Zappia

BlueOrchard

Alice Gugelev

Global Development Incubator

Patrick Elmer

iGravity

Patricia Richter

International Labour Organization

Fabio Segura

Jacobs Foundation

Benjamin Smith

International Labour Organization

William Natta

International Telecommunications Union

Mito Tsukamoto

International Labour Organization

Catherine Saget

International Labour Organization

Camilla Roman

International Labour Organization

Peter Shiras

International Labour Organization

Vicky Leung

International Labour Organization

Dafne Sartorio

AIESEC

Salvatore Nigro

Education For Employment

Jihane Lahbabi

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Lamia Chaffai

EFE Tunisia

Carlos Bertran

Generation Spain

Madhu Fernando

ITC

Nathalie Gunasekera

Mercy Corps

Silvia Paruzzolo

Save the Children

Helle Gudmandsen

Save the Children

Patricia Molano

SOS Children\'s Villages International

Christina Kappaz

YBI

Karen Moore

Mastercard Foundation

Marlen de la Chaux

International Labour Organization

Rhizlan El Alaoui

Quicktech Morocco

David Cordobés

International Trade Centre

Nour Shammout

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

Kawtar Zerouali

United Nations Development Programme

Delila Kidanu

ThinkYoung

Jonas Bausch

International Labour Organization

Viridiana Murillo Robledo

United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth

Zainab Abudeeb

General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions

Susana Puerto

International Labour Organization

Valter Nebuloni

International Labour Organization

Jamie McAuliffe

The Aspen Institute

Luisa Bernal

UNDP

Felix Rüdiger

International Labour Organization

In Woo Jung

UN Environment

Basem Mohamed

World Health Organization

Delphine Santini

International Labour Organization

David Kapya

International Labour Organization

Irina Akinshina

Lukoil

Frank van Rompaey

United Nations Industrial Development Organization to the UN in Geneva

Yushi Torigoe

International Telecommunications Union

Akustina Morni

International Organisation of Employers

Luiz Gustavo de Padua Walfrido Filho

General Union of Workers in Brazil

Juan Hunt

International Labour Organization

Cyril Pellevat

UEFA Foundation for Children and Sénateur de la Haute-Savoie

Guido Battaglia

Institute for Human Rights and Business

Hubert Rovers

European Football for Development Network

John McDonald

Everton Football Club

Johannes Axster

streetfootballworld

Programmes

Innovations for Decent Jobs for Youth is a two-day event held at the ILO in Geneva from 2-3 May 2018. 

Wed, 2 May 2018 09:00 am To 18:45 pm

Innovative Action Day

Salle II

Opening welcome and remarks

Welcome by Sangheon Lee, ILO’s Director of the Employment Policy Department.

Opening remarks by Moussa Oumarou, ILO’s Deputy Director-General for Field Operations & Partnerships.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Sangheon Lee

International Labour Organization

Moussa Oumarou

International Labour Organization

Images

Videos

Testimonials

Salle II

Future with Decent Jobs for Youth

In light of the continuous and rapid changes in the world of work, the opening panel focused on how to advance policy and global action to facilitate youth’s transition to decent work and accelerate progress towards a peaceful and sustainable future for young men and women. As job opportunities for young men and women are impacted by technological change, balancing supply and demand side policies remains critical in addressing both the quantity and quality of jobs for youth, including concerns over wages, informal jobs, and non-standard forms of employment. Social dialogue constitutes a strong avenue to deliver durable youth employment solutions today and in the future – fostering youth voices and protecting youth’s rights – and collaboration between governments, workers and employers should expand to education systems to ensure consistency in the school to work transition and facilitate skills accreditation and certification for youth with no formal education.

In fast changing labour markets, where uncertainty in skills forecasting is the norm, delivering job-relevant soft and hard skills and cultivating attitudes towards adaptability, up- and re-skilling, and lifelong learning are key to foster decent jobs for youth. Monitoring trends is crucial to ensure policies are transformative and positively impact long term prospects of young workers. Enabling a business environment with suitable legal and institutional frameworks is key to boost the development of enterprises and thus new jobs, and as new forms of employment driven by gig and platform economies emerge, it is vital to promote youth’s transition to the formal economy as well as access to social protection. Similarly, facilitating youth’s access to productive assets, including technology, can positively impact labour market outcomes in the rural economy, and bring about more inclusive hiring practices to promote decent work for young women.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

H.E. Socorro Flores Liera

Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations Office in Geneva

Roberto Suárez Santos

International Organisation of Employers

Plamen Dimitrov

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria

Anna Fendley

United Steelworkers

Noella Moshi

West Africa Vocational Education Academies

Gunilla von Hall

Svenska Dagbladet

Images

Videos

Testimonials

Salle II

Partners in Action: Innovating for Decent Jobs for Youth

Youth employment stakeholders worldwide work to ensure that young people have access to decent work. The Decent Jobs for Youth Initiative brings these stakeholders together as partners to achieve this common goal. In this session, the value of an overarching framework and shared priorities was highlighted, so that investments are not fragmented but rather rooted on a joint strategy and shared guiding principles to achieve greater impact. The increasing commitment of private sector partners as active actors was reinforced, including their direct contributions in the form of apprenticeships, paid internships, and engaging their employees as mentors for youth. For instance, International Youth Organism for IberoAmerica commits to organize National Youth Forums to promote the conversations and participation of young people and social actors to identify challenges and strategies to strength youth employment. Nestlé’s commitment is to help 10 million young people around the world have access to economic opportunities by 2030. Citi Foundation commits to prepare 500,000 young people, ages 16-24, in cities around the world for today’s competitive job market by 2020.

Commitments in two specific areas were stressed: soft skills and rural economies. With a growing awareness of the value of soft skills, investments are integrating soft skills development to support youth’s successful transition into the world of work, paying particular attention to the elements of gender and inclusivity. Likewise, the creation of opportunities for young people in rural economies among relevant value chains is crucial, and the use of new technologies can help attract youth’s interest in rural activities.  Partnering through the Global Initiative, expansion on these and other efforts can create sustainable positive change for young people everywhere.

Session organizer(s)

Organismo Internacional de Juventud para Iberoamérica (OIJ)

Organismo Internacional de Juventud para Iberoamérica (OIJ)

Speakers

Antonio Correa do Prado

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Kathryn Rowan

Nestlé

Florencia Spangaro

Citi Foundation

Alejandra Sáenz

International Youth Organization for Ibero-America

Susanna Pak

International Trade Centre

Images

Videos

Testimonials

Salle II

Priorities for action on youth employment

The Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth was launched with the goal to scale up action and impact on youth employment through effective, innovative and evidence-based interventions. In 2017, partners of the Global Initiative jointly developed thematic plans for eight key priority areas. Following a presentation by ILO’s Sukti Dasgupta on the Decent Jobs for Youth initiative, partners delivered lightning talks to introduce proposed actions across these priority areas:

  1. Digital skills for youth, presented by Kemal Huseinovic, Chief of the Infrastructure, Enabling Environment and E-Applications Department of the International Telecommunications Union: Equipping youth with digital skills present an unprecedented opportunity to connect youth with decent jobs, help employers fill jobs, and stimulate the economy.
  2. Quality apprenticeships, presented by Srinivas Reddy, ILO’s Chief of the Skills and Employability Branch: Supporting the development and scale-up of quality apprenticeships that are mutually beneficial for young people and enterprises.
  3. Youth in the rural economy, presented by Mariangels Fortuny, ILO’s Head of Forestry, Agriculture, Construction and Tourism Unit: Facilitating efficient agri-business, value chains, trainings, entrepreneurship models, access to productive resources to help boost youth employment in rural areas.
  4. Green jobs for youth, presented by Vic Van Vuuren, ILO’s Director of the Enterprises Department: Creating job opportunities through sustainable green infrastructure and fostering green entrepreneurial competencies for young people.
  5. Youth entrepreneurship and self-employment, presented by Ashish Shah, Director Division of Country Programmes at the International Trade Centre: Enabling suitable regulatory and policy environments, developing new financing mechanisms, and building enhanced support systems to encourage the creation of youth-led enterprises and help young entrepreneurs succeed.
  6. Youth transitioning to the formal economy, presented by Frédéric Lapeyre, ILO’s Head of Informal Economy Unit and Chief of the Development and Investment Branch (OIC): Upgrading informal apprenticeships, modernizing youth employment services, and promoting formal enterprises to support young people make positive transitions towards formal employment.
  7. Youth in fragile situations, presented by Donato Kiniger-Passigli, ILO’s Senior Specialist Crisis Response: Using new technologies to facilitate skills training for hard-to-reach youth, forging new partnerships between public and private sectors, and integrating interventions in a strategic manner (e.g. Graduation Approach) to promote employment for young men and women in fragile environments.
  8. Youth in hazardous occupations, presented by Beate Andrees, ILO’s Chief of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch: Expanding knowledge to help youth and employers better understand and address occupational safety and health risks to help secure safe working conditions for young workers.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Kemal Huseinovic

International Telecommunications Union

Srinivas Reddy

International Telecommunications Union

Mariangels Fortuny

International Telecommunications Union

Vic Van Vuuren

International Labour Organization

Ashish Shah

International Trade Centre

Frédéric Lapeyre

International Labour Organization

Donato Kiniger-Passigli

International Labour Organization

Beate Andrees

International Labour Organization

Sukti Dasgupta

International Labour Organization

Images

Videos

Reference links & documents

Testimonials

Bar des délégués R3

Networking lunch

The networking lunch provides an opportunity for participants to network in an informal setting, and to facilitate the discussion beyond the plenary sessions.

Session organizer(s)

Salle II

Statement by Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth

Introduced by Gunilla von Hall, Svenska Dagbladet

Session organizer(s)

Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY)

Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY)

Speakers

Jayathma Wickramanayake

Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth

Gunilla von Hall

Svenska Dagbladet

Videos

Testimonials

Salle II

Creating space for innovation

Innovation is a critical factor across the different work streams of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth. It is rooted in the recognition that disruptive innovations are key to reach the scale and impact needed to address the youth employment challenge, in a rapidly changing world of work. In this context, this session focused on how to innovate with the ultimate goal of boosting labour market outcomes of youth. Partners should challenge the status quo by encouraging an innovative culture and by finding ways to both strategize and operate in new and different ways. Innovation stems from people, making greater diversity in organizations a key factor to spur innovative approaches.

 

As to ways to enhance innovation capabilities within organizations, a prerequisite for the creation of a space for innovation is a committed leadership team willing to make calculated investments and also take this leap of faith. In terms of innovative processes, it is important to allow for innovation ‘slack time’ – that means, creating time for teams to innovate, rallying, and coming together to assess the ideas. Organizations may also consider setting up an innovation challenge, and when pursuing new ideas it is paramount to have a short prototyping cycle, as disruptive change often entails a high failure rate. While technology is often perceived as the force driving innovation, it is key to keep in mind that people drive innovation, and innovation drives change.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Heidi Strawson

Accenture

Gunilla von Hall

Svenska Dagbladet

Images

Videos

Reference links & documents

Testimonials

Salle XI

Quality Apprenticeships: Challenges and innovations

Apprenticeships can offer a reliable path to stable employment for youth and, at the same time, be an effective mechanism to meet the needs of enterprises. Despite widely perceived benefits of quality apprenticeships, many countries, particularly in the developing world, face challenges in establishing, scaling up and sustaining them. In this interactive session, panellists and participants discussed challenges and innovations to strengthen quality apprenticeships. Quality of apprenticeships needs to be promoted, by paying special attention to the legal or policy barriers to train young people, and by engaging educators with ad-hoc working groups. Appropriate remuneration is another important aspect: if it is not guaranteed, either apprenticeships risk becoming only available to well-off youth, or apprentices need to simultaneously hold another job to make ends meet, often resulting in large drop-out rates. In this context, a key role for governments is to ensure opportunities are effectively available to disadvantaged youth, including young women and individuals with disabilities. In some contexts, the information and perception of apprenticeships remains a challenge, making initiatives to increase the knowledge and promote the benefits of apprenticeships paramount. For example, through a business-driven alliance, the Global Apprenticeship Network works with private sector companies, business federations and associations to encourage business initiatives to create skills and employment opportunities for youth.

Session organizer(s)

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Speakers

Deborah Martierrez

U.S. Department of Labor

Regula Schegg

Global Apprenticeship Network

Zuzana Vaněčková

European Youth Forum

Ashwani Aggarwal

International Labour Organization

Images

Testimonials

Salle II

Creativity and innovation in rural youth employment programmes

With approximately 46 per cent of the world’s population, many of them young people, currently living in rural areas, young women and men can be catalysts for economic growth and development in rural economies. In this session, participants shared experiences of creative and innovative approaches to promote decent work for youth in the rural economy. Ensuring that young men and women in rural areas have access to an abundance and variety of quality jobs is not just important for their personal wellbeing, but also key to reducing poverty and achieving global food security. Potential channels to advance youth employment at global level include efforts to make agriculture attractive for young people, foster knowledge about business in agricultural areas beyond agronomy, training and mentoring of young farmers, and providing access to finance for young people. Technology, in particular, can and should play an important role in attracting youth to agriculture.

Among innovative programmes discussed during the session, YAPASA in Zambia takes a market facilitation approach to promote decent jobs for rural youth and improved food security through the development of sustainable rural enterprises by providing income credit and insurance for farmers. In Nigeria, the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme provides a framework for supporting targeted State-level investments to complement and leverage on-going programmes for youth employment in agriculture, with the aim to develop young commercial farmers and agri-business entrepreneurs along priority value chains. Further evidence comes from research on Ghana’s and Uganda’s experiences, highlighting the importance of diversifying farmers’ income and risk by growing multiple crops and pursuing a wide variety of activities. 

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Meredith Lee

Mastercard Foundation

Anita Tiessen

Youth Business International

Peter Wobst

FAO

Yann Wyss

Nestlé

Francesca Dalla Valle

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

El’vis Beytullayev

International Labour Organization

Testimonials

Salle VII

Young workers in hazardous occupations

This thematic session focused on how to incentivize large-scale industry-wide interventions promoting safe jobs for youth in hazardous occupations. Supporting the transition out of hazardous occupations constitutes an essential pillar of the ongoing efforts to promote high standards of occupational safety and health for young workers - a basic human right. Furthermore, working towards securing safe working conditions across the economy is valuable from an economic perspective as businesses’ market value tends to decrease when injury-related lawsuits are filed, and the lack of good practices and untrained workers may lead to inefficiencies in production and supply chains.  

To promote safe jobs for youth at industry-wide scale, the significance of mobilizing long-term resources and stimulating partnerships across sectors to create more sustainable initiatives was stressed during the session. The engagement of the communities concerned was also emphasized as a key aspect to better understand the challenges, establish priorities, and set realistic goals and targets. Initiatives should then be scaled-up based on concrete evidence, highlighting the need to expand the knowledge base on ‘what works’.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Fabio Segura

Jacobs Foundation

Benjamin Smith

International Labour Organization

Images

Salle II

Digital skills for youth

With millions of jobs requiring basic, intermediate and advanced digital skills in the coming decade, projections estimate a shortfall of skilled workers to fill these jobs. In the framework of the Digital Skills for Decent Jobs for Youth campaign, which aims to equip five million young people with job-ready digital skills by 2030, this session reviewed ongoing initiatives to prepare youth with relevant digital skills, increasing their employment prospects and helping to close skills gaps. Coding bootcamps were identified as one of the most promising approaches to provide rapid immersive training courses for young people. Opportunities to enhance training leveraging on advances in the areas of virtual reality and gamification were also highlighted. Among the major challenges identified were the diminishing long-term sustainability of many projects, difficulties in securing funding for scaling up after the pilot phase, and the lack of a clear regulatory framework around Artificial Intelligence.

 

As future actions to expand digital skills efforts through collaboration, the importance of integrating coding and computational thinking in school curricula and TVET programmes was stressed; tools such as the Digital Skills Toolkit can also be used to facilitate the development of comprehensive digital skills strategies. It was also noted that employers should be encouraged to reskill and upskills staff, and offer on-the-job training to provide specific coding skills and to increase the tenure of young people in companies. Addressing the gender digital divide and careful analysis of new trends to inform future investments remain critical to prepare youth for the future of work in the digital economy.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

William Natta

International Telecommunications Union

Images

Salle XI

Connecting the dots: youth employment, environment and innovation

Growth in the green economy can provide an opportunity to address the youth employment challenge by generating new job prospects for young men and women while improving environmental quality and climate resilience. As employment in the green economy often requires certain levels of education and specific skill sets, the key role of education and skills development to support young people in preparing for the green jobs opportunities was a key focus of this thematic session. It was highlighted that educational and skills training curricula should be adequately informed by market analyses of key green sectors and value chains, anticipating and monitoring skills needs of employers in the green economy. It was also noted that, as women are disproportionately affected by climate change since they are more subject to extreme weather-related displacements as primary caregivers, special attention should be paid to fostering training and job opportunities for young women. 

 

Noting the importance of both public and private-led interventions to create and promote green jobs for youth, the scope for public employment programmes to complement job creation by the private sector and advance green jobs for youth was stressed. Public employment programmes can serve not only to generate job opportunities, but also target the most vulnerable youth and provide social safety nets while address environmental problems and promoting a circular “zero waste” economy. At the same time, private sector actors can be catalysts for innovation in the sector, reinforcing the value of multi-stakeholder partnerships to stimulating job creation for young women and men in green sectors.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Francesca Dalla Valle

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Florencia Spangaro

Citi Foundation

Mito Tsukamoto

International Labour Organization

Catherine Saget

International Labour Organization

Camilla Roman

International Labour Organization

Testimonials

Salle VII

Youth transitioning to the formal economy

With over three quarters of young people around the world working in informal jobs, which entail decent work deficits such as lack of job security and social protection as well as low remuneration, supporting youth’s transition to the formal economy is paramount to advance progress towards the SDGs. Discussions in this thematic session highlighted the need for growth policies in targeted sectors that have large potential for first job creation for youth. These policies should be accompanied by the provision of job-relevant skills trainings, including soft skills, to increase the likelihood of finding a job in the formal economy. Furthermore, as entrepreneurship can have a significant impact on youth’s labour market outcomes, innovations to promote the establishment of first formal enterprises were also identified as potential channels to promote the transition of young people to the formal economy. These may include tax incentives, increased access to capital, technical assistance, and facilitated registration processes for young entrepreneurs. More broadly, strengthened regulatory frameworks and a “sticks and carrots” approach to incentivize employers to formalize youth employment were underscored as critical for a proper formalization process. Facilitating young people’s transition to the formal economy ultimately requires an integrated strategy to create job opportunities, enhance their employability in formal jobs, promote young entrepreneurs, and provide incentives for employers to formalize contracts.   

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Frédéric Lapeyre

International Labour Organization

Peter Shiras

International Labour Organization

Vicky Leung

International Labour Organization

Images

Testimonials

ILO Library

Marketplace: commitments and actions

The Marketplace provided an interactive platform for participants’ organizations to share their ongoing and upcoming youth employment action and commitments highlighting innovations, achievements and collaboration opportunities

AIESEC: Youth Global Employability

EFE: The future of decent jobs for youth in the MENA

FAO: Commitment to Decent Rural Youth Employment

Generation Spain: Tackling a Global Problem: An Innovative Approach

ITC: Investing in market-relevant skills and entrepreneurship

Mercy Corps: Youth Employment and Fragile Contexts: Examples from the Middle East

Save the Children: Dooit: It’s simple to save and gain the skills you need for success!

Save the Children, Denmark: Partnership between the IT company Coders Trust and Save the Children empowering youth on ICT in Bangladesh

SOS Children's Villages International: YouthCan! Multi-stakeholder partnerships for youth employability

YBI: Thriving in the new digital economy: Innovations to support youth entrepreneurs and the organizations that serve them

 

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Susanna Pak

International Trade Centre

Dafne Sartorio

AIESEC

Salvatore Nigro

Education For Employment

Jihane Lahbabi

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Lamia Chaffai

EFE Tunisia

Peter Wobst

FAO

Carlos Bertran

Generation Spain

Madhu Fernando

ITC

Nathalie Gunasekera

Mercy Corps

Silvia Paruzzolo

Save the Children

Helle Gudmandsen

Save the Children

Patricia Molano

SOS Children's Villages International

Anita Tiessen

Youth Business International

Christina Kappaz

YBI

Images

Salle II

Youth entrepreneurship and self-employment

Entrepreneurs are important income providers and job creators. They can benefit booming economies by challenging existing enterprises to innovate, keeping up with rapidly changing technologies and global markets, as well as stagnant economies by boosting labour demand, developing innovative goods and services, and stimulating competition. This session explored priority actions and innovative approaches to support self-employment and entrepreneurship among youth.  Some of the action areas identified as critical for the promotion of youth entrepreneurship and self-employment were (i) Mentorship around business skills, technical skills, and access to markets, among others; (ii) Access to finance; (iii) Creation of enabling business environments. In particular, mentoring and entrepreneurship training for early stage entrepreneurs, as well as the potential of technology to empower youth to explore market opportunities were highlighted.

The dialogue underlined the importance of entrepreneurship-friendly policies to encourage young entrepreneurs to start their business, of platforms to connect entrepreneurs, mentors and investors, of building linkages with larger companies and cooperatives, and lastly of helping young entrepreneurs who have learned from a first failure to attract seed capital. Supporting innovations and investments in this area can have large and lasting benefits, as young entrepreneurs are more likely to hire other youth, thus acting as catalysts and creating more economic opportunities for young women and men.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Nathalie Gunasekera

Mercy Corps

Karen Moore

Mastercard Foundation

Marlen de la Chaux

International Labour Organization

Rhizlan El Alaoui

Quicktech Morocco

David Cordobés

International Trade Centre

Images

Reference links & documents

Testimonials

Salle XI

Youth employment for peace and resilience: Innovative approaches for impact and evidence in fragile situations

Recognizing that employment can contribute to peace by creating constructive contact between groups, by increasing economic opportunities, and by addressing grievances of unfair treatment and inequality, this thematic session focused on innovative thinking around empowering young people impacted by complex emergencies and conflicts. Enhancing the evidence base, as well as finding effective ways to disseminate knowledge, so that lessons learnt can be translated into effective implementation remains a key priority. Among the critical areas that need to be addressed, the identification of indicators to measure impactin fragile situations, as well the limited availability to the public of progress reports that capture rich information on programmes, were mentioned.

As to what works for promoting promoting youth employment for peace and resilience, entrepreneurship has an important role to play in conflict settings since generally there are not many jobs available – especially in rural areas, which are often the worst affected. Furthermore, young entrepreneurs tend to evolve in all-around leaders in their communities, promoting peace. The development of life skills, in particular re-socialization traits, was also identified as a key aspect to empower youth, especially in fragile situations. As a further measure to address the massive number of youth affected by protracted conflicts and emergencies, the possibility of having young people work together in market places or cooperatives was also highlighted.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Christina Kappaz

YBI

Nour Shammout

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

Kawtar Zerouali

United Nations Development Programme

Donato Kiniger-Passigli

International Labour Organization

Testimonials

Salle II

Innovative action takeaways: reflections from young leaders

The last panel of the first day reflected on the afternoon’s thematic discussions around the Global Initiative’s eight priority areas, where a variety of experiences and inspiring actions on decent jobs for youth were shared. The importance of social dialogue and cooperation between key youth employment stakeholders was stressed across all thematic sessions, with emphasis on the role of engagement of youth. Future initiatives to promote youth employment may consider the key takeaways of the various sessions:

  1. The need to equip a larger number of young people with digital skills to fill emerging jobs in the rapidly changing world of work, paying special attention to designing initiatives that are sustainable in the long-term and can be scaled up.
  2. The potential of quality apprenticeships to address growing concerns over skills mismatches, especially if they are based on dialogue between social partners and responsive to evolving needs of employers and young people.
  3. The importance of creating more opportunities for youth in rural areas, especially young women, by facilitating young people’s access to production resources, promoting economic diversification, increasing technology adoption, and enhancing the engagement of private sector partners.
  4. The focus on skills development to prepare youth for green jobs, which represent a growing employment opportunity and at the same time help address the challenges brought by climate change.
  5. The role of youth entrepreneurship and self-employment to empower youth and enable them to create jobs for themselves and for their peers, by supporting youth from the early stages of setting a business through better access to finance and mentoring, to the creation of an enabling business environment.
  6. The promotion of targeted policies in booming sectors with job-creation potential to foster youth’s transition to the formal economy by, for example, incentivizing both formal wage employment experiences for youth, and the establishment of formal enterprises by young entrepreneurs.
  7. The value of entrepreneurship as a valuable pathway to creating employment in fragile settings, which in these contexts should be particularly complemented by soft skills training, access to finance, and mentoring.
  8. The need to move beyond recognizing risks in hazardous occupations towards empowering youth to identify hazardous conditions themselves and minimize workplace incidents.

The multi-dimensional nature of the youth employment challenge calls for holistic and innovative approaches to advance decent work for youth. Strengthening partnerships and the mobilization of governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, youth groups, private sector partners, international agencies and other key stakeholders, remain critical towards sustainability of future endeavours.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Delila Kidanu

ThinkYoung

Zuzana Vaněčková

European Youth Forum

Jonas Bausch

International Labour Organization

Nour Shammout

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

Madhu Fernando

ITC

Dafne Sartorio

AIESEC

Viridiana Murillo Robledo

United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth

Zainab Abudeeb

General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions

Susana Puerto

International Labour Organization

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Thu, 3 May 2018 08:00 am To 18:00 pm

Innovative Financing Day

ILO Library

The one-on-one meetings session is a dedicated time for pre-arranged one-on-one meetings with other participants to explore collaboration opportunities on decent jobs for youth.

Session organizer(s)

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Salle II

The SDGs and the related youth employment targets can only be achieved through coherent and coordinated strategies that are able to attract funding from diverse sources, particularly domestic, in both the public and private sectors. This session reviewed some of the key components to advance the sustainable financing of interventions on decent jobs for youth. Based on lessons from previous implementation of youth employment programs, the adoption of a demand-driven approach and buy-in of the private sector from the onset, coupled with strong collaboration with government agencies, were identified as two critical factors to ensure that financing can be sustained. The imperative of leaving no-one behind and investing to address the needs of the most vulnerable, including young women, should also be at the centre of financing plans of youth employment programmes and policies.

 

In terms of scaling up action that leads to high impact on labour market outcomes of youth, the need for long-term commitments and engagement of broader partnerships, along the support of capacity building efforts, were noted. In particular, the role of private sector incentives towards investment in sustainable development are critical as it is likely to have the largest transformative effect over time. Furthermore, more research and knowledge on ‘what works’ in youth employment programmes remains critical to mobilize resources with a view to achieving scale and impact.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Maria Luisa Silva

UNDP

Meredith Lee

Mastercard Foundation

Rie Vejs-Kjeldgaard

International Labour Organization

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Salle II

Given the need to supplement traditional funding channels and engage additional stakeholders, this session showcased experiences in promoting innovations in the financial sector to achieve impact and scale in the youth employment field. New approaches in the financing of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to increase youth employability include: Voucher Systems to allow disadvantaged youth to access courses offered by accredited VET institutions; Results-based Financing to incentivize stronger connections between employers and VET institutions; and Financing Facilities, notably grants, to VET providers through competitive processes that reward institutions that work hand-in-hand with the private sector in the development and improvement of educational proposals. These opportunities are designed specifically to support the VET sector while promoting a greater engagement of the private sector.

 

The financial sector can also play a key role in supporting youth self-employment and entrepreneurship by, for instance, providing young entrepreneurs with training and a loan to develop their business idea, and once the project is bankable and the loan is being repaid, by offering a grant to kick-off the business. Investors can likewise tackle the lack of credit history - a traditional barrier that young people encounter when starting their own business - incentivizing the behavioural change of microfinance institutions by developing financial tools such as first loss mechanisms. While a business’ early stages are generally the most challenging for young entrepreneurs, flexibility to adapt financial tools according to the life-cycle of the business is crucial to foster long-term sustainable employment outcomes for youth.

In terms of scaling up action that leads to high impact on labour market outcomes of youth, the need for long-term commitments and engagement of broader partnerships, along the support of capacity building efforts, were noted. In particular, the role of private sector incentives towards investment in sustainable development are critical as it is likely to have the largest transformative effect over time. Furthermore, more research and knowledge on ‘what works’ in youth employment programmes remains critical to mobilize resources with a view to achieving scale and impact.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Hille Henebry

KfW

Sarita Bartlett

OBVIAM

Craig Churchill

International Labour Organization

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Salle VII

The Football for Decent Jobs for Youth meeting offered an open space to reflect on the youth employment challenge, the importance of a rights based approach to foster employability and quality jobs for youth through sports, and innovative solutions facilitating youth’s transition into the labour market today.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Juan Hunt

International Labour Organization

Cyril Pellevat

UEFA Foundation for Children and Sénateur de la Haute-Savoie

Sukti Dasgupta

International Labour Organization

Guido Battaglia

Institute for Human Rights and Business

Hubert Rovers

European Football for Development Network

John McDonald

Everton Football Club

Johannes Axster

streetfootballworld

Susana Puerto

International Labour Organization

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Reference links & documents

Salle II

Results-based financing (RBF), where financial resources are provided against the achievement of outcomes, have been increasingly used to improve the effectiveness of social programs. In this session, Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and Outcome Funds were discussed as examples of RBF to finance youth employment initiatives. Through a SIB, non-government entities such as private investors or foundations front the funds for a provider to implement the programme, which is then evaluated. If the programme attains pre-defined employment outcomes, the government or donor agency pays the investor back plus a profit. Otherwise, the funder takes a loss. It was noted that while SIBs have the potential to improve employment outcomes, they are complex financial instruments as they involve multiple actors from different sectors, and further research is needed to evaluate their efficacy. Similarly, Outcome Funds disburse funding once a pre-specified outcome is achieved; this is a more market-based approach but can be more scalable than SIBs. The measurability of outcomes, along the development of solid business cases for investors seeking financial and social returns, were identified as critical success factors for this type of financial mechanisms.

 

More broadly, it was highlighted that, by focusing on outcomes rather than activities, RBF provides greater flexibility to service providers to adapt their model during the course of the intervention, allowing interventions to be more reactive to changing labour market needs. Furthermore, through mechanisms such as differential pricing, RBF can encourage service providers to pursue outcomes to reach the most vulnerable youth. As the utilization of RBFs continues to expand, a sound understanding of the barriers to the outcomes to be achieved and of the context of the intervention are paramount to decide how to design these innovative instruments.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Debra Hevenstone

Bern University of Applied Sciences

Milena Castellnou

Instiglio

Leo Van Loon

BuzinezzClub

Vic Van Vuuren

International Labour Organization

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Salle II

In the last decade, impact investing and crowdfunding have gained momentum as innovative finance mechanisms. This session provided an overview of these new channels to mobilize private capitals. Representing USD 114 billion in assets, the potential of impact investing - that is, investments that aim at generating a positive social and/or environmental impact alongside economic returns - was stressed, highlighting the importance of providing technical assistance to adapt financial systems to new beneficiaries, such as youth. At the same time, crowdfunding - that is, leveraging tech platforms to raise funds, typically with a large number of people providing small amounts of funding - has registered an exponential growth over the last seven years. This financing tool could be especially relevant for young entrepreneurs who typically do not have a credit history but may have innovative ideas attractive to the crowd.

 

While it was noted that accelerators and incubators, venture funds, and blended finance platforms are trying to bridge the gap in job training and placement and promoting a cultural shift towards more sustainable investments towards achieving youth employment outcomes, the non-financial viability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which reduces their investment attractiveness, was remarked as one of the biggest challenges to address. Thus, especially for youth-led SMEs, investors should provide longer timeframes for investment, technical assistance, and accept less significant exit options. Furthermore, as innovative forms of financing are adopted, impact measures remain crucial to support youth and unlock capital.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Maria Teresa Zappia

BlueOrchard

Alice Gugelev

Global Development Incubator

Patrick Elmer

iGravity

Patricia Richter

International Labour Organization

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R2

The World Café session is a session based on group discussions on leveraging innovative financing to scale up action on youth employment. Participants have a chance to be exposed to all 3 topics. They discuss question 1 for one topic, then move to question 2 for another topic, and then question 3 for the last topic. Bell will be rang or music will be played to indicate end of discussion. Hosts encourage participants to move to another table. The three topics and three questions are:

  • 3 TOPICS
  1. Results based financing
  2. Impact investing
  3. Crowdfunding

 

Question 1: What inspired, surprised or challenged you in what you heard on innovative financing today?    

Question 2: What’s emerging for your work?

Sub-Question for the host:

How are this innovative financing mechanism relevant to your work?  What opportunities do you see? What new connections are you making?

Question 3: With regards to innovative financing, what needs the immediate attention of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and its network to scale up action and impact on labour market outcomes of youth?

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Valter Nebuloni

International Labour Organization

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ILO Library

The Marketplace provided an interactive platform for participants’ organizations identify collaboration opportunities across thematic priorities of Decent Jobs for Youth.

  • FAO and ILO: Promoting decent jobs for youth in the rural economy: creativity and innovation
  • ILO and iGravity: What can we learn from (and for) ILO’s engagement with the financial sector for youth employment?
  • ITC, ILO, UNCDF, UNCTAD, UNIDO: Action for youth entrepreneurship and self-employment
  • The Aspen Institute and Global Development Incubator: Global Opportunity Youth Coalition
  • UNDP and ILO: Youth Employment for Peace and Resilience
  • UN Environment and ILO: Green jobs for youth
  • UNESCO and ILO: Quality apprenticeships
  • WHO and ILO: The OECD - ILO – WHO Working for Health programme

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Susanna Pak

International Trade Centre

Peter Wobst

FAO

Patricia Richter

International Labour Organization

Patrick Elmer

iGravity

David Cordobés

International Trade Centre

Marlen de la Chaux

International Labour Organization

Jamie McAuliffe

The Aspen Institute

Alice Gugelev

Global Development Incubator

Luisa Bernal

UNDP

Felix Rüdiger

International Labour Organization

In Woo Jung

UN Environment

Mito Tsukamoto

International Labour Organization

Ashwani Aggarwal

International Labour Organization

Basem Mohamed

World Health Organization

Delphine Santini

International Labour Organization

David Kapya

International Labour Organization

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Salle II

The 2030 Agenda has placed the importance and urgency of achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all at the centre of a shared new development vision. The Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth represents a unique partnership platform to promote youth employment and has secured 26 pledges for action that aim to improve the quantity and the quality of jobs for over 16 million young women and men around the world. At the closing panel, partners of the Initiative shared their strategic views to advance the Initiative’s objective, emphasizing the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships to create decent job opportunities, empower youth, and secure a positive pathway of tangible contributions towards youth employment and the SDGs.

Recognizing the need to mobilize resources to increase the scale of activities leading up to the year 2030, partners highlighted the importance of the SDG fund and of leveraging innovative financing mechanisms. Investments in skills development remain a vital steppingstone to improve employment outcomes of youth, and a focus on life, digital and entrepreneurship skills is key to connect young people to growing job opportunities in a changing world of work. The engagement of youth and contextualization of strategies need to remain priorities as the Initiative moves forward with scaling up action and impact at country-level.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Irina Akinshina

Lukoil

Frank van Rompaey

United Nations Industrial Development Organization to the UN in Geneva

Yushi Torigoe

International Telecommunications Union

Akustina Morni

International Organisation of Employers

Luiz Gustavo de Padua Walfrido Filho

General Union of Workers in Brazil

Salvatore Nigro

Education For Employment

Patricia Molano

SOS Children's Villages International

Sukti Dasgupta

International Labour Organization

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Salle II

The closing remarks highlighted four strategic elements of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and called for actions from potential partners. It also included the acknowledgement for the stakeholders and individuals who supported the organizing of the event.

Session organizer(s)

Speakers

Sukti Dasgupta

International Labour Organization

Sangheon Lee

International Labour Organization

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