(4^th June 2021) YMCA, one of the oldest and largest youth-focused movements in the world, has pledged its commitment to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth.

Its commitment aims to empower young people to identify their unique employment pathway in a world of work in transformation, and to equip them with the skills to thrive. It has two main components:

• A three-day YMCA Youth-Led Solutions educational summit on ‘the Future of Work’, 7-9 June 2021, designed to build young people’s knowledge about future work employment pathways including entrepreneurship, apprenticeship, the role of technology, jobs in the growing Green, Care, and Creative economies, linking all this with UN Sustainable Development Goals in the context of a bright future of work.


• A one-year programme for the design and implementation of youth-led solutions to local youth employment challenges. Young people will apply their knowledge in designing and testing solutions to local youth employment challenges or in business ideas, with support from their local YMCAs and mentors.

Speaking ahead of the Summit, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said: “ I am delighted to welcome the World YMCA to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, a collective effort of the UN system as a whole, which today brings together a diverse group of over 80 organizations committed to the promotion of more and better jobs for youth. I look forward to a strong and close collaboration with them to make decent jobs a reality for all.”

World YMCA Secretary General Carlos Sanvee said: “We are thrilled to join the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth. The pandemic is having a devastating impact on young people’s livelihoods and employment prospects. So YMCA commits to building young people’s knowledge about the changing world of work, the importance of agility, and the significance of the SDGs on decent work. Above and beyond our ‘Future of Work’ Summit, we will be coaching and seed-funding small projects as young people design their own solutions to their own and their communities’ employment challenges.  This is the future: young people have always led us out of crisis – we set the stage, and they take over.”

Dr Marco Tavanti, Director of the Non-Profit Administration Graduate Program at the University of San Francisco which is one of World YMCA’s partner in the Youth-Led Solutions Initiative, said: “We at the University of San Francisco share a Jesuit mission to educate minds and hearts to have a better future for all. We are inspired and excited to collaborate in the Youth-Led Solutions Initiative with our friends at the World YMCA and Y USA. Joining forces is important to accompany and empower new generations to find solutions for our common future and common good. We are eager to provide our collaborative expertise in a world where the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution require competent skills-sets and value-mindsets for a common agenda for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships.”  

World YMCA’s commitment will boost action and impact on two core areas of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth: Digital Skills for Youth and Green Jobs for Youth.

 The Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Decent Jobs for Youth was launched in 2016 as a UN system-wide effort, focusing on the youth employment challenge that is central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has emerged as a global, multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together governments, social partners, the private sector, youth and civil society organizations, and others. They work together to share knowledge, leverage resources and take action at country and regional level, to support young people in accessing decent work and productive employment worldwide.

For more information, please contact:

Wold Alliance of YMCAs, Youth Led Solutions Initiative Coordinator, Gloria Anyika I gloria@ymca.int

Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth I decentjobsforyouth@ilo.org