|
|
| by Realm - Creating Work You Want, |
Sep 8, 2002 |
Over 1,000 young people from around the world have gathered in Alexandria, Egypt this week to examine and discuss youth employment issues at the Youth Employment Summit (YES). The first global conference of its kind, organized by the Massachusetts-based Education Development Center, is taking place at the Library of Alexandria and comes at a time when 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1 per day. There are currently more than one billion youth aged 15 to 24 in the world, and by the year 2010, an additional 700 million youth in developing nations will enter the labour market.
Overcoming barriers ranging from poverty, illiteracy, war and HIV, youth delegates representing over 140 countries have converged to collaborate on a decade campaign of action to enable an additional 500 million young people to live in a sustainable manner by 2012. “We must focus on how to develop sustainable livelihoods for people coming of age in today’s knowledge economy,” said the Honourable Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Summit Co-chair, at the opening ceremonies on September 7. “We cannot face the challenges of tomorrow with yesterday’s skills.”
Summit delegates will participate in a week’s worth of workshops to share ideas, success stories and challenges from their home countries. “There are two big problems in Romania,” says delegate Sergiu Teodosiu of Leaders Romania. “Many people leave to study or work in other countries. The problem is not that they go—but they don’t come back. The other problem is that people in rural regions are very poor—they do not have the necessary education or skills.”
Problems such as this are the focus of the summit, which is designed to give delegates the tools and networks to return to their countries with a plan of action for creating careers for youth. Already, more than 60 countries have established their own YES country networks, engaging stakeholders from governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
Canada’s Jennifer Corriero, co-founder of TakingITGlobal, has developed a Global Knowledge Resource Web site, which houses a growing global alliance of YES country networks. “Our work is based on the belief in the power of young people to create change in society,” she says. “This site is about leveraging new technology and sharing skills and resources.”
Delegate Liliana Davalos, a 28-year-old master of ecology student at Columbia University in New York and a native of Colombia, is at YES representing Global Environmental Facility, an organization that works with farmers in rural communities around the world. “There will be no future for youth unless there is a planet left,” she says. “My organization has been supporting local farmers, many of which have been moving to urban areas and facing unemployment. Now we need to increase sustainability in farming. We have been contacting local scientists and farmers—focusing on traditional ways that work. People come together and exchange their knowledge. We need to secure a future for young people in rural areas.”
Canada is also represented at the summit, with delegates from both government agencies and NGOs who are hoping to make connections that can be strengthened back home. “I think networks die if they’re not continually fed with energy and information and communication,” says Thunder Bay native Terri Sundin, a representative of Canada World Youth, which offers young Canadians the opportunity to explore other countries and cultures. “I think our challenge will be to build a network here and to use it strategically to make positive change for youth employment around the world.”
On the first day of the summit, delegates met for orientation to identify problems and challenges both globally and in their individual nations. As the summit continues, delegates will explore the problems in more depth and develop strategies for solving them. “This is probably the best forum to actually build something that’s sustainable,” says Sundin.
For more info on the Youth Employment Summit, go to [http://www.youthemploymentsummit.org]. To check out the Global Knowledge Resource online, go to [http://www.youthemploymentsummit.org/gkr.html].
For daily REALM Magazine coverage of the Youth Employment Summit in Egypt, keep an eye out on http://www.realm.net or right here on http://www.takingitglobal.orgNehal Wagih, 19, engineering student, Arab Academy of Science, Alexandria, Egypt
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Comments
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
