Sunday, October 15, 2006
YEN in W.Africa
Ok. Work wise: Started 6 weeks ago. took me a couple of weeks to get settled in, get a desk (which should change in a few days, with the completion of he YEN wing of the UNOWA offices)
The new YEN unit that is to be set up as part of the UNOWA structure here will have specific mandates:
1. Serve as a clearing house for the collection and monitoring of information, documentation and statistics regarding youth employment in the West Africa sub-region;
2. Liaise with relevant national and regional authorities in the elaboration of National Action Plans on Youth Employment;
3. Help co-ordinate youth projects and activities and generally monitor progress at a regional level;
4. Help co-ordinate resource-mobilization among development partners, aimed at addressing employment issues. Although it is based in Dakar, the YEN unit covers all ECOWAS.
The situation here is particular in the sense that the YEN will have a regional scope. The goal is to be working with the 16 ECOWAS countries to tackle the YE issues for many reasons:Youth Employment is not only an economic issue, but rather a social, security and international issue for West Africa. Unemployment feeds off and creates conflict! Unemployment leads to desperate attempts to flee one's own country in tremendously dangerous ventures to reach the coasts of Spain or Italy in search for a better life. Unemployment leads youth to loose hope and turn to "war-entrepreneurs" as an outlet.
In order to tackle these pressing issues, the YEN will have to work with all the ECOWAS states to devise a regional strategy that will limit trafficking, illegal movements while promoting integration and harmonization of best practices. For your reference, a Study has been done on Youth Unemployment and Insecurity in West Africa, which is pretty much self explainatory: The issue of YE in West Africa is primordial and touches upon nearly every aspect of everyday life out here. West Africa has known and is still amidst growing civil and armed conflicts, youth unemployment is both a cause and a consequence of this alarming situation. Because the unit is working with UNOWA, who, as related to the UN Security Council has a peace keeping mandate, the later component has to be present in all initiatives. The unit just recently completed recruiting of a YE specialist to start in about a month.
The first task will be the writing of a Best Practices and policies evaluation for YE in W.A. This week, a few decisions were made:
- Firstly, in collaboration with UNIDO/YEN, the candidate was actually selected and informed of the decision.
- The creation of a workgroup to begin work in evaluating practical activities to be undertaken by the YEN
- A timeframe for future activities - Some progress was made in terms of data collection
The new YEN unit that is to be set up as part of the UNOWA structure here will have specific mandates:
1. Serve as a clearing house for the collection and monitoring of information, documentation and statistics regarding youth employment in the West Africa sub-region;
2. Liaise with relevant national and regional authorities in the elaboration of National Action Plans on Youth Employment;
3. Help co-ordinate youth projects and activities and generally monitor progress at a regional level;
4. Help co-ordinate resource-mobilization among development partners, aimed at addressing employment issues. Although it is based in Dakar, the YEN unit covers all ECOWAS.
The situation here is particular in the sense that the YEN will have a regional scope. The goal is to be working with the 16 ECOWAS countries to tackle the YE issues for many reasons:Youth Employment is not only an economic issue, but rather a social, security and international issue for West Africa. Unemployment feeds off and creates conflict! Unemployment leads to desperate attempts to flee one's own country in tremendously dangerous ventures to reach the coasts of Spain or Italy in search for a better life. Unemployment leads youth to loose hope and turn to "war-entrepreneurs" as an outlet.
In order to tackle these pressing issues, the YEN will have to work with all the ECOWAS states to devise a regional strategy that will limit trafficking, illegal movements while promoting integration and harmonization of best practices. For your reference, a Study has been done on Youth Unemployment and Insecurity in West Africa, which is pretty much self explainatory: The issue of YE in West Africa is primordial and touches upon nearly every aspect of everyday life out here. West Africa has known and is still amidst growing civil and armed conflicts, youth unemployment is both a cause and a consequence of this alarming situation. Because the unit is working with UNOWA, who, as related to the UN Security Council has a peace keeping mandate, the later component has to be present in all initiatives. The unit just recently completed recruiting of a YE specialist to start in about a month.
The first task will be the writing of a Best Practices and policies evaluation for YE in W.A. This week, a few decisions were made:
- Firstly, in collaboration with UNIDO/YEN, the candidate was actually selected and informed of the decision.
- The creation of a workgroup to begin work in evaluating practical activities to be undertaken by the YEN
- A timeframe for future activities - Some progress was made in terms of data collection
# posted by Craig Young @ 4:34 AM 
