Youth Employment Network(YEN)
YEN – the Global Initiative
The Youth Employment Network (YEN) was created under the impetus of the Millennium Declaration, at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, where heads of state resolved to " develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work. "
The Network is a partnership between the UN, the World Bank and the ILO. The YEN includes a High Level Panel of experts and practitioners on youth employment which produced a set of policy recommendations focusing on the 4 Es, namely; Employability, Employment Creation, Equal Opportunities and Entrepreneurship.
Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Namibia, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Sri Lanka volunteered as Lead Countries in this process.
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Background – Youth Unemployment in Sri Lanka
Youth unemployment has been recognized as a serious problem in Sri Lanka since the nineteen sixties. Two major insurgencies and the ethnic conflict are attributed largely to youth unrest and unemployment. Current estimates have placed youth unemployment at approximately 40 per cent of the total unemployed.
YEN-SL
Sri Lanka volunteered to be a Lead Country of the YEN and set up the YEN Secretariat (YEN-SL) in 2004, with assistance from the ILO. The Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational and Technical Education (MOSDVTE) is the focal Ministry, under which YEN-SL has been gazetted as a recognized institution. The key responsibilities of YEN-SL are:
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Facilitating the development and implementation of an integrated Plan of Action
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Facilitating the coordination of ongoing and new initiatives to address the problem of youth employment
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Promoting partnerships, including the participation of youth
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Liaising with other YEN lead countries and with the YEN network at the global level
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Assisting in the mobilization of resources, both nationally and internationally to enable the implementation of the Plan of Action
YEN-SL collaborates with the Youth Employment Network in Indonesia and Vietnam in “Promoting Youth Employment in Asia” as a part of a project funded by the Netherlands Partnership Programme (NPP).
YEN-SL has initiated a number of activities to promote the YEN agenda, especially towards networking and setting up an Information Resource Centre.
Contact:
Mr. Deepthi Lamahewa
Chief Executive Officer
Youth Employment Network Sri Lanka
“Nipunatha Piyasa”
6th Floor, No. 354/2,
Elvitigala Mawatha
Colombo 5
Tel: + 94 11 2502093
E-mail:
URL:
Progress so far…
KAB for Vocational Training Institutes
YEN-SL is facilitating the introduction of the Know About Business (KAB) modules to secondary schools and vocational training institutes.
YEN-SL has been successful in;
• Conducting a Train the Trainers workshop in August 2004 together with SIYB Sri Lanka
• Introducing modules to the curriculum of Draftsmanship and welding courses conducted by the Vocational Training Authority.
• Discussing the possibility of introducing Entrepreneurship to the secondary school curriculum in 2007, with the Department of Education and the National Institute of Education (NIE).
GIS Database for Youth Related Information in Sri Lanka
A Geographical Information System (GIS), which produces statistical (attributes) and locational (spatial) data, was completed in early 2005. The System was established in collaboration with the University of Colombo. The information from the System could be obtained from the YEN-SL.
Data base and Directory - Youth Development Projects in Sri Lanka
YEN-SL has compiled a directory and database of significant Youth Employment Projects and Programmes in Sri Lanka.
Please contact YEN-SL to include details of your project or for further details.
Social Communication Project
A key recommendation of the report on The Youth Employment Challenge in Sri Lanka is conducting a nation wide campaign, targeted at different groups and using different means of communication to change perceptions and aspirations of youth regarding job choices. The reason sited is the perception and the negative attitude of youth, their parents and the society at large, towards employment and the dignity of labour.
In this context, the ILO together with YEN-SL has developed a strategy for a long term communication campaign.
The first phase of the Social Communication Project commenced in May 2005. This phase encompasses;
• 82 consultative meetings in 6 districts including districts in the North and East;
• the participation of youth, parents, teachers, religious leaders, political leadership, media, NGOs, public officials, business leaders and other key stakeholders;
• the use of communication material such as a documentary film, presentations, brochures and skits, designed to motivate key stakeholders to think solutions, support initiatives and seek as well as achieve effective results.
The second phase, which is the long-term campaign, will be conducted by a carefully selected specialized agency/organization and is expected to contain a media mix of conventional and unconventional forms of communication.
The National Action Plan
A key responsibility of the YEN-SL is to formulate a National Action Plan (NAP) aimed at;
a) analyzing the problem of youth unemployment;
b) strategizing the responses needed;
c) determining the what and the how of implementation;
d) coordinating the implementation
e) ensuring the monitoring of results.
A National Task Force for Youth Employment will be appointed by the Minister of the focal Ministry, together with YEN-SL would be responsible for formulating the NAP. Its development will also involve broad consultation with significant national stakeholders, including the youth.
As a first step towards developing Sri Lanka’s NAP, a National Report on Youth Employment titled The Youth Employment Challenge in Sri Lanka was produced. Recommendations generated by this report as well as the input of several issue papers centred around the “4Es” being prepared, will be considered when developing the NAP.
Scheduled to be finalized and announced in 2006, the formulation of the NAP is supported by the ILO, the World Bank and the German Government.