Arab Youth Development Network
The MENA Region has the highest
youth unemployment rates in the
world. 100M, or 30% of the
population are between the ages
of 15 and 29 (Silatech, 2010 ).
Egypt
Jordan
Palestinian Territories
Iraq
Lebanon
Yemen
Morocco
Tunisia
Libya
2012
What the Middle East lacks is
channels that connect young people
with promising long term
opportunities (American University of Beirut).
Challenges facing young people in MENA
• Short term job creation packages can do more harm than good if not linked to
lasting employment.
• Youth Policy makers rarely engage young people in decisions.
• Institutional Reform: trade reform won’t benefit young people unless institutional
structures stop favouring older generations.
• Access to Financial Services: Lending institutions incorrectly perceive young people
as risky, and access to building productive assets (eg. savings) is very low in formal
institutions.
• Few opportunities for youth as civic actors during the gap between
education and job: Civic opportunities can increase economic prospects.
• The Education/Skills-Market mis-match: education systems are not preparing
youth for today’s labor market, and career counselling is virtually non-existent in most
countries.
• Social and Cultural Norms that create barriers to access opportunities, particularly
for young women.
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The Youth Network Theory of Change
Workforce Development – Skills,
Mentoring and Education
(Connected services will address the education/
skills - market mismatch)
Young people need relevant education and lifeskills
to advance in the workplace. This requires
improvement of the quality of education (relevant
curriculum, teaching approach) that meets market
demand and encourages private sector investment
in human resources, e.g. careers as much as jobs.
Education (formal and non-formal) must be
connected to apprenticeships, internships, career
counselling.
Bridging the gap to Financial Services
( Unlocking finance will support young people to
become productive adults)
Young people are often excluded from participation in
financial services (savings, credit), which hinders their
ability to build assets for planning a future (business
development, family, education). This is not only
about access to capital, but how to use it wisely
(financial literacy). YDSN will work with Silatech to
support bridging this gap, including research that will
challenge financial institutions to develop more youth
accessible, friendly products.
Engagement in Civil Society
(Civic participation improves economic participation)
Civic engagement programmes can enable young people to be
more active in their communities and to engage with institutions
and government. There is some evidence globally that this
experience helps youth become more politically, socially and
economically active through acquisition of important life skills.
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The Youth Network Theory of Change
The Social Environment
Policy Framework
(Social, cultural factors that affect young
people’s engagement in the workplace)
(Institutional policy can improve
opportunities for youth)
Shifting youth and parental attitudes and
expectations about what is acceptable work,
particularly for young women, such as
marriage practices/status, addressing
gendered division of labour will improve
young people’s job prospects and quality of
jobs.
YDSN will advocate with Governments to
develop youth friendly policies to expand
youth opportunities for engagement: e.g.
labour laws, work environment/conditions,
female-friendly policies, financial services
(central bank). YDSN will assess and advise
government and private sector on skills
programmes, education reform, youth
engagement in civil society.
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The Network Vision
A dedicated centre of excellence, driving best practices
and innovation.
The Network will serve as a platform and think-tank
providing expertise and capacity to support
government, private sector and national/community
based organizations in more effective engagement with
youth. Through partnerships it will support
coordination of regional efforts to achieve quality youth
programming at scale.
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The YDSN Concept
Knowledge Hub
MENAs Youth challenges can not be met
with stand alone programmes
Or by private sector, NGOs or
government’s working alone. It needs
partnerships.
Implementation Support
• Supporting strategic regional
and country-level development
• Provision of internal and
external technical assistance in
youth development from a
roster of technical experts
• Provision of technical
assistance in program design,
monitoring and evaluation
• Supporting knowledge
management (capturing and
sharing knowledge) from
regional and country-level
programs and projects.
• Grants for collaborative
initiatives, through a youth fund
Knowledge
Hub
• Collaborate with youth and research partners to
collect and analyze data to develop an understanding
of issues facing Arab youth
• Provide links to global initiatives for Arab youth.
• Identify, promote and support innovations to scale up.
• Share knowledge and expertise across program
sectors through the online forum.
• Knowledge management to assist national, regional
and country-level strategic program planning.
• Provide evidence-based support policy reform with
the Arab League and Governments.
• Publishing and communicating successes and lessons
learned from program implementation to improve
programming.
Regional Partnerships
Implementation
Support
YDSN
Regional
Partnerships
• Develop multi- sector alliances with
partners (NGOs, private sector) to address
youth needs on areas such as access to
finance, youth employment training and
skills
• Work with regional partners, such as
Silatech, to create more choices and
opportunities for young people.
• Develop targeted action plan with League
of Arab States for advocacy and awareness
raising on youth issues for change
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YDSN Deliverables
•
Launch: The Arab Youth Network launches in Amman in April 2013 with the online knowledge
hub and a two day youth forum convening 100 young people to speak directly to 50 donor,
government, private sector and civil society organizations.
•
Support the Arab League with a Regional Youth Strategy: YDSN will support the Arab
League prepare a strategy on youth employment. This could provide a strong foundation for
further collaborative work with individual governments on youth policy.
•
Work with governments to develop their youth policies: A number of governments in the
region have requested support with developing youth strategies. A number are experimenting with
youth parliaments. YDSN will provide technical advice with strategy development and share best
practice.
•
Assess and design Private Sector and NGO Programmes: The YDSN will offer support to
private sector and NGO organisations wanting assessment or design support with their youth
programmes. This will enable the YDSN to catalogue best practice examples.
•
Research: In partnership with the AUB Youth Research Programme, YDSN will review existing
literature and data and undertake primary data collection across Arab countries. An annual report
will be published outlining progress across the five priority themes.
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How will we work together with our partners?
YDSN will foster collaborative and innovative partnership models.
Donors
Corporations
And Banks
Governments
Enabling donors to evaluate
progress and invest in strategic
initiatives.
Jointly designing programs to
leverage private sector and
NGO expertise and finance to
deliver on shared social
objectives.
NGOs
Academia
Partnering in consortia and
coalitions to multiply impact and
funding.
Improving use of research and
evidence in design and
monitoring of youth
interventions.
Youth
Provide advisory services and
showcase innovative, evidencebased interventions for
governments to execute at scale
Engaging youth to design and
execute innovative ideas that are
responsive to their needs
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Potential/Interested Partners
Private Sector
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Pepsi-Co
Accenture
Shell
Manpower
Gallup
Intel
Al Ali
NGOs
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Global Partners
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Foundations
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Silatech
Emirates Foundation
INJAZ
Alashanek ya Balady
Oasis 500
Young Entrepreneurs
Association Jordan
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UN Inter-agency network on
Youth Development
World Bank Global) PublicPrivate Partnership for Youth
Investment
Youth Employment Network
Youth Business International
Interested Donors
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Italy
US
Canada
Norway
Sweden
Finland
World Bank
Qatar
Research
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AUB – Youth in the Arab World
Programme,
AUC – Social Research Centre
Etijah - youth and development
consultancy
British Council
Carnegie Beirut Centre
Chatham House
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Case Study: Private Sector Partnership with Pepsico
PepsiCo has committed to work with the YDSN in variety of ways illustrated
below, private sector partners could be invited to partner with the YDSN on any:
• Corporate expertise: support to develop the YDSN communication
strategy and tools e.g. the online knowledge hub.
• Financial support to youth groups to implement project innovations.
• Direct training and employment: Provide young people on the network
with skills, training and employment.
• Outreach to young people: Organize youth events and interactive
webinars to support youth voices and leadership.
• Contributing best practice experience:YDSN will assess PepsiCo youth
related CSR projects and highlight best practice in implementation and results
to be shared with other private sector companies as a model.
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Thank you
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