Regional Workshop
on UNDP Youth Strategy
April 2
Tunis, Tunisia
Background and rationale
The youth-led popular contestations in the Arab region have invigorated discussions on development
challenges and their root causes. Youth lie at the center of this discussion as they are not only seen as
drivers of this call for change, but also as beneficiaries of it. The Arab region is home to the youngest
population in the world “with more than 100 million between ages of 15 and 29.”1 Youth are demanding
responsive political systems and social justice as much as they seek equitable economic opportunities.
Meeting these demands in a region with the most complex and long-standing conflicts and highest youth
unemployment rate in the world requires multifaceted approaches and policy centered on youth
empowerment.2
The United Nations Secretary-General has made working with and for young people one of his top
priorities in his Five-year Action Agenda. Recognizing the importance of united action from the UN
system to help advance work on youth development, a System Wide Action Plan (SWAP) was created
aiming at a more coherent, comprehensive and integrated approaches. Several UN entities have youth
specific strategies, including UNICEF, UNFPA, ILO, the World Bank, and others. For UNDP, young men and
women are equally a priority as their full involvement is vital to achieving sustainable development. For
this reason, UNDP is developing a Youth Strategy, to be launched in 2014 to guide youth programming at
the country level.
Taking the opportunity of the production of the new UNDP Youth Strategy, while also acknowledging the
need to give greater focus to youth of the Arab region, the Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS) aims
to convene a workshop to chart priorities and solidify a vision for work on youth. To note, the UNDP
Youth Strategy is aligned to the Strategic Plan and includes outcome areas in Youth Economic
Empowerment, Civic and Political Empowerment and Resilience Building. Though this Youth Strategy is
new, work on youth is not. UNDP has for many years worked with and on young people’ issues. To help
reflect on youth work, in 2012, the Regional Cairo Centre organized a workshop to support youth
programming and implementation of governance related projects. Now, building on this, the Bureau of
Development Policy is organizing in 2014, another global workshop (in the Arab region) to take stock of
youth-governance related projects and support implementation. Therefore, building on these meetings,
RBAS is organizing a regional workshop that is two-fold: to introduce and discuss concepts and
implementation of the UNDP Youth Strategy through an RBAS Action Plan and to take stock and share
experiences of youth programming amongst UNDP youth focal points.
Objective
1
2
AHDR Research Paper: Expanding youth opportunities in the Arab region, pg. 6
Arab region’s youth unemployment rate was 28% in 2012 compared to 13% internationally.
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To build a common understanding of the UNDP Youth Strategy amongst Arab States youth focal points
and to develop an RBAS vision and priorities for work on youth which incorporates identifying partners
and resources and needed capacity building plans.
During the duration of the workshop, participants will:
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Take stock of work on youth in the Arab region while identifying best practices and challenges;
Identify entry points along the 3 outcomes areas of the youth strategy for country office;
Identify and explore potential partners and resources;
Identify capacities required for UNDP staff, National Partners and NGOs;
Provide recommendations for the RBAS Action Plan on Youth.
Participants
UNDP Delegation 3-4:
(1) Focal Point for Youth within the country office OR staff currently supporting an ongoing youth
initiative. This individual may or may not be the formally designated Focal Point for Youth within
the country office. If the Youth focal point is not the DGGTTF focal point, both are invited.
(2) Local or national counterpart (e.g. partner within the Ministry for Youth) of an ongoing or
planned youth initiative.
(3) Youth based organization or youth expert – well established and reputed in the country, and
preferably an existing or potential partner and/or technical resource. In line with UNDP’s
definition of youth, the participant would be a maximum of 35 years old.
To the extent possible, the delegation should be gender-balanced.
Resource People: Youth experts from the public and private sectors.
Draft agenda in Annex 1
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Annex 1: Draft agenda
DAY 3 RBAS convened meeting on youth: Role out of Strategy in Arab region
Note: Days 1 & 2 are led by BDP, and the region specific workshop will convene immediately after day 2.
Time
Session description
Notes
0900 – 1000
Youth in the Arab Region: One-fifth of the
population
Expert Panel
This session will highlight the overall
situation of Youth in the Arab Region to
frame the overall discussion for the 1-day
workshop. More specifically it will:
- Define Arab youth
- Highlight Youth Status in Region
(Statistics and Demographic trend:
social, political and economic)
- Highlight impact of “Arab Spring” on
youth and their expectations
- Present
Key
Challenges
and
Opportunities (discussion between
panelist and Q&A)
Results to achieve: All participants have a common
understanding of definition of Youth, and overall
status of youth.
(Distributed before meeting) Staff are provided
with existing resources of information of youth in
Arab region, in addition to a list of key network
and partners.
Format
(details will be captured
in session guidelines)
Moderator
Panel of experts:
1. Ahmed Al Hendawi
2. Jad Chaaban
3. Young person from
one of the country
delegations
4. UNDP Youth Focal
Point
This section frames the discussion
followed by Q&A
The panelist on stage will
be sitting on sofas, and
everyone on the floor will
be on round tables.
1000 - 1030
Coffee break
1030 - 1200
Taking Stock of Youth work in the Arab Result to achieve: participants have clear Moderator
Region
understanding of concrete interventions, best Presenter
for
each
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This session will focus specifically on taking
stock of the experiences of UNDP CO work
on youth, identifying opportunities and best
practices as well as challenges from Arab
states but also from around the globe. Taking
this information into account this session
aims to also identify entry points for Arab
states in each of the outcome areas of the
UNDP Youth Strategy (5 minute presentation
and 15 minutes discussion):
- Economic Empowerment of Youth
(demand and supply for labor, policy
development and support)
- Civic and political empowerment of
youth (national youth advisory
boards and youth
parliamentary/council, youth
branches in political parties)
- Resilience-building for youth (youth
mobilization in disaster
preparedness, relief work,
peacebuilding, and state-building
practices and challenges for each outcome.
outcome area:
1. Youth focal point
Best practice will be presented and challenges 2. Youth focal point
discussed for each outcome. (We will choose this 3. Youth focal point
in advance and ask focal points to do country
specific presentations. Everyone will be asked to Suggested Discussants:
do a presentation for this session to be uploaded, 1. Geoff Prewitt
but then only a selected few will be presented).
2. Faten Tibi/Renata BDP
3.Global Youth
Some questions to consider:
Organization
- While youth are generally cross cutting
4. Education For
such as gender, HIV/AIDS etc should there Employment
be a specific project that is dedicated
5. Other external
tocoordinate with the youth issues from
partners
social, political, economic angle? It would
be nice to hear some recommendations on
this from RBAS and other country offices.
- Important to engage youth in the project
formulation processes?
- How do we create an enabling
environment for youth. Legal frameworks
that allow for various forms of civil society
organizations to emerge and be registered
are essential, are there successful
experiences where UNDP worked with
government counterparts in advocating
this subject, as well as sharing
international best practices? National
youth policies support, is it UNDP’s
comparative advantage?
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Facilitator to start with clarification questions.
This section gives examples of what is currently
being done well or not well.
1200 - 1300
Partnership and Resource mobilization
This session will look at existing and future
partners in the region. Participants to
explore who could support the work on
youth. This session will also address the
resource mobilization possibilities.
1300 - 1400
Lunch
1400 - 1500
Group Work
Participants will be asked to break into three
of the Youth Strategy outcome groups and
produce country specific entry points using
the three-pronged approach:
- Engage and influence through
advocacy and leadership
- Support
through
capacity
development
- Act and sustain through support to
national policy development and
programmes implementation
Participants should identify potential
Questions to consider:
Should we work to find a way to target and involve
informal CSOs with a fluid and less hierarchical
membership base? For UNDP this means moving
away from the concept of civil society as service
provider for UNDP, to seeing it as a partner in
development. UNDP needs to adapt to the needs
of the partners, rather than expecting them to
adapt to our policies?
Moderator
Suggested Panelist:
1. National Partner from
one country
2. NGO from CO (youth)
2. Khaled Louhichi
(Regional expert)
3. Rep from a Regional
Youth entity
4. Arab Funds
4. Kawtar Z. UNV
5. Youth focal point
6. EFE
Results to achieved:
Each group will have a
facilitator
and
rapporteur.
Focal points will be organized in three groups and
each outcome will be represented by three
typologies: NCC, MIC, LDC and transition. Each
group will have a facilitator, and by the end
produce a list of key entry points under each area.
We should consider here, for those countries that
have one, how to link national strategies with
RBAS Action Plan.
5
programmes/projects at National or Regional
level :
- At least one project idea per CO
- At least one project idea at Regional
level
1500 – 16:00 Capacity Development Plan
This session will address what capacities are
needed to achieve the type of interventions
we seek to have. The participants will be
divided into three groups: UNDP, National
government partners, and youth
organizations. Each group will ask:
- What skills do we need to deliver?
- What capacities need
strengthening?
- What are the existing potential
resources/networks that can support
to address the identified needs?
1600 -1630
1630 - 1730
Coffee break
Presentation of the outcome groups
Consolidation of the key components of the
Arab Region Action plan
1730 - 1800
Conclusions: RBAS Action Plan on Youth and
Way Forward
Dinner and social event
1930 – 2130
Results: Participants to clearly articulate what is
required to deliver under the outcome areas, and
what skills-building interventions required to
enhance their capacities.
1. UNDP will focus on internal organizational
readiness
2. Youth organizations will focus on support they
require to be effective actors nationally and locally
3. National government partners will outline
capacities they need to respond to their country
needs.
Moderator will begin by
presenting the topic and
offer guidance for the
flow of the session and
sought outcome.
Group work followed by
presentation of main
discussion covered in
each group followed by
Q&A.
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