DECEMBER News /

Commitment to the MDGs and Youth Employment in Latin America:

Youth and leaders met to agree on the strategies to face regionally the global challenge of youth employment

Delegates from throughout Latin America met in Asunción on the 19-21 of September to renew their fight against youth unemployment.  The event was hosted and promoted by the Government of Paraguay and the YES Latin America Regional Coordination with the organization of the YES Paraguay Network.

National government authorities of Paraguay inaugurated the event in conjunction with Carlos Magariños, Director General of UNIDO and co-chairman of YES Campaign, Jorge Blanco Villegas, UNIDO Goodwill Ambassador, and Poonam Ahluwalia, Executive Director of the YES Campaign.

The First Latin American Encounter on Youth Employment: Toward Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, gathered 200 key stakeholders on youth employment in the region. It was a very important milestone in the evolution of the YES Campaign as it was the first ever regional summit in Latin America.  It renewed and refocused the commitment of stakeholders in the region to promote the MDGs and reduce poverty through the generation of decent, sustainable, and productive employment. 

The Encounter was possible thanks to the support of very important international organizations, agencies and donors such as UNIDO, UNFPA, UNDP, ILO/YEN, World Bank, IADB, CORDAID, IICA, GTZ, etc.  These organizations joined forces with very important national institutions from the public sector, private companies, trade unions and civil society organizations in Paraguay such as ITAIPU Binacional,  Justice and Labor Minister, Youth Viceminister, CONAJUCOOP, Asuncion Local Government, Junta Municipal de Asunción, Universidad Cono Sur  de las Americas, CEDIAL and Confederación Paraguaya de Trabajadores (CPT) among others.

The most significant outcomes of this First Latin American Encounter on Youth Employment are:

• The Regional Action Plan of the YES Campaign in the Latin America 2005-2006 was reviewed and updated.  The 17 YES County Networks and the YES Latin America Regional Coordination agreed to the new document and decided that it will be re-evaluated in the 3rd YES Global Summit to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in September 2006.

• The Asuncion Declaration for the Youth Employment was made.  It recommends specific strategies and priorities to address the challenge of youth unemployment as a means of contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This Declaration was presented to the Organization of American States (OAS), the Secretary of the Summits of the Americas and was officially shared by the Government of Paraguay –as official host of the Paraguay Encounter- within the IV Presidential Summit of the Americas“Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance” that gathered in November 2005 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.   At this meeting the presidents of the region to fight against the youth unemployment and the final declaration and plan of action reflects this, noting specifically the issue of the youth development as a key challenge for the development of the region. 

• A Road Map for Collaboration between YES Campaign and ILO-Youth Employment Network (YEN) in the Latin American region was developed that includes the conclusions, recommendations and suggestions from the special forum that was done about “National Youth Employment Plans.” These national plans are designed to be a collaborative effort on the part of governments, international organizations and YES networks coordinators representatives. Brazil was the first country where a YEN-YES cooperation got underway and YES Ecuador is only one step behind the Labor Minister ready to sign onboard in the upcoming months.

• Alliances were strengthened between the YES Latin America Networks and different key partners in the region such as IICA (Inter American Institute for Agriculture Cooperation), RELAJUR (Latin American Rural Youth Organization Network), and International Young Professional Foundation (IYPF).  The relationships were formalized through the signing of memorandums of understanding in which they agreed to jointly develop regional projects in the future.

• The Internet Company Koaby Hosting agreed to sponsor the design, hosting and maintenance of the YES Latin America web page.  It will be in Spanish and as such will serve as a regional portal for the YES Campaign to reach Spanish speakers around the world.  It is programmed to go on line at the beginning of 2006.

• The YES Campaign’s global partnerships were strengthened at the regional level.  The regional connection with these partners such as UNIDO, ILO-YEN and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Campaign resulted in conversations to develop pilot regional projects in which we are working currently in its design phase.

• The participation of the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank, the two main multilateral development banks in the region, in the Business Round of Youth Employment Projects at the Encounter was critical. 

• It is important to highlight that IADB played a key role in the Encounter through their Paraguay office.  They supported the YES Coordinators Workshop, a Multilateral Investment Fund (IMF) specialist in the business round, and the participation of 6 young entrepreneurs from Japan and Taiwan through the IADB Japan Program.  The Encounter served as an starting point for the interregional cooperation between Latin America and South East Asia.   Additionally, the IADB Ethics, Social Capital and Development Initiative funded a video-conference with its coordinator, Dr. Bernardo Kliksberg, who shared his knowledge and reflections on ethics as a cross cutting issue for the development and the youth employment arena.   As a result, the final declaration of the Encounter, includes a pledge to promote an ethical agenda in all collaborating institutions and a suggestion to add an 8th E in the YES Campaign framework of action.  The E for Ethics is a cross-cutting, fundamental E, much like the E for Education that was included at UNESCO’s suggestion in the last YES Veracruz Summit.

For more information please contact Dacil Acevedo Riquelme, YES Latin America Regional Coordinator to dacil@yesweb.org