Statement at the 48th Session of the Commission for Social Development - Agenda Item 3 c) - Policy responses on employment and the social consequences of the financial and economic crisis, including its gender dimension

Date: 2010-02-05 Speaker: Bianca Sârbu, Adrian Solcan – youth delegates

Mr. Chairperson, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are honored to speak to you today as Romania’s Youth Delegates to the 48^th Session of the Commission for Social Development. The UN Youth Delegate Programme in Romania is a youth initiative encouraged and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Romanian Youth Council, to all of whom we express our appreciation.

In this respect, we wish to further commend our Government for supporting this national initiative and call upon all UN Member States to follow this practice and include youth delegates in their official delegations at the UN.

We wish to start by referring to a very present and worrying phenomenon affecting us all, the financial and economic crisis. This has had disproportionate effects – both for countries, in terms of macroeconomics and for societies at large, where youth represent one of the most vulnerable groups. In such an uncertain economic climate, many young people stepped into adulthood challenged by fewer employment opportunities and limited pathways to continued growth.

Based on the annual Global Employment Trends report provided by the International Labor Office (ILO), the number of jobless worldwide followed an unprecedented increase of 34 million compared to 2007, in the eve of the global crisis. One third of these 34 million are young people.

More specifically, the global youth unemployment rate rose by 1.6 percentage points to reach 13.4 per cent in 2009 relative to 2007. This stands for the largest increase since 1991, the earliest year for which global estimates are available. The global economic crisis didn’t overpass Romania, so our country was also deeply struck last year.

When travelling around Romania in preparation for this meeting, we saw sad and worried young human faces behind such statistics. What they expect from our leadership is simply the opportunity to demonstrate their willingness and capacity t and capableo contribute in a meaningful way to their country’s advancement.

All of them are united by a shared hope: to secure employment - simply to work - and to start families being assured that they will be able to provide and secure a stable life for their dependants.

Not accessing this opportunity at the right stage in life can understandably breed a collective sense of uselessness and rejection. Being aware of this difficult complex of factors, we came back here, to urge you once again, to drastically step up efforts to combat youth unemployment worldwide.

Praiseworthy as they might be content-wise, documents such as the Decent Work Agenda, the 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, or the Global Jobs Pact do not suffice if governments, the private sector and civil society are not willing to implement them. In this regard, we urge Member States to start taking action in a much more coordinated manner to gather and funnel their efforts to secure productive employment and decent work for all –, including youth.

Mr. Chairperson, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

To some of you, this might seem a recurrent message, a leitmotif. Even we, the Youth Delegates of Romania, along with other youth delegates from all over the world, made this plea again and again during the 64^th UN General Assembly last October. However, we are present here today, for lobbying once more for concrete actions, plans and programmes on short to MEDIUM term. We will proceed now with presenting five possible tracks of concrete actions that the governments might consider in setting up their policy answers to the issues at hand.

Firstly, active labor market programmes (ALMPs) can greatly facilitate young people’s entry and re-entry into the labor market. They can play a stabilizing role in the sense of governments directly providing temporary jobs through public works or by shifting labor supply or demand curves outward by offering training or wage subsidies. Even where net employment effects may not be significant in the short run for some active labor market programmes, they could increase the attachment of the long-term unemployed to the labor force and decrease their dependence on unemployment benefits. By engaging some of the most disadvantaged workers – in this context, young people – active labor market programmes can also break down potentially negative consequences associated with the “outsider” phenomena.

Secondly, with particular regard to young women and more broadly, young families, governments need to put together attractive employment policies and stimulus packages to encourage maternity. Lest young mothers pile up the numbers of unemployed youth, governments should provide part-time jobs as well flexible employment opportunities, good day-care facilities and further services to support child care and pre-school education. In the absence of such labor market policies, the world would continue experiencing decreasing birthrates or alternatively, high unemployment rates among young parents.

Thirdly, the increasing number of young people working in intermittent, insecure and low-paid jobs in some countries and their over-representation in the informal economy require urgent measures to improve their working conditions, denounce endless internships for university alumni, while ensuring pay equity and advancing their rights at work. Governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, international development partners and civil society need to fairly and competitively tap into this vast pool of productive young people, with enormous potential for economic and social development.

Fourthly, it goes without saying that there is a close relationship between a young person’s employment prospects and education. Indisputably, long-term investments in human capital play a key role in enhancing the productivity of labor and growth. Ensuring that young people are provided with free, high-quality formal and non-formal education programmes is essential, including vocational training that would lead to their empowerment and to more opportunities for decent work in their adulthood. Reform of curricula across countries while setting targets for gender balance in courses, and career guidance measures would encourage youth to take subjects more relevant to labor market needs. Matching skills development with market needs is crucial in giving young men and women the possibility of competing for jobs and anticipating labor market requirements.

Fifthly and lastly, youth need to be more intensively engaged in decision-making processes at all levels where labor market policies take shape. Ideally, they should work closely with mid-aged and more experienced decision-makers. In this regard, information and communication technologies (ICT) represent empowering tools which should facilitate youth participation in decision-making in real time. Nowadays we have every reason to be hopeful about what people – and especially us, the young generation – can accomplish when leverage communication networks and connection technologies to achieve progress.

Mr. Chairperson,

The strong appeals we make today in front of all of you go beyond youth! We are talking here about wise investments that someone could make in the context of a deep crisis. Tackling youth unemployment in a systematic and consistent way across countries, regions and continents, promoting youth’s creativity and innovation potential alongside with professionals’ experience in decision-making settings, bringing in a human face to all social integration policies drafted here in New York and beyond are small initial steps for a better future!

Once again, let’s take action and make it happen!

Thank you all very much!