Economic and Social Council Issue #3: The question of implementing economic policies to improve work opportunities for youth.

The United Nations estimates that there are “1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years” in the world today, which accounts for “16 per cent of the global population” (“Global Issues”). Given this number, employment and work opportunities for youth are vital for “not only for their own personal economic prospects and well-being, but also for overall economic growth and social cohesion” (“Youth Employment”). However, in 2022, the United Nations reported that “nearly 1 in 4 young people (23.5 per cent or 289 million) were not in education, employment or training” (“Decent Work”).

Several organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have sought to address these employment issues affecting youth and have worked to implement economic policies. One such solution that has been proposed is the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) that was adopted by the General Assembly in the United Nations in 1995. The programme provided “policy framework and practical guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of young people around the world” (“World Programme”). With this set of frameworks, the programme decided to highlight fifteen youth priority areas, one of which was employment. The programme provided four solutions to tackle unemployment for youth, which included opportunities for selfemployment, employment opportunities for specific groups of young people, voluntary community services involving youth, and focusing on needs created by technological changes. Under the solution of providing opportunities for self-employment, the United Nations suggests that “governments and organizations should create or promote grant schemes to provide seed money to encourage and support enterprise and employment programmes for young people”. Other solutions also include the designating of funds “to promote youth employment,” and more specifically, to aid “young women, young people with disabilities, youth returning from military service, migrant youth, refugee youth, displaced persons, street children and indigenous youth” (“Employment”).

The United Nations is aware that the “crisis of youth unemployment deprives young people of the opportunity to secure independent housing or the accommodations necessary for the establishment of families and participation in the life of society,” and urges Member States to adopt policies such as the WYAP (“Employment”). Providing work opportunities for youth alongside the implementation of economic policies will work towards accomplishing goal number eight of the Sustainable Development Goals: decent work and economic growth by 2030.

Works Cited

"Decent Work and Economic Growth." United Nations, unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/Goal08/#:~:text=Globally%2C%20nearly%201%20in%204,baseline%20of%2022.2%20per%20cent. Accessed 25 May 2024.

"Employment." United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, social.desa.un.org/issues/youth/wpay/employment/employment. Accessed 26 May 2024.

"Global Issues: Youth." United Nations, www.un.org/en/globalissues/youth#:~:text=State%20of%20the%20World's%20Youth,cent%20of%20the%20global%2 0population. Accessed 25 May 2024.

"World Programme of Action For Youth." United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, social.desa.un.org/issues/youth/wpay. Accessed 26 May 2024.

"Youth Employment and Social Policies." Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, www.oecd.org/employment/youth/. Accessed 25 May 2024