http://www.fao.org/rural-employment/en/ Presentations delivered on the 7th of September 2015 in Barbados, during the launch of the new FAO project “Strengthening decent rural employment opportunities for young women and men in the Caribbean”, developed in collaboration with the IFAD. The project will operate for 3 years in 9 countries of the Sub-region, namely: St. Lucia, Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Haiti, Belize, Cuba and Dominican Republic. The programme is an example of effective inter-agency cooperation and aims to promote rural youth employment opportunities in the Caribbean by facilitating the development of targeted policies, partnerships and investments. The project will be implemented by the FAO Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean, in Barbados. The presentations show the perspectives and contributions of the different partners involved in the project. ©FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. LAUNCH AND POLICY DIALOGUE
REGIONAL FAO-IFAD Project
STRENGHENING DECENT RURAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
FOR YOUNG WOMEN AND MEN IN THE CARIBBEAN
7-9 SEPTEMBER 2015
Bridgetown, Barbados
Youth are the future: The imperative of
youth employment for sustainable
development in the Caribbean

2. Structure of Presentation
• The Youth Unemployment Challenge: State of Affairs
• Quantifying the Socio-economic Costs of Youth
Unemployment
• Existing Policy Responses: Stocktaking
• An Action Agenda for Sustainable and Inclusive
Youth Development
• Main Takeaways

3. 3
• - Approximately 260,000 unemployed youth across the
Caribbean (based on available data)
• - Youth unemployment rates are among the highest in the
world. Average Caribbean rate above world average: over 25%
vs. 10%
• - Youth unemployment rate higher than adult rate: 25% vs. 8%
• - Unemployment higher for female youth than male: over 30%
vs. 20%
The Youth Unemployment Challenge: State of Affairs

4. Quantifying the Socio-economic Costs of Youth
Unemployment
Problem Estimated Cost
USD
(Millions)
% of
GDP
Excess Youth
Unemployment
883.4 1.5
Excess Youth Pregnancy 96.5 0.017
Excess Youth
Imprisonment
11.6 0.02

5. Existing Policy Responses: Stocktaking
• Region has a majority of the rudimentary requirements in place for addressing
youth unemployment such as:
• institutionalisation of youth issues in government ministries
• availability of vocational education and training
• remedial employment-related training schemes
• support for self-employment
• Piecemeal, fragmented youth programmes, inadequate information sharing
• Youth issues aligned with social issues, but often separated from labour market
issues
• Generic employment programmes as a result of disconnect between TVET
training and labour market needs

6. Existing Policy Responses: Regional Positives
• Cayman Islands: Passport to Success
• Focusses on employment skills curriculum, Job shadowing and work experience
programmes
• Grenada: Imani Programme
• Focuses not only on employment but self-development. Courses in Personal
Skills, Health and Well-Being, Managing Conflicts and Problem Solving, and My
Community and Me
• Trinidad & Tobago: Youth Training and Employment Partnership
Programme (YTEPP)
• A skill-development programme specifically directed at assisting school-to-
work transition

7. An Action Agenda For Sustainable and Inclusive Youth
Development
4 I’s Approach:
• Innovation:
 Real economic innovation: New growth sectors underpinned by
technology and innovation
• Investment:
 Education and training (curriculum relevance)
 Psycho-social enhancements (soft skills)
 Skills development, entrepreneurial education
 Remedial employment and re-employment training
• Insurance:
 Systematic social protection
• Institutions:
 Holistic and integrated support for youth empowerment
 Better balance between effectiveness and political expediency

8. An Action Agenda For Sustainable and Inclusive
Youth Development (Cont’d)
• Action 1: External and internal support and activism for transformational change in
policies, practices and institutions dealing with youth
• Action 2: Ensure by 2018 that current regional youth policies and programmes are
aligned with prevailing thinking in addressing youth unemployment
• Action 3: Implement by 2017 steering committee, involving other regional bodies to oversee the
policies and programmes established and facilitate execution at the national levels
Country Level:
• Action 4: Organise multi-stakeholder steering committees, including the public
sector, private sector, trade unions, youth related organisations and young people by 2018
• Action 5: Revise/establish national youth policies by 2018 to include programmes and policies to
address unemployment, ensuring that gender is a crosscutting issue
• Action 6: Utilise private sector assessment reports, where they exist to implement
recommended actions to facilitate private sector development by 2020

9. An Action Agenda For Sustainable and Inclusive Youth
Development (Cont’d)
• Country Level Cont’d:
• Action 7: Initiate the process for the development of unemployment benefit
systems in countries where they currently do not exist by 2020
• Action 8: Develop and implement plans for the revision of the curriculum and the general
institutional structure of the education and TVET systems by 2025 to institutionalise career
education and entrepreneurial training
• Action 9: Promote active participation in the labour market through career
counselling, proactive employment placement programmes, Youth Guarantee Schemes and
the ‘Job Card’ system for example, by 2018
• Action 10: Strengthen Labour Market Information Systems, improve the overall
statistical systems in the Region by 2020
• Action 11: Establish framework and methodology for M&E by 2017 as the
programme of action moves from the Regional to national levels

10. Key Takeaways
• Acute youth unemployment challenge. Caribbean average rate higher
than world average. Females are disproportionately affected. Non-
trivial socio-economic costs
• Existing youth programmes generally piecemeal and fragmented but
there are some success stories
• 4 I’s approach needed: Innovation, Investment, Insurance and
institutions
• Collective responsibility for increased youth employment and
sustainable inclusive youth development

11. THANK YOU