YOUTH EMPLOYMENT NETWORK (YEN)

In September 2000 the YEN was created under the impetus of the Millennium Declaration, where the largest gathering of Heads of State and Government ever met at the Millennium Summit and resolved to " develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work".

Youth Employment Network (YEN)

Documents

Lead countries

In preparation for the Millennium Summit the Secretary-General issued a report entitled "We the Peoples: the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century." Here the Secretary-General first proposed his Youth Employment Network:

Together with the heads of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization, I am convening a High-Level Policy Network on youth employment drawing on the most creative leaders in private industry, civil society and economic policy to explore imaginative approaches to this difficult challenge. I will ask this policy network to propose a set of recommendations that I can convey to world leaders within a year.

Following the Summit, youth employment was subsequently integrated in the Millennium Development Goals, becoming an important goal in its own right and a key contribution to meeting other Millennium Goals, including those relating to poverty reduction.

Following this politcal process the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan committed to setting up a personal initiative: the Secretary General’s Youth Employment Network (YEN) to act as vehicle to address the global challenge of youth employment. He invited Juan Somavia , Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank to join him in this new inter-agency partnership. These core partners all bring unique skills to the table; the UN brings its political mandate to mobilise governments around this issue, the World Bank brings its macro-economic policies since a healthy economy creates the conditions for youth employment, and the ILO brings technical expertise on employment and the world of work.

The heads of these three Core Partner institutions then invited 12 leaders and policy experts in the field of youth employment from throughout the world to form a High Level Panel for the YEN.

This panel worked closely with the Joint Secretariat constituted by the ILO, the UN and the World Bank, to prepare a set of policy recommendations on youth employment policy, which were discussed at the 1st High-Level Panel meeting held at ILO headquarters in Geneva on 16-17 July 2001.

These policy recommendations were transmitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly in September 2001. These recommendations focussed on four global priority policy areas or the four "E's": Employability, Equal opportunities, Entrepreneurship, and Employment creation.

In 2002 The High Level Panel set up four Working Groups, to refine each of these policy areas. The four "roadmaps" developed by the Working Groups where presented as a consolidated document at the 2nd High-Level Panel meeting held at ILO headquarters in Geneva, 30 June - 1 July 2003.