Mr. Werner Blenk
SPARK Awarding Ceremonies
07 February 2005, Monday, 1:30 p.m.
ILO Auditorium, Makati City


Honorable Paolo Benigno Aquino, IV, Chairman of the National Youth Commission, Mr. Robert Sagun, Executive Director of the Philippine Resources for Sustainable Development, Mr. Ric Hettinga, Deputy Head of Mission of the Netherlands Embassy in the Philippines, representatives from the United Nations and the World Bank, Department of Labor and Employment, Ms. Margriet Stigter of the Dutch National Youth Council, youth leaders, young entrepreneurs, participants, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon…

On behalf of the ILO, I am very pleased and proud to be present at this important event, the Awarding Ceremonies of the Youth Employment SPARK project of the National Youth Commission, Philippine Resources for Sustainable Development and the Dutch National Commission on Sustainable Development and International Cooperation, together with the Dutch National Youth Council.

The challenge of addressing youth unemployment confronts us everyday. Over 510 million young women and 540 million young men live in the world today according to UN estimates. Of these young people, 85 percent live in developing countries, with approximately 60 percent in Asia alone. The ILO has estimated that in 2003 approximately 88 million young people worldwide were unemployed. The problem of youth unemployment is acute in most regions of the developing world, but it has become a particular concern in Southeast Asia, as the youth unemployment rate in the region increased from 9.9 percent in 1997 to 16.4 percent in 2003.

The Philippines is a very young nation, with 57 percent of its population below 24 years of age.

Over the past two decades, employment creation has been insufficient to keep pace with the growth of the labour force. Since 1998, unemployment rates for the youth have been on average about three times higher than adult unemployment rates, while young females consistently posted higher unemployment rates than their male counterparts, of the order of 5-6 percentage points. Overall, about 1.8 million young Filipinos between 15 and 24 years of age were unemployed in 2003, accounting for over 47 percent of all unemployed. Youth unemployment would likely have been higher had there not been a phenomenal expansion of international migration resulting in a net migration of about five million over the past two decades, many of them in the 15-24 age bracket.

Not only is this a disheartening fact but one, which sees the loss of the creative talents of young people who otherwise would be making innovative contributions to the workforce and society. The prevailing difficult economic and social conditions, as well as the wide spread poverty impair equitable youth employment that poses serious drawbacks for the development of individual talents and, generally, the human resources in the economy at large.

There is a growing awareness of the need to address the problem of youth unemployment and underemployment in the Philippines – both to provide decent work opportunities for young people and to allow the country to get the full benefit of their contribution to its economic and social development. This is a crucial part of an effective development strategy for the Philippines and it is needed urgently in order to confront the problems of poverty, social exclusion, hopelessness and frustration.

In September 2000, the Millennium Summit resolved to “develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.” This is a pledge that the world should honor.

The UN Secretary-General, in collaboration with the Heads of the World Bank and the ILO, convened the Youth Employment Network with the task of exploring imaginative approaches to the challenge of youth employment. The ILO in Geneva serves as the lead agency and secretariat of the YEN.

As a response to this commitment, the ILO in the Philippines implements a number of programmes and activities that have components that address the employment needs of young people.

In 2002, we supported the establishment of the Philippines’ Youth Business Foundation – foundation that provides mentors and start-up capital to young entrepreneurs based on the model of the Youth Business International of the Prince of Wales Foundation. Presently, it already has supported approximately 15 young entrepreneurs and established a pool of volunteer mentors. The PYBF receives strong support primarily from the private sector.

That same year, we provided assistance to the Philippines’ Youth Employment Network in convening the National Youth Convention held in Cebu City.

The ILO is also currently implementing a project in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that provides skills training for enterprise development for the youth. A Youth training center has been established and skills training activities are being conducted.

We are hoping to launch a project on Promoting Youth Employment in the Philippines. This project will foster gender sensitive policies and sustainable capacity at national and local levels that could enhance the opportunities of young women and men to access decent, secure and self-fulfilling work. This will be comprised of development of a National Youth Employment Action Plan for the Philippines, strengthening of capacity and coordination between public and private sector initiatives targeting young workers at the national and local levels and implementation of demonstration programmes targeting key youth groups such as the young unemployed, youth in the informal economy and young entrepreneurs.

The youth are invaluable partners for social development. They bring to the workplace creativity, enthusiasm, energy, commitment, new ideas, and willingness to embrace change. Their aspirations and opportunities play a consequential role in shaping the future of our societies. Youth need decent work that enables them to become instruments for their permanent betterment –a place for developing their capabilities that allows them to compete in the market.

This initiative of the NYC, Dutch government and the PRSD is a worthwhile undertaking. It surely complements the ILO’s work in the area of promoting youth employment in the Philippines.

Today, we shall be awarding young entrepreneurs not just with cash for start-up capital for their businesses but also with hope that through their ideas and hard work, they would be able to contribute to enterprise development, employment creation and ultimately economic development to the Philippines.

All of this good work is just the beginning, as together we have high hopes for this programme of work. In the future we expect to see a growing programme with more young people who are encouraged to take up the challenge of entrepreneurship and become the future responsible employers.

Once again, congratulations to the organizers of this event and surely the ILO will be supporting you in the best way we can.

Thank you and good afternoon.