IMF Youth Dialog: Addressing Mideast Unemployment

IMF Blog, April 1, 2010

Source details

After an unprecedented global economic downturn, recovery is beginning to take hold across the world, but the downturn has heightened preexisting core challenges in the Middle East and North Africa, notably youth employment.
Job creation must be a top policy priority going forward as growth rates are likely to be more modest after the crisis, making it more challenging to generate enough jobs for young men and women.

The region’s work force is projected to reach 185 million in 2020, 80 percent higher than in 2000.
The region is one of the most youthful in the world—with about 60 percent of the population less than 25 years old.

Employment growth has lagged far behind the demands of growing populations, even during periods of good economic growth.
Historically, people in the Middle East have looked to the government to provide jobs; however, a thriving private sector is increasingly seen as key to creating meaningful, productive jobs at the required scale.
Governments retain a critical role in:
- Providing a sound macroeconomic and financial environment in which the private sector will operate.
- Ensuring that educational and training systems provide students with the skills and aptitude needed for success in the 21st century.

The IMF can help by working closely with countries of the Middle East and North Africa to devise policies that provide for macroeconomic stability and spur strong and sustainable economic growth essential to creating employment.
Addressing the economic challenges of the next generation requires broader engagement that includes the young people who will enter business, government, academia, and other walks of life.

The IMF has started a Middle East Youth Dialog — a series of roundtable discussions with students from renowned universities across the region (from Morocco to Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan).
The initiative includes establishment of a social networking site where young people of the region are encouraged to transcend their own borders by sharing their questions, concerns, and visions of their economic futures.
On April 4, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn meets with about 50 students in Amman, Jordan, for a town hall meeting at the culmination of the roundtable discussions; the session is being broadcast live via BBC Arabic on television, radio, and the internet.
Additional roundtables are planned for other countries in the region, as well as continued discussions on the social networking site.

Source: IMF Youth Dialog: Addressing Mideast Unemployment — Masood Ahmed, April 1, 2010