During my time with the UNICEF MENA Regional Office this summer, made possible thanks to the generous support of the UNA NY Summer Scholars Program, I had the chance to be a part of and learn from the Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) section team. The ADAP section focuses on projects for the engagement and positive development of adolescents and young people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
In the world, 408 million youth aged 15-24 or 23% of the global youth presentation are affected by violence or armed conflict, 175 million children will be affected by natural hazards attributed to climate change and 68.5 million people have been forced from home, among them nearly 25.4 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. In the MENA, 26% of the population in MENA is youth. The youth population will double by 2050, growing from 338 million people in 2000 to 724 million people in 2050. One in five people is an adolescent; yet, adolescents and youth continue to be economically, socially and politically marginalized by unfriendly policies and practices. The region holds the highest youth unemployment rate in the world combined with the lowest labor force participation rate. 225 million (20%) youth in the developing world are not in employment, education or training (NEET) against 34% in the MENA. Even in non-emergency settings, youth are up to four times more likely to be unemployed than adults over 25 years. Political instability, conflict and climate change have further increased the vulnerabilities of young people, exposing them to violence, exploitation and abuse. Despite some improvement, the MENA region remains the least peaceful in the world for the fifth year in a row according to the Global Peace Index 2019. MENA also is the world’s most water scarce region. While hosting 6% of the world’s population, it only has access to 2% of the world’s renewable fresh water. (World Resources Institute, 2015. World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future). It has now become urgent to implement solid and scaled action for adolescents and youth with regards to health, education, protection as well as civic and economic participation policies. Such action comes at a critical time as an unprecedently large proportion of the population in the MENA will transition into their most productive years, opening-up the potential for a more prosperous and stable future in which young people can reap the benefits of this demographic dividend. According to the UNICEF MENA Generation 2030 report[1], about 25 million children, adolescents and youth were added by 2015 and a further 34 million will be added by 2030. This relatively slow growth presents a historic opportunity to invest in human capital by improving access to health and education and enhancing the prospects for productive employment. Countries in the region should pursue this opportunity both for the intrinsic value in fulfilling the rights of children, adolescents and youth and as an investment in future economic growth and stability. According to the same report, for the first time in the region, the proportion of the dependent population will be half the proportion of people of working age. The main advantage of such a dividend for the prospects of MENA's children and youth is increased shared wealth and the resulting fiscal space that can be used to further the realization of their rights. Though a favorable age structure is essential, additional pre-requisites for reaping the demographic include: political and social stability; inclusive and equitable economic and social policies (ensuring labor market entrants are healthy, well-nourished and well-equipped in terms of skill and competencies) and expanded employment opportunities. The idea of participation as a constitutive right is reinforced and informed by related rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights conventions. The expression of the right to participation is present in the Convention of the Rights of the Child, n.66, art 12.1, which assures to every child, the right to freely express his or her views “in all matters affecting the child”, and requires that the child’s views be given “due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”.[2] Fundamentally, participation rights are also derived from the principle of inherent human dignity, which entails “an entitlement to partake in decisions that affect one’s life and contribute to the realization of one’s own rights, rather than depending solely on others for the fulfilment of one's rights”. Despite these binding international obligations, few governments or organizations have made the required commitments related to financial, legal, social and policy frameworks to support young people’s right to participation. Structural obstacles such as discrimination, marginalization and social exclusion restrict their access to productive activities and decision-making processes, while socio-cultural norms create further barriers that refrain young people from enjoying their full rights. Recognizing the right to participation for young people implies accepting that they have real possibilities for exercising their citizenship as a basic requirement of their development and for influencing their environment and society. The objective of adolescent and youth engagement is to give voice and choice for young people to work with government and non-governmental organization to develop positive environments. Evidence[3] show that successful adolescent and youth engagement programmes can help develop self-confidence, influence decisions at local and national levels, and contribute to addressing socio-economic challenges in their communities. When young people are supported and encouraged with policies attentive to their needs and capabilities, they have the potential to break long-standing cycles of inequality, poverty, discrimination and violence. As they gain more of these skills, youth begin to think of themselves as stakeholders in society, acquire a sense of responsibility for the common good and internalize a positive attitude toward active citizenship.[4] Investing in adolescents today means shaping tomorrow’s adults for decision-making, for leadership and for acting; in a nutshell, shaping what tomorrow looks like, especially in countries where their roles are too often dismissed.
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One of the tasks I worked on during those three months with the UNICEF regional office is building a case for the engagement of young people in budget-making initiatives in Jordan. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a tool for participatory democracy, which was at first implemented in Brazil in the late 1980s and has since spread to over 3,000 communities large and small throughout the world. The idea for PB began when scholars John Lerner, Michael Menser, and Giampaolo Baiocchi met at the 2005 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2005, the place where it was first launched in 1989. PB is defined by the World Bank as “an approach to budgeting offering citizens at large an opportunity to learn about government operations and to deliberate, debate, and influence the allocation of public resources as a tool for educating, engaging, and empowering citizens and strengthening demand for good governance”. PB allows citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent.
Participatory budgeting processes are typically designed to involve those left out of traditional methods of public engagement, such as low-income residents, non-citizens, and youth. However, cases of youth in participatory budgeting outside Latin America are very limited. It is particularly hard to implement in regions like MENA where the divide between leaders and youth keeps deepening every day; where initiatives for participation to public debate are extremely rare; and where youth are routinely dismissed. In collaboration with the UNICEF Country Office working on a fiscal space analysis to increase spending on adolescents and youth in Jordan within the limitations of existing budgets, we worked on building a case to help the Jordanian government envision how PB with adolescents and youth could work in Jordan. While documenting such initiatives from around the world, it was clear to me that there were many benefits to get from such policies on several levels. In addition to creating a more positive social environment, there is for example strong evidence of tax delinquency reduction. In Porto Alegre, where it all started, the city increased its tax revenues by 48%. The city of Recife, in Brazil as well, also implemented participatory budgeting, with a strong focus on children through the engagement of school teachers and principals. Another case from Congo focuses on the use of new technologies and mobile to engage with as many citizens in the process as possible. A rich publication from UNICEF on influencing domestic finance for children can be found here for more information on processes and tools. UNICEF identified four key action areas to implement such initiatives:
On our end, this deliverable is to be shared with the UNICEF Country Office and the Jordanian Ministry of Youth in September alongside the public space analysis being currently conducted. On my end though, it is to be shared in the two weeks, before I depart, but I hope to hear back about the possibility to implement this later in the year. Another conference I had the chance to attend during my time in Amman is the No Lost Generation Tech Summit 2019. Under the Patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Princess Sumaya University for Technology - the No Lost Generation (NLG) Tech Summit is a two-day event, co-led by UNICEF and NetHope, focused on tech-enabled solutions that connect Learning to Earning for vulnerable adolescents and youth across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The event brought together private sector representatives, development and humanitarian organizations, academic institutions, donors and talented young entrepreneurs and young community organizers. It was a great opportunity to meet with and interview various people to better understand the future of work for youth in the region. Unemployment is one of the most critical issues in MENA, where youth unemployment is the highest in the world, with 29% in Northern Africa and 22% in the Arab States. By 2030, countries in the MENA region will face a substantial increase in the number of adolescents and youth to be absorbed into the labor market – with projected additional 39 million (+27%) young people entering the labor force, many without the training or education necessary to thrive. Additionally, according to the Global Peace Index 2019, the MENA remains, despite some improvements compared to the previous year, the least peaceful region in the world. The challenges that adolescents and youth face in the region in terms of access and quality of education and dignified employment in such an unstable environment, together with the fast-changing future of work, call for reimagining education as lifelong learning towards fostering a generation that is ready to LEAP into the future: ready to Learn, to be Employed, to Actively engage, and to take control over one’s own Personal growth and empowerment; as framed by No Lost Generation. I used the opportunity of attending the summit to interview individuals to collect their insights on learning and training systems in the region. Amongst them, Mr Gary Bolles, Singularity University Chair for the Future of Work and keynote speaker at the NLG Tech Summit, and Mr Zane Awan, founder of Re:coded, an organization that creates and implements tech training programs for refugee communities in Irbil, Iraq. While talking with Bolles, it was fascinating to learn from his views on the higher education quick adaptation models in various countries around the world and how to catalyze systems for an exponential change in the region. For Bolles, the pace of the change is two generations and to accelerate this change, we should:
A second interesting encounter that I wanted to highlight was with Mr. Zain Awan, founder of the organization Re-coded, that runs training programs for refugee communities in Irbil, Iraq. An interesting point from the conversation with Awan at the NLG Tech Summit was to avoid adopting patronizing behaviors when working on skills development programs. When I asked Awan what he thinks should be done differently with regards to skills development programs, he declared: “1. Never underestimate the power that young people bring themselves in the education programs they are in. Don’t patronize. The biggest thing I have noticed about his sector, especially the Tech for Good sector, is that we are taking the old development learning techniques, believe that we are completely free from development critique, and then apply the models through tech. For example, we’d say “Oh those poor refugees don’t know how to use Google Docs”. But ask yourself, does your son know how to use Google Docs? And why are you not training him on that? Why would you teach a refugee how to use google docs though a 6 weeks program when you can teach him or her, over the same period of time, advanced Android for example? So never underestimate. 2. Really go out for the cultural sensitivity. There are parents who are really unsure about sending their kids to these programs, especially girls. For example, we’ve had cases where worried parents would want to come to the interviews with their kids. So, we allowed it. Don’t be averse to that. Have a specific session for the parents to understand the program. Explain what you’re doing, how it is a safe space, and provide them with documents in their language.” Given the critical situation for unemployment in the region and the declining quality of learning in most education systems, such ideas could really transform, at the regional scale, the way we train young people, therefore shaping the future economy of these countries in both humanitarian and non-humanitarian settings. It was overall, an incredible opportunity for me to participate in those conversations, that will surely fuel my reflections after I graduate. It is hard to believe it has been already 5 weeks since I am here, time really flies. I am almost half-way through this experience and that is a hard thing to comprehend. These five weeks have been incredibly rich in terms of work, of meetings outside work and attendance to events. On June, 20th, I attended the Digital Mashreq Forum, organized by the Jordanian Ministry of digitaleconomy and entrepreneurship and the World Bank for Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. This conference was a great opportunity for understanding the national strategy set to position Jordan as a regional hub for the digital economy as well as public policy plans of countries like Irak and Lebanon. The Government of Iraq for example announced its commitment to further advancing the digital economy by ensuring access to high speed internet, by doubling access to broadband to 54% in 2021 and 90% by 2030, by establishing a more friendly regulatory and policy framework for digital payments and by developing interoperable digital payments infrastructure; the Government of Jordan committed to further developing access to internet broadband to reach 100% penetration rate by 2021. On digital payments, the Government of Jordan committed to increasing country-level cashless payments from 33 to 50% by 2020 and to digitizing 80% of government to citizens payments by 2021. On developing digital skills, the Government of Jordan plans on launching a national skills development initiative to train 35,000 people on coding skills as well as to extend those digital skills training to public schools curriculums to train 300 thousands students by 2022. For a more friendly business environment for entrepreneurs, the Government of Jordan also committed to launching a regulatory reform process in 2019, following a participatory approach with ecosystem representatives. I had the chance to participate in the same exercise that took place in Tunisia in 2016 under the leadership of the Tunisian Ministry of Technologies. This exercise that brought together more than 70 public and private sectors organizations led to a law called Startup Act, adopted by the Tunisian Parliament in 2018 and that improved the regulatory framework for tech entrepreneurs and startups by, for example, easing their access to capital and foreign currency and improve their relations with public sector organizations. More information on this initiative can be found here. Finally, the Government of Lebanon’s plans to double the knowledge economy’s contribution to GDP and double the employment in this sector by 2025. The plan includes reaching 100% broadband penetration rate by end of 2021, developing and executing the digital transformation of the public sector and its services, with 500,000 users signed up to the government digital platform by end of 2021, providing a supportive regulatory framework to help grow the Fintech industry and facilitate digital payments, launch a new national digital currency by the end of 2020, and launch an Electronic Trading Platform (ETP) to improve financing for private sector activities in 2020, leveraging its pool of skilled and entrepreneurial talent in Lebanon and abroad to build a digital economy focused on innovation and private initiative, increase the number of start-ups fivefold and double yearly venture capital funding by 2025 and finally, addressing the existing skills gap by preparing the youth for the global, digital jobs of the future through launching a national training academy by 2021. This conference was a great opportunity to understand the change in economic development policies in the Mashreq, in particular with regards to policy frameworks and skills development. For decades, many countries in the region were relying on either non-renewable natural resources, remittances and/or low added value industries. The development of new policies oriented towards digital economy signifies profound transformation for the entire society, including education, banking sectors, private sector and the public sector. These transformations will have a long-lasting impact on these societies and on the region overall. As a student in public Administration with a focus on youth, it is a really valuable experience to witness how different governments handle these societal transformations and be able to link them with the reflections occurring on the various projects for youth at UNICEF. My first two weeks were filled with onboarding meetings with each member of the team to understand each person's tasks and responsibilities. On my first week, I was also able to attend an interagency workshop on the launch of the Global Compact for the Engagement of Young People in Humanitarian Action in Jordan. This compact, led by UNFPA and NRC, aims to set standards for humanitarian operators to systematically engage young people in humanitarian actions. The Compact target five different stages of areas of humanitarian interventions for adolescents and young people to be engaged at: services, participation, capacity, resources, data.
On my end so far, my work was focused on updating documents related to resiliency plan (HRP / 3RP) to include the recommendations of the Compact in order to roll it out in two other countries within the next three months. Such platforms set new standards for international cooperation and interventions. It was very interesting for me to learn and understand the creation process of such collaborative agreement, how they're rolled out and how they get adopted in signatory members' everyday work. On another note, those two weeks were very enlightening for me with regards to the challenges faced by agencies like UNICEF in the MENA region, working in both crisis countries (like Syria) and middle income countries (like Tunisia and Morocco). The needs are fundamentally different and require fundamentally different approaches. The dichotomy between humanitarian interventions and development activities reflects the challenges faced today by development agencies and calls for flexible ways of working. I have arrived in Amman two days ago, on June 7th, visiting this city for the first time. And an important first learning, Jordanian's friendliness and hospitality are not myths. From the first moments, every person I encountered has been incredibly friendly. People here will have you in their homes in no time, hosting you with legendary kindness and meals. Even though I spent the past 10 years of my life in North Africa, I realized I had never visited countries in the Middle East beyond Egypt. Amman is an incredibly vibrant city. Around 4 million people live in Amman, representing 42% of the total population. Jordan being one of the largest host country for refugees from the region, all communities coexist.
So, what am I doing here beside enjoying this dynamic city and its people’s friendliness? I will be here until September, 1st workin with the UNICEF’s ADAP team. More particularly, I will be assisting the team with reflections and documentations on policies and projects related to adolescents’ participation and youth civic engagement across the region. The topic is of particular importance in the region as 1 in 5 people in the MENA is an adolescent. This, combined with the highest unemployment rate in the world and the lowest labor force participation rate, it makes for a time-sensitive matter for policy makers and development workers in the region. In many countries conflict, violence and climate change are aggravating factors for the lack of inclusion. In an upcoming post, I will dig deeper into the figures related to the situation as well related to the demographic transition happening in the region. While here, I am hoping to get a broader understanding of the situation in the Middle East as my previous work was mostly in North Africa. I also hope to learn about how an organization as large as the UNICEF designs, monitors and evaluates programs. as well as supports country offices It’s an exciting opportunity for me to be working on this topic in Jordan in particular as an important number of initiatives have been or are currently being developed by both civil society and the authorities given the important proportion of youth, as well as because of its similarity to my home country Tunisia in terms of demographics and economic development. |
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