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.
0 Comments
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. |
Archives
August 2019
Categories |