SPC Brings Youth Unemployment Issue To The Fore

Friday 5 November 2011, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Noumea, New Caledonia –

Pacific government officials and aid donors deliberated on youth unemployment — the number one issue facing young people in the Pacific today — at a key regional development meeting in Noumea, New Caledonia this week.

Representatives from 22 Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) and the four metropolitan countries of Australia, France, New Zealand and the United States are attending the 41st Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), where the topic has been a key item on the agenda.

‘The biggest challenge for youth is how to make themselves useful,’ said SPC’s Director-General Dr Jimmie Rodgers while presenting a paper on ‘Pacific Youth Initiatives’.

‘Unemployment is high and there are definite links between unemployment and crime,’ he noted.

According to the paper, unemployment has been the number one problem for youth for the last three decades.

‘And this challenge will increase even further in the coming decades as the proportion of the Pacific population below the age of 24 years increases annually,’ said Dr Rodgers.

Some 20% of the current Pacific population is in the 20–24 year-old age group, and the majority of them are unemployed.

Youth population growth trends, particularly in Melanesian and Micronesian countries, are creating staggering numbers of school-leavers, fast outpacing the creation of jobs at the national level.

French Polynesia’s representative at the meeting Mr Bruno Peaucellier noted that youth are also usually the first to be laid off as salaried employment disappears in his country due to the severe economic crisis French Polynesia, like many countries, is facing.

While youth unemployment is high in many PICTs, inadequate youth employment data makes it difficult to quantify its full magnitude.

New Caledonia’s representative Mr Francois Bockel acknowledged the need for more statistics prior to dealing with the problem, while also raising the need to involve other sectors such as tourism.

Dr Rodgers assured CRGA delegates that SPC would assist in research and data collection, which would help PICTs in decision making.

The Pacific region’s oldest and largest development agency, SPC has been providing technical assistance to PICTs on youth issues while also supporting youth volunteer schemes.

Going forward, SPC will coordinate the development of a framework for youth employment for the region. It will also support the development and strengthening of national youth volunteer schemes, which recognise the importance of youth involvement in the economy, in particular the role they can play in nation building. And it will encourage the development of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) services that are responsive to the labour market and take into account market realities and employment trends.

‘It is important to identify the type of education that is most appropriate; the issue is technical skills for livelihoods,’ said Dr Rodgers.

He added that the solutions lie at the national level and that, at best, regional programmes can only add value to national activities.

‘SPC will continue to support countries and give advice on policy formation,’ he said. ‘SPC has an advantage in that it is multi-sectoral and its various sections, such as health and agriculture, can play a part in addressing the youth employment problem.’

ENDS

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