The report finds increased efforts are needed to meet SDG 8, including through better preparing young people for jobs in the green economy.
Youth continue to face challenges in accessing health services, and inequalities persist in health services relevant to youth, including sexual and reproductive health or mental health.
The report recommends that countries foster young peoples’ equal access to opportunities to contribute to sustainable development to ensure no young people are left behind.
16 July 2019: The UN Secretary-General has released an update on progress on youth employment and entrepreneurship, health and well-being, and inequality and marginalization. The report finds that progress in youth employment is needed to put the world on a path to achieving SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).
The report titled, ‘Policies and programmes involving youth’ (A/74/175), summarizes progress in implementation of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 74/146 on policies and programmes involving youth. The report shares progress by Member States as well as UN efforts. The report describes UN youth development efforts at international, regional and national levels, including the adoption and launch of the UN Youth Strategy and the convening of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum.
Youth are overrepresented in jobs that are damaging to the environment or that will be eliminated in a green economy transition.
On youth employment, the report finds that youth still face major employment challenges and a risk of economic and social exclusion. Progress towards SDG 8 has been “slower than expected” with major gaps within and between countries. The report finds that increased efforts are needed to meet SDG target 8.6 on the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training, which is currently over 20%. The report also finds that youth are disproportionately represented in the informal economy; over one in three young workers in low and middle-income countries live in extreme or moderate poverty in 2018; and youth, particularly girls and women, need education and training to reduce the risks of a digital divide. Further, youth are overrepresented among workers in jobs that are damaging to the environment, not sustainable or that will be eliminated in a green economy transition. The report therefore suggests that the green economy could provide an opportunity to address youth employment challenges while also protecting the environment and increasing climate resilience.
The report identifies entrepreneurship as an opportunity for youth to contribute to both their own development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report suggests that social entrepreneurship, or “entrepreneurship that seeks to have a societal impact,” can complement interventions and strategies to reduce poverty and unemployment. However, the authors also caution that the Expert Group Meeting on youth social entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda found that entrepreneurship, especially social entrepreneurship, is “far from the universal cure for youth unemployment,” and that young entrepreneurs “often require adapted support to launch and transform their enterprise into a sustainable source of income and social change.”
On health and well-being, the report finds that youth continue to face challenges in accessing health services and that inequalities persist in health services relevant to youth, such as services focused on sexual and reproductive health or mental health. The report identifies a number of challenges, including bullying and mental health conditions, as well as challenges faced by young women related to childbearing, sexuality and marriage. The authors highlight efforts by Argentina, Australia, Cambodia and Nepal to develop awareness and education programmes focused on youth health and well-being, and efforts by Cambodia, Ghana and Mauritius to launch programmes for youth and adolescents on sexual and reproductive health and rights, among other efforts.
On inequality and marginalization, the report highlights a number of challenges, including: youth exclusion from relevant decisionmaking and policymaking processes; constraints faced by young women in accessing the labor market, including institutional barriers and uneven shares of unpaid household work; and disparities in health outcomes between young men and women. Young women are less likely to enroll in and complete quality technical and vocational education and training programmes, which the report states can affect their lifelong empowerment. In addition, youth constitute a large proportion of the worldwide population displaced by conflicts and disasters, and one in four young people is affected by armed conflict or violence in some way.
The report recommends that Member States intensify their efforts to address youth underemployment and unemployment, with a focus on improving synergies between the education and employment sectors, including through better preparing young people for jobs in the green economy, technical and vocational education and training programmes, and quality apprentices. The report further recommends that Member States: provide access to safe, effective, non-discriminatory health care services, and strengthen health education and literacy; and develop and implement policies and programmes that include the perspectives of young people and foster their equal access to opportunities to contribute to sustainable development to ensure no young people are left behind. Finally, the report recommends strengthening evidence-based policies and programmes through the collection and use of disaggregated data. [Publication: Report of the Secretary-General: Policies and programmes involving youth]