One Young World Enterprise for Peace Scholars

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

According to ILO the youth unemployment rate in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2017 was 17.74 percent. The employment opportunities are very limited in Afghanistan, many youths are unemployed and very poor which make them a target for the insurgents. This extremist ideology manipulates the younger generation in violent way and they start to get together with the opposition of the government. Youth are getting violent, getting more engaged in extremism and terrorism. They are being used as distractive units in the society instead of constructive units and systems. This makes youth more vulnerable and better targets of recruitment for insurgent groups.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

My team and I have offered leadership training to more than 600 girls in seven different provinces, namely Kabul (three times), Bamyan, Ghour, Nangarhar, Samangan, Panjsher, and Heart provinces. Here, we introduced the participants to young leaders around the world via Skype. We taught them how to develop action plans, promoting ethnic harmony, and give them the tools to become effective forces of change.

As the Secretary to H.E. the President, our team selected 500 youth from across Afghanistan from a hundred thousand applicants through an extensive selection process for the National Youth Conference. The youth worked, for more than three months, preparing concept notes to H.E. the President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani in different thematic areas, namely, Poverty Reduction, Expansion of Economic Zones in Afghanistan, Administrative Reforms, Anti Corruption, Youth National Strategy, and Understanding Afghanistan. These concept notes will have a significant impact on shaping the policies of the country since the key concepts will have its implementation phase upon the instruction of H.E the President.

Moreover, I am leading on a project bringing 365 youth from 365 districts of Afghanistan, connecting these youths to the Central Administrative Units and then allowing them to spend a day closely observing the work of the President. Upon returning to their districts, the youth become effective forces of change by creating change in their communities, with one young person as a representative in each district.

In 2017, I was chosen for the Emerging Young Leaders Award from the U.S. State Department, an award recognizing ten extraordinary young leaders from across the world. I was chosen for my country-wide girls leadership training; my workshops and advocacy through the Afghan Girls Sustainable Education project with over 100 Ulema, tribal leaders and elders from Nangarhar Province, where we worked to increase enrollment and decrease the dropout rates of secondary education. Also, my work as co-founder of Global Youth Development Initiative, where students are connected to professional and peer mentors from across the world for academic advising and international exposure has contributed to my networking and leadership skills.

My interest is in connecting the grass-root level activities to the policy level, and provide a platform for youth to have a stronger contribution in shaping the policies and administrative system they would like to see in Afghanistan.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Algeria has a significant amount of graduate young people. Many of them struggle finding jobs that match their expectations and their level of technical qualification. This is primarily because they do not have the soft skills and commercial awareness required to attain those jobs that are matching their education. This mismatch in employment, while does not directly affect the state of peace, causes frustrations in the youth, which leads to the unproductive workforce and a slow-growing economy.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Through Sylabs, we try to leverage new technologies to promote youth creativity and innovation and emphasize that success is possible in Algeria. We provide training to young people to explore to use digital solutions either to create a new innovative business or transform existing jobs/sectors by bringing a touch of innovation.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Youth in my country represent at least 60% of our population. Since 2015, with the oil price decrease, my country which is an oil-based economy has entered the worst social and economic crisis in its history. This is due to mostly a lack of diversification and poor management from our leaders. This has led to not only the loss of countless of jobs in the public and private sector, but also the dearth of job offers. Additionally, there is a huge mismatch between the traditional unchanging educational system in our country and the demands of the job market, which is becoming more and more digital in this 21st century. This means countless young people remain jobless after graduating from university. Peace is not merely the absence of war, but there is also no peace when you have no hope for a better future.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As a Software Engineer, Co-Founder and CEO of Mossosouk.com, the leading e-commerce platform in our country, I have never cease to provide the best of ICT training, internship and job offers to this growing digitally-connected youth. Since the inception of the company,, we have been able to train more than 150 young people in programming, graphic design, and digital marketing. We have also offered intensive internship programs to 15 student. As the founding member and recently the newly elected president of Generation ABCD(AnyBodyCanDream), a non-profit aiming at promoting the right to dream, leadership, entrepreneurship and the SDGs among Chadian youth and beyond, we have been able to train more than 4,000 young people in these topics where hundreds have launched their businesses creating jobs not only for themselves but for people around them building a better future for their families.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Chad is a vast country in Central Africa. Because of its size and demographic dividend, it is one of the most virgin countries in the world. The contrast is visible between untapped economic opportunities, slower human index development, stagnant social conditions, and the observed growth of youth unemployment.

According to the 2016 Human Development Index, Chad ranked 186th out of 188 countries, ahead of Niger and the Central African Republic. The year 2017 was marked by very weak economic growth, with a rate of 0.7% after -6.4% in 2016, and only 1.8% in 2015. For the year 2018 the projected growth rate is 2.6%. With a rapid population growth, Chad has more than 12,628,000 inhabitants. Nearly 46% of the population of working age is unemployed, with an unemployment rate of 22%. This mainly affects the age group 15 to 30, which makes up 60% of the population and is not afforded the possibility of fully developing its potential. From a global point of view, apart from young graduates, there is an ambivalent situation of widespread underemployment.

Unemployed youth with few prospects and little hope for their future could be a danger to themselves and to society. Other social and human consequences are also noted. It is mainly a feeling of worthlessness, a lack of self-confidence, a breakdown of family relationships and a deterioration of social relations. They find themselves forced into the armed struggle, forced into immigration and rural exodus and thus contribute to the degradation of peace in Chad. We also know that most young people who migrate to the capital, in search of greener pastures, are also subject to exploitation, abuse and many other vices.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

My activism and my devotion started a long time ago, but it was in 2015 that the most exciting story was triggered by the setting up of the Youth Network for Development and Leadership in Chad (RJDLT). An apolitical, non-profit associative platform based on the principles of volunteering, solidarity, public interest and human dignity. Its main objective is to provide young Chadians with development opportunities that will enable them to create positive change in their communities and promote youth entrepreneurship.

Through a strong brand, through concrete actions, we work to bring together entrepreneurial and promising young people, carrying innovative projects. Our mission is to instill a new and active dynamic so that Chadian entrepreneurship is part of a global movement that promotes performance by benefiting from international best practices and exceptional experience in the field.

RJDLT favors concrete actions through the organization of startup competitions adapted to each target in partnership with renowned international organizations.

A pioneer in the entrepreneurial arena, good governance and sustainable development in Chad and a real catalyst at the national level, the RJDLT stimulates economic development with a strong positioning in the areas of entrepreneurship and leadership; job creation and the constant search for innovation everywhere in Chad.

For two years, through our constant activities, we have been able to attract more young people to this adventure. We were able to collect a database of thousands of entrepreneurs and work with the most promising to implement their projects. In two years, with minimal support, we have been able to work for 5 startups, which employ at least 3 people including 15 jobs, without any financial support received.

We impact thousands of young people’s lives through our actions and we are giving hope of a better future to the millions of Young Chadians, that they can forge their own bright futures.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Egypt is facing increasing social, economic, and political instability. It is the most populated country in the Arab world and the third in Africa. While 25% of the country’s total population live in poverty and the total unemployment rate is 13%, the youth unemployment rate is 76.5% (UNICEF, 2017). The proportion of young people, aged 29 and below, constitutes two thirds of the Egyptian population (UNDP, 2016). This demonstrates the significance of this problem on state of peace. Consequently, CAPMAS report for 2015, states that 51.3% of young people aged 18-29 live in poverty. The Independent reported that terrorism recruits mostly educated youth from various countries, including Egypt (Dearden, 2016).

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I work in the development sector for youth unemployment and tackle issues such as the poor quality of education that contribute to unemployment. Through my mandate in leading entities in this field, I lead projects and create initiatives which at least work on gathering all the stakeholders and scattered efforts on one platform to have an impact.  

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

All nations face problems, and all governments try to solve them, and surely all civil society organizations exert enormous efforts to limit the damages. All that applies to most of the issues that could face a country, except for unemployment. When you ignore a small problem, it gets bigger over time, and turns into a dilemma, then it goes on to become a crisis, ending up with being a disaster. These two sentences sum up my point of view about youth employment. We ignored this small problem when it appeared due to the huge increase in population, we kept on adding numbers to the equation, and now we are turning the disaster mode “on”. Most people tend to commit illegal actions to provide themselves a living, causing crime rates to jump higher than the Empire State Building.
 

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As mentioned above, you can't suddenly stop a speedy train that went out of control by just standing in front of it - you need a proper plan to “hit the brakes” and eventually stop. I have been trying for quite some time to enlighten people about their own health, specifically sexual and reproductive health and family planning, and all I hear from them is one famous sentence “we just want our kids to have a prosperous future, that is why we decided not to have many”. Indeed, we knew it would make the train slower if we tried to stop passengers from getting on that train, and with the government's efforts in providing opportunities for youth, the train will definitely be easy to control, and will surely run at the perfect speed.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

I endorse the assumption that better livelihood conditions will help in creating peace and peaceful communities. Statistics from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) about unemployment rates in Egypt can affect our view of solutions and approaches used to tackle such challenges which impact the Egyptian economy, livelihoods, the environment and peace in local communities. The unemployment rate continues to be high, with overall national unemployment standing at 12% in the first quarter of 2017. Unemployment among the youth as a whole is nearly three times the national average, standing at 33.4% in 2016. It is even higher among young women, standing at 41.4% in 2015 (compared to 28.4% among young men in the same year). But in the last few years, Egypt has been implementing a major economic reform program focused on macroeconomic rebalancing, improving governance, supporting SMEs, developing an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and creating innovative approaches with development partners to tackle these challenges. To accelerate Egypt’s recovery it is needed to build and enhance the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and enhance entrepreneurship for sustainable development through using cluster and value chain development, green growth, focusing on cleantech technologies and startups, SMEs and sector specific programs  which will help in improving the productivity, competitiveness and promoting skills development for underemployed and unemployed youth and women as well as students for enhanced employability and self-employment opportunities. As a result, this will help to diversify the local economy and to provide the youths in targeted communities with more and better employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, hence improving their livelihoods which lead to the required sustainable peace and welfare.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Change with tangible impact needs a lot of time and requires combining the efforts of all engaged stakeholders to change engrained practices by using different cross-disciplinary approaches to provide the right exposure and catalyze the seed of the change and peace inside every one. Starting with my role as a doer/active person in the rural community at upper Egypt with high unemployment and poverty rates to tackle this challenge and finding innovative solutions through entrepreneurship development in rural communities. These help in building an aware peaceful communities through promoting the business opportunities which are applicable for the environment, market, value chain and providing different capacity building programs, training, workshops through my professional work in the green entrepreneurship, SMES development and cleantech startups by using value chain and cluster development approaches. Also creating the community of upper Egypt youth through my online platform project of the opportunities which foster and aim to provide the required access to knowledge, youth empowerment and advocacy and tailoring peace.  

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Ethiopia, a country of 100Million+ has 41% of its population between the age of 15 to 29 and is currently dealing with a staggering 27% of youth unemployment. Considering this number will continue to grow, a quick and systematic intervention will need to be put in place by government, private sector and non-profit organizations.

In the past few years only, we have already seen the implications of increasing youth unemployment in Ethiopia. In fact, although we can say that there were several factors that fuelled the various political protests in the country, the high number of unemployed youth have had a major role in initiating, organizing and contributing to the increased instabilities and disturbances of peace. As the youth are the most eager, passionate, adventurous, curious and active part of any given society; proper, cautious and creative management of this group would need absolutely necessary in order to ensure the first things that get challenged otherwise, peace and stability.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As we all know, role of private sector and entrepreneurship in creating more jobs and sustaining the economy is unprecedented. Especially in a fragile country like Ethiopia, we will need to put as much effort as possible to support this sector to ensure sustainable growth, innovation and increased peace and stability.

I have been working in the tech/entrepreneurship space for the past 4 years in Africa and mainly in Ethiopia. I believe the work that I do in:

• Supporting entrepreneurs to understand their business better in order to increase their chances of securing investment,
• Creating networks of likeminded individuals so that there could be easy flow of information and collaboration, and
• Working with partners in order to support the government amend policies that will make doing business in Ethiopia easier,
• promotes youth employment by supporting  job creation, fostering economic growth and in effect bring more peace and stability to the country.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

My country, Gambia, has seen its youth exiting the country, selling their land or closing their businesses to migrate to Europe with the hope of achieving something to support their families back home. Youth have lost their lives during the horrifying journey; some are left traumatized because of what they must have gone through getting to Europe and some are left with no other choice but to get involved with illegal activities. Despite the shift in power and the new democratic rule, there is yet to be any significant change with respect to illegal immigration to Europe. Conversely, the youth is being deported back to the country with little or no means to support themselves. However, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is working with partners to provide training for returnees. These returnees, coming back home with little or nothing to do, is  the main reason for the massive increase of crime rates (arm robberies, rape). This has brought into question the security and peace of the country, as police have in the space of the last four months arrested about 146 youths.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Working for an institution that has existed globally since 1844 and believes in the advocacy and development of young people irrespective of faith, age, sex, race or social condition, my work over the years in the capacity of  Assistant Coordinator involved overseeing our Finance and Admin portfolio. Additionally, I was the lead web developer for all our web development projects. The projects have centred around capacity building programs, empowering young people especially girls to acquire a skill and know their rights.

Recently, we launched a project called Empowered for Life (EFL), which was funded by the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), a European Union project being implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC).  My organisation is also a training partner for the EU funded YEP Project (www.yep.gm). The aim of the project was to address the capacity building of school dropouts between the ages of 18-31 by introducing them to thematic modules using Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) blended with entrepreneurship and social media marketing. It was followed by a second phase which was a tailored Mentorship programme designed to enable them to start businesses or gain employment. The programme was successful and we trained about 60 young people from rural Gambia.

We are currently kick starting a project in the North Bank River Region (NRR) called Securing Employment for Tomorrow (SET) with support from YEP, which aims to give disadvantaged Gambian Youths a chance to gain sustainable employment or become entrepreneurs by equipping them with skills in Graphic Design, Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship. This training is expected to target a total of 100 youths (50 Male and 50 Female).

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The lack of employment opportunities in Iraq is driving youth to follow greed and use conflict and theft as source of income. In Iraq youth represent 60% of the population, yet youth unemployment is above 40%.  Unemployment is mainly caused due to the lack of public sector employment and oppression. It is also caused due to the illiteracy and lack of soft skills that enable youth to move to self-employment, become entrepreneurs, or make them employable in the private sector. Additionally, the lack of employment opportunities and hence a source of income push the people to join armed militias like Saraya Al-Salam, or join territories groups like ISIS. Therefore, an immediate attention has to be drawn to enhance youth employment opportunities to drive youth away from conflict and enable the peaceful transition of a post-conflict country.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Ikfil Nakhla project, or Support a Palm Tree, is a project that provides a full annual care service for palm trees in Iraq for an annual fee and a percentage of the dates and offsets. The project provides both a service and dates product. The Ikfal goals are aligned with the SDG goals. The project aims to provide dates, a source of nutrition with high energy value, to decrease poverty in Iraq which was at 22% in 2017.  Since palm trees are planted all around Iraq, with the increase of palm trees that we support, we will help provide jobs in the country. This will eventually lead the immigration back from the city to the country.  I used this project as a base to raise my voice as a youth, woman, and an entrepreneur. I directed TV media, and social media to recognize the change innovative woman can lead, and how unemployment issues can be solved through youth entrepreneurship, not government sector employment.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

In Iraq, rates are not the main indicator of  youth unemployment, as the Iraqi government employs almost half of the population. This state is always threatened by the fluctuations of oil prices and regional conflicts. The government strategy has failed to support the private sector and hence youth became reliant on public sector jobs that provide alleged financial security. This has led to depriving the market of experienced manpower and ambitious employees and increased the human resources gap.

With the lack of proper education and work experience; youth are on the edge of losing their safe jobs in case of an economic crisis which will aggravate the social and political situation in the country which is already unstable.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Since 2013 I have been involved in organizing, mentoring and supervising events that introduced entrepreneurship to young Iraqis. I further develop their skills and help small businesses and startups. These efforts among other factors; helped changed youth’s mindset of their future and career options and it encouraged them to think of alternative options.

In my own startup; Zuqaq13, I have focused on two key aspects that would help with youth employment. Firstly, supporting young designers and artists by providing the means to showcase their work and get paid for it. The second is to invest in local manpower and shift the production operations to Iraq to employ more youth and empower them with knowledge and experience.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

In Iraq, almost half of the population are aged 15-25, and USAID has estimated that the rate of youth unemployment is over 30%. War and terrorism has driven many young people, especially men, to migrate to Europe and elsewhere in the search for job opportunities. Women now make up 75% of the unemployed in Iraq, which can leave young women under the age of 18 vulnerable to forced marriages, further compounding their poverty by having children whose basic needs they cannot afford. The state of peace is further damaged in Iraq when men are attracted to join terrorist militia groups offering alternative paid employment, such as ISIS. This affects peace building and increases poverty in Iraq, increasing the risk of violence and terrorism.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

At Ishtar Handmade Soap, we focus on women because we believe that building a woman is building a family, and building a family is building a community that will help with peace building in Iraq.  

We hire women in need who are facing poverty and aim to hire more women across all areas in Iraq over the next two years. Providing a salary for a woman who can support herself or her family enables her to keep her kids in school rather than forcing her children into child marriage or to join militias. Terrorism starts from poverty, especially since the number of widowed women and orphans has increased to over 2.5 million who are living with no support, so empowering women and educating their children is the number one method to end poverty and terrorism in Iraq.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

In the past few years most my focus has been on increasing the number of women in the tech industry. As a Computer Science student I realized how fortunate I am to take part in an industry that has such a great influence on society, and after noticing how few other women chose to pursue it, I decided I want to act to change the underrepresentation of women in this field, and invite more girls to discover this interesting domain.

I am the co-founder and manager of QueenB, a non-profit aimed at increasing the number of women in the tech industry. QueenB offers Middle-School girls coding and app development lessons once a week throughout a year. Lessons are taught by female Computer Science university students. 

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

QueenB’s goal is for young women to have equal opportunities in the tech industry. By teaching  Middle-School girls code, exposing them to the tech industry and to female role models, we allow them to see themselves as programmers and to consider this as a career path. Succeeding in something they’ve never thought they can do also builds their confidence and belief that they can do anything they want.

In our first two years we operated only in Jerusalem, and soon QueenB will open its third year of activity with over 60 female Computer Science university students that will teach over 300 teenage girls how to code in four activity centers all around Israel. The organization will continue to grow and offer coding lessons to hundreds of girls.

In the past months my partner for founding QueenB, Yasmin Dunsky, and I, have been working on another project; Frizzl, a digital platform that allows anyone to learn code easily on their mobile phone. This will allow us to reach thousands and hopefully millions of users that will learn to code and promise themselves more employment opportunities in their future.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The tech industry has such a great impact on our society, technology affects every aspect of our lives. Programming is becoming the most important tool in many different fields, and therefore more and more jobs at the tech industry are being opened. Knowing how to code is becoming the reading and writing of the 21st century, the ones that will have that knowledge will have much more opportunities in their future. Yet, today women are under-represented in the tech industry. The needs of women may be disregarded and many products in many fields are less suited for women. Moreover, the tech industry is the most economically rewarding industry today. Therefore, helping women enter the tech industry will help in reducing gender pay gap.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As Computer Science Students at the Hebrew University, we founded QueenB, a non-profit to increase the number of women in the tech industry. In QueenB we address girls in Middle-School, at the critical point before choosing their major in High-School. We offer the girls Java and App development lessons, once a week throughout the whole year. The lessons are given by Computer Science female students who receive a scholarship for their mentoring.
We discovered that many girls avoid the field of Computer Science because they’re not sure they will succeed in it, and they are so afraid of failure. We saw it as an opportunity to not only teach girls coding, but also to teach them to be brave and to show them they can do anything they want. We believe that can serve them in their future in any path they will choose to go.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Young people are full of energy and so if they don’t have a specific goal, there is a risk of this energy being channelled into a bad or dangerous direction. Many young people in my country cannot find the jobs they were planning to get after graduation, and so they must settle for jobs that are less satisfying or those offering lower salaries. Because of this, the youth should be encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship so that they can become job creators rather than job seekers.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As an entrepreneur and a founder of a business, I found that I should be part of the solution to unemployment in my country. I started my business when I was 26 years old, and I built a team consisting of engineers and administrative staff. Now we have hired 3 full-time and 18 part-time employees, and I hope to grow my business further to create more jobs for the youth in my country. In addition, we teach kids how to start their own businesses so that we can prepare more and more business leaders and job creators who can help to solve the the unemployment problem in my country.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

Joblessness among young Somali adults is a chronic issue in Somalia. Their unemployment rate is at a staggering 67%. The issue of youth joblessness is exacerbated by the large number of Somali students who graduate—from secondary schools and from tertiary organizations—with skills that are neither appropriate for Somalia nor competitive elsewhere.
 
Nonetheless, this aside, after almost three decades of turmoil—and of protracted conflict, terrorism, and piracy—Somalia is making huge entrepreneurial, socioeconomic, and political strides. This progress is encapsulated in a famous hashtag, popularized in 2017 and known as “#SomaliaRising.” In keeping with the spirit and momentum of this, we turned “Rising” into “iRise”—to demonstrate both how Somalis can improve narrative, and bring our innovative and entrepreneurship ingenuity into play.
 
How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

We provide an environment where innovators and investors can collaborate for job-creation. It is widely known that the amount of capital injected into Somalia through remittances is higher than that brought in by development aid. We tapped into this available capital by placing young digital innovators in the same room as those who are willing to invest. And iRise employees also hold one-on-one meetings with the community members to advise and help them with all their technical and business needs.
 
We facilitate equitable access to information for a tech-savvy youth population. We invite the top talent in all industries to give talks and fireside chats in our space, and make it open to all members of the community and public who show an interest in it. This will help young people receive market information that can make their brand or product competitive in Somalia and beyond.

We offer a physical platform, training and mentorship to youth on entrepreneurship and innovation, using technology to connect them to potential investors. iRise will collaborate with institutions of higher learning, corporations, and government institutions to increase the chances of young Somalis with tech talent being mentored and employed.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Kenya is currently home to over 10 million young people, out of which 7 million were unemployed as of March 2018. Kenya is leading in youth unemployment in East Africa.  Only 900,000 job were generated in 2017. In addition, the lack of jobs affects most families in Kenya, since most young people who graduate from high school are not able to continue with their education due to lack of finances or low grades. This affects young people mainly from rural areas and urban slums, where the majority of youth come from.  In 2007/2008 Kenya was hit by post-election violence which left over 1,000 people dead and over 500,000 people displaced. The majority of people who participated in this violence were jobless young people. Youth unemployment threatens the peaceful coexistence in a community, since most youth have no choice but to turn to drugs and violence, with some joining gangs in the quest to meet their needs and those of their families.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I Founded Garden of Hope Foundation to support jobless youth from Kenyan urban slums and rural areas. Through the leadership development and entrepreneurship program, the youth are trained and nurtured on leadership and entrepreneurship skills. This human centered approach basically trains youth using the sustainable development goals.

This program is guided by three core objectives: 

• To ensure disadvantaged youth acquire life skills, relevant labor market skills and skills in small business development.
• To facilitate disadvantaged youth access to job opportunities through our private and public partnerships.
• To ensure youth receive mentorship as they transition to work and tertiary education.

We train over 100 young people each year who also act as our community peace ambassadors. These ambassadors are change agents who also train other young people from their communities. In addition the youth we trained have acquired jobs and some have started their own business. This effort is creating a peaceful community free of crime and other forms of violence.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

My hometown Tripoli is one of the most deprived cities in Lebanon at the economic, social, and cultural level despite the fact that it is the second largest city in the country. It is currently suffering from significant brain drain due to substantial youth unemployment rate that reaches up to 35%. Most of the young people who are currently residing in Tripoli are either planning to leave or demotivated. This immense drain led to the deterioration of the city not only on the economical level but also on the safety level. A violent conflict lasted for years in the most deprived areas in Tripoli. I believe it was not only a political matter as the youth are the main fuel for it. Providing positive and promising options is necessary for the younger generations not only to stay in Tripoli but also to play a positive role in reshaping its future. 

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?  

I have been actively engaged in leading and supporting projects in my community that serves my personal mission of 'Empowering the changemakers'. In 2013, I built on my own entrepreneurial experience to co-found Tripoli Entrepreneurs Club (TEC). In 5 years, the club has become a reference in the city on a local level and for the city on the national level in terms of startup support and creation. More than 150 members of entrepreneurs, freelancers, mentors and Wantrepreneurs are at the core of this hub pushing together towards an inclusive and supportive startup ecosystem. At TEC, I design and manage programs aimed at enabling youth to start their entrepreneurial journey and build the relevant soft and technical skills. To-date, we have trained more than 1,000 wantrepreneurs and supported the creation of nearly 50 startups. We believe that our work will position Tripoli as a hub for youth and innovation. 

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

According to the World Bank statistics, 40 percent of the Malian population is currently aged between 15 to 40 years. Youth unemployment rates are extremely high and keep increasing especially in rural areas. Young people and women are a significant number of the Malian population and are the key actors in the creation of a peaceful Mali. In the times of conflict and instability young people and women are the most vulnerable ones but are also the key solution to bring peace.

Addressing youth unemployment has become increasingly urgent in the face of a deteriorating security situation, where criminal and radical groups have penetrated many parts of Mali. Young people lack any other choice aside from joining armed groups,  where they are offered a better life in return for creating chaos. If Mali wants to reach a long-lasting peace, Mali needs to start investing in youth employment, creating jobs, supporting youth enterprises and investing in education in order to fight extreme poverty.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

In 2012, I launched my organization Tilwalte in Mali. It aims at educating, developing and connecting young Malian girls to a brighter future. This summer my organization launched the Girls Peace Network where we brought young girls from all ten regions of Mali for two weeks of intensive training in peace building, leadership and entrepreneurship.

Those young girls are now back in their communities working on peace building through community based projects. At the end of our training, we provided our girls with mobile cell phones to allow them to collaborate on different projects and create an online platform of support.

I am currently working on launching my new initiative called African Women Access Lab. The main aim of which is to empower African women through Entrepreneurship. This new initiative will support female entrepreneurship in Mali through capability building trainings, linking and learning tools and provide all possible resources and platforms to support in launch of their enterprises.   

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Youth unemployment in Mauritania stands at 18.6% being the highest unemployment rate in the country. Representing 60% of the population, young people are at the same time the most exposed group to underemployment and the most vulnerable one. This high rate of unemployment is due to the fact that the national market cannot resorb the labor supply. The Sahel’s terrorists groups take advantage of this by using it as an opportunity to recruit, further threatening the security of the country and the subregion.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

My engagements with incubators, the private sector and as a manager of a national business competition aims to promote entrepreneurship as possible career trajectory for youth in Mauritania. My ultimate goal is to help young people create their own opportunities to tackle the structural challenges they face when job hunting. From a political perspective, my goal is to help remove constraints to business development in Mauritania, principally limited access to finance and protecting businesses from being exploited by extremist groups. 

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

Young people are two or three times more likely to be out of work than their parents. Morocco fits this pattern with an overall unemployment rate of 10 percent, with youth being twice as likely to be without a job. Ironically, the more educated youth become, the more likely they are to be unemployed.  Furthermore, Morocco is currently creating less than 50 percent of the new jobs required to keep up with the growing working age population. Political stability in Morocco simply cannot silence the direct link between youth unemployment and other socio-economic and political factors that can contribute to marginalization and discrimination that engender conflict and violence at a more structural level. As jobs are continuously superseded by automation and technological advancements, Morocco is in dire need to capitalize on its growing young populations to create meaningful jobs, drive economic growth, and ensure sustainable peace.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

At Education 4.0, we firmly believe that youth unemployment cannot be looked at as an isolated problem: its roots lie deep in social, cultural, economic and political structures and dynamics. To tackle this issue, Ed4.0 aims to break free from traditional high fixed cost models of education and create customized bottom-up social reform through quality education with the purpose of empowering youth to unlock economic prosperity and social justice in their communities and beyond. We create differentiated curricula and AI powered edtech solutions based on innovative pedagogical strategies with local approaches. We then implement these curricula and technologies through learning programs for the benefit of youth with no access to quality education in Africa and the Middle-East to develop their foundational competencies, creativity, cognitive skills, and design & systems thinking to prepare them to excel in the fourth industrial revolution’s labor markets.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Unemployment rates in the MENA region are one of the highest  in the world, with rates ranging between 25% to 50% of young people aged 18-25. In Morocco, the numbers of NEET (Not in Education nor in Training) reached almost 3 million in 2017. This lack of opportunity and inactivity is a major driver for various sorts of reactions, be it illegal migration, terrorism, suicidal behaviors and all kind of physical and mental illness. All of this jeopardizes both internal and regional stability and thus creates a prosperous environment for all kind of threats.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

For the last 6 years I have founded and launched various initiatives and programmes that aim to empower young people to create solutions to their major issues and develop real-life skills that can enable them to create their own jobs and/or develop their skills in the market.  I have launched The Moroccan Center For Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship with its two main flagship programmes. Tamkeen focuses on developing critical thinking and social innovation skills or K-12 with a focus on high-school students and teachers to equip them with the skills they need to develop projects that can solve Morocco’s main education challenges. Tamkeen has been operating for 4 years now and reaches 40 schools country wide each year. The second program is Dare Inc, Morocco’s premier Social Impact Incubator which has supported more than 100 projects since 2015 and contributed to launch 27 startups and create more than 170 jobs in various sectors.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

After years of decline, our economy is moving in a good direction again. The unemployment rates of around 4% are actually among the best in the EU. In my opinion, we’re facing different challenges. Challenges that have a direct relation to the growing schism between different cultures and incomes. Challenges pertaining to purposeful, sustainable and future proof employment. I believe there is a lot of potential in solving these problems if we use social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship to train our youth to be prepared for the future.

While we live in a very peaceful country, our society is rapidly changing. The presence of harsh discussions, fake news, statistics and even research leaves little room for nuanced dialogue that is fact-based. Youth, especially the unemployed or underemployed, feel like they’ve lost purpose  and are alienated by society. Whenever this happens, it’s a recipe for all kinds of extremism and apathy, thus threatening peace.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I dedicate my energy, time and enthusiasm to helping dreams in the area of social entrepreneurship to grow. By boosting social entrepreneurial and creative people, initiatives, experiments & start-ups, I try to empower young people to get future proof jobs. With my work at Starters4Communities I train millennials so they gain an entrepreneurial spirit, 21st century skills and the tools and network to realize their dreams. Whether they wish to become social entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs (entrepreneurial minded people that drive change and innovation within organizations), I make sure that they follow their vision, discover a purpose and that they are resilient and prepared. With my activities in the foundations I operate in, I experiment with social innovation, bringing cultures and generations together and try to engage the corporate sector to collaborate with social organisations. Thinking globally and acting locally is my motto here. I do aspire to collaborate internationally.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

As a holder of two EU nationalities (Greek & Dutch) I will share my opinion about both. I was raised in Greece, the country with the highest youth unemployment in Europe over the last 8 years! I have seen, felt and experienced how much damage this has done to Greece. Families have been forced to bid farewell to their kids in search of a job with dignity outside of Greece! 400,000+ youngsters have left the country! This is an unprecedented brain drain with long term impacts. The last 14 years I have been studying and working in the Netherlands. My other country that has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the EU! Despite that, unemployment is present in the Netherlands although its low. Minorities are most affected. Many have been experiencing racial discrimination in the job market. Although peace hasn’t been threatened, this has polarized the societies and increased extreme opinions in political parties.  

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

The last 6 years I have been initiating and running entrepreneurship programs that empower local youngsters and promote financial independence in difficult financial environments. After Greece, I focused on Africa where we currently run entrepreneurship programs in 10 countries and 19 cities. This all operates under the auspices of the local Dutch Embassy - a key success factor that has opened most doors. 

By connecting corporates to entrepreneurship initiatives, scaling up the knowledge capacity of universities, helping governments understand their role in such complex ecosystems and empowering local hubs, we have managed to create more sustainable programs that continue after subsidies have ended. Our program promotes context-consciousness and actor interaction for the benefit of young entrepreneurs. By helping these stakeholders understand the potential impact of their actions and how to create and support a sustainable venture creation culture, we indirectly contributed to an economic stability and hence broader prosperity of that country. 

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country’s state of peace?

Most graduates and young people (out of school) in Niger are unemployed. As a result of the structural adjustment programmes imposed by the World Bank and the IMF, the Nigerien state, the country's largest recruiter, no longer hires. A survey of 2016 gives us a rate of unemployment at about 2.6% but here it does not show the reality in our country, because 2.6% represents nothing. Niger is at the last place in the United Nations Human Development Index. And according to analysts, there is an important relation between insecurity and large-scale unemployment in the country. In Niger, almost 55% of the unemployed are seeking their first job while others to deal with this problem of unemployment do the Fads (chilling in front of their houses) or are engaged in delinquency/crime in the streets. Additionally, because the few companies and other job-creating NGOs are concentrated in Niamey, young people introduce the Boko haram to support their families in the north of the country. This situation is brutalising the country’s economy and its state of peace.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I aim to help housewives and street children to develop themselves and to create an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creatives live in accord with their needs and interests. The population of Niamey is about 1,026,848 people, of which only 22.15% of women are considered active (ANPE2005). This includes a high rate of housewives and an important percentage of street children. Unfortunately, there are not enough specific studies devoted to street children. Through my work, juvenile delinquency will reduce and both young people and housewives will be educated on healthy life and their living conditions will improve. Consequently, create employment (there will be a specific hour /week to respect so a lot of people will benefit and will have a job), increase incomes/ reduce poverty and promote sustainable society/peace.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Like other countries of the world, Nigeria is beset with tons of challenges, many of them interrelated. Of these we have the problems of insecurity and unemployment. The first leads to the second just as much as the second leads back to it. The raging menaces of terrorism in the North and militant agitations in the South have ensured the closure of schools, the desertion of markets and the shutdown of businesses — thus leading to loss of previously insufficient jobs. But that is not the full picture. These problems became menacing at all because of the 16 million unemployed people — population of Congo, Norway and Libya combined. To ensure lasting peace, job creation must be prioritised in all circles. The government, especially, has the crucial job of making the environment fertile for creativity and entrepreneurship to thrive. Anything else will only make the ticking time bomb tick even faster.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Our scope at Brain Builders International (brainbuilders.com.ng), in the past few months, has been broadened to accommodate digital skills and technology. We believe that the future of work and employment in Nigeria will be disrupted by technology, Digital Skills, Artificial Intelligence etc. In the past few months, we have partnered with organizations such as Kinetics Associates, Konverge Media, Mind the Gap, Edubridge Consultants, Santonz and Haptics who are registered partners with the Google Digital Skills for Africa program to reach over 20,000 young Nigerians Propagating the Gospel of Digital Literacy for Self Empowerment, Employability and Business Growth. Efforts have also been intensified to promote peaceful coexistence through our yearly TeensSpeakOut programme where we have awarded scholarships worth over 5 Million naira in the last four years upon realization of the report published by Brookings institution that Nigeria now has over 87 million people living in abject poverty. Our trainings have continued to prepare young people for the job market, the future of work and bridging the knowledge gap towards the realization of more employed youths. In this light as well, I co-founded OPAB Global Consults (opabconsults.com), a Human resource consultancy firm in which has trained 7,500 undergraduates on how to craft compelling cover letters, answer interview questions, get necessary skills needed for 21st century workforce and tailor CVs for their dream career. I have also spearheaded the Global #NotTooYoungToRun campaign in Kwara State, a bill which is aimed at ensuring active representation of young people in the leadership of Nigeria. The passage of this bill has also fostered cohesion and peace amongst the youthful population and the political leaders.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Nigeria has a youth population of more than 80 million, representing 60 percent of the total population of the country. 64 million of these youths are unemployed. The rate of youth unemployment keeps increasing day by day. According to Trading Economics, Youth unemployment rate in Nigeria has increased from 21.73% in 2014 to 33.10% in the third quarter of 2017.

In Nigeria today, unemployed young people are a major threat to the peace of the society. This has led to an atmosphere of lawlessness, high rate of crime, poverty and insecurity of lives and property. This is reflected in the nature of criminal activities pervading Nigeria today which includes kidnapping, armed robbery, militancy, internet scam, murder, cultism, abduction, rape, advanced fee fraud and various forms of insurgency.

There is no denying that the violent situation in the country could discourage investors from investing in a society full of insecurity and uncertainty.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As an advocate of youth development, I have dedicated myself to capacity building, entrepreneurship, leadership, and youth and community development. I have engaged in youth employment through awareness, training and entrepreneurship. My focus is to empower vulnerable young adults in my community through training in technical skills, financial literacy, personal development, leadership and entrepreneurship. My goal is to transform them to be skilled, informed, employable and confident, and to offer them a chance to pursue their dreams while breaking the cycle of poverty and creating sustainable peace.

I developed an online platform that solves unemployment and create jobs in my community via a web application "www.makewework.com". The platform provide jobs by connecting service providers with clients and also serve as a job board for jobseekers. This platform has impacted more than 100 individuals in my community.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un) employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, over 7.5 million Nigerians were unemployed between January 2016 and December 30, 2017, and out of this number over 50% are youth and this youth is to a large extent a determinator of the level of development of Nigeria. When our active population is unproductive, Nigeria tends to remain stagnant in her developmental strides. As a result of this, the divide between the rich and the poor continues to grow, which results in social tensions in the country. This situation also contributes to drug abuse, robbery, kidnapping and many of the issues we face as a country. This also causes dissatisfaction with the incumbent government and in the past few years, has led to frequent changes in governments and formation of unsteady coalitions which is unhealthy for long term stable economic policies.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Nigeria suffers a variety of complex political problems including inequality, corruption, oil disputes, national disunity, and the Boko Haram insurgency which affects peace and peace building activities. We also have very poor education standards which lead to unemployment and poverty because our youth lack the skills to work with most companies or the skills to build a company up from scratch. One of the ways my work solves youth unemployment issues in Africa is by promoting entrepreneurship, training our youth on skills necessary to run a successful business and by building a platform called the AGS Tribe. This platform democratizes opportunities available for entrepreneurs in Africa. The aim is not to just get a job, but also create an environment where our youth, irrespective of their background or education, can have an entrepreneurial mindset, so that people can give value, take ownership and be responsible citizens wherever they find themselves.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, two-thirds of its 180 million population are under the age of 30. Unfortunately, despite government’s modest efforts to create jobs, 50% of Nigerian youth are unemployed due to limited job opportunities vis-a-vis a labour market saturated with millions of jobseekers, and the treacherous hurdles within an unfavourable environment that those with entrepreneurial ambitions have to scale through i.e. limited incentives, credit facilities and dearth of infrastructure. Failure to turn Nigeria’s youth bulge into a demographic dividend, rendered them highly vulnerable to engage in sundry crimes such as armed robbery, hostage-taking for ransom, and manipulation by extremist ideologues, as seen in the rise of Boko Haram. Since its 2009 insurrection, Boko Haram is believed to have claimed at least 20,000 lives and displaced more than 2.6 million people. The group’s brutality earned it the lamentable distinction of being the deadliest terrorist group worldwide in 2015.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

My work is centred on weakening the appeal of violent extremism among youth. In 2010, I founded the Youth Coalition Against Terrorism (YOCAT), a volunteer-based coalition of over 600 youth in north-eastern Nigeria that works to unite young people against violent extremism through job creation and peace education. I believe that youth unemployment feeds into both grievance and greed as motives for joining terrorism, since unemployment constitutes a clear grievance while it lowers the opportunity cost of joining a terrorist group. Therefore, YOCAT provide skills training and start-up capital for unemployed youth, as well as link unemployed youth to job vacancies in government and private organisations. We also establish Peace Clubs in secondary schools, to promote a culture of peace and tolerance. Currently, we are planning an advocacy campaign to demand for the provision of quality education, and economic opportunities in villages, to turn the youth-bulge disaster into a dividend.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The mission of achieving peace in Palestine started years ago. Unfortunately,  the conflict seems endless. The lack of peace is dramatically affecting youth employability in my country. The unemployment rate reached 60% among youth including women because of the continuous conflict between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation.

The destruction of businesses, buildings, and factories result in loss of jobs and losses in property. Causing more damage to the country provokes anger and desire to take revenge, which means more killing, more destruction and no peaceful resolution being achieved.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I worked with international organizations in economic development and employability for 6 years. During this period,  I worked hard to help young graduates to get the best-matched jobs for them. After several conflicts, I discovered that all the work that I and other organizations have been doing went with no impact.

Because of the continuous conflict that Gaza had been through and the restriction of movement, the economy has been deteriorated. I found a way to overcome that by establishing my own initiative that helped 20 skilled youth to get jobs online and to generate income for them and for their families. Maybe such initiatives won’t stop the war. But, if several initiatives combined together, they will make a sustainable impact.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

High unemployment for youth in Sénégal and in the region represents a significant challenge: it is a situation that impacts the core of young people’s involvement in community development. Unemployment and its pitfall of socio-economic exclusion generates a system where youth are disempowered and trivialized at a critical time in their development as citizens; a time where one should build habits of engagement and critical thinking. 

More importantly, youth by their sheer number are the region's greatest opportunity: if today's leaders and communities come together to create personal and professional development and educational opportunities that cultivate both relevant skills and values, we would have a tangible force for change.

This year, 500,000 young Senegalese will enter a labour market incapable of maximizing their time and talent. It is our duty as citizens, communities and governments to take action and address this gap by developing systems, programs and policies for meaningful inclusion. 

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Education and skills development remain the only way out of ignorance and vulnerability which, as demonstrated, typically fuel disengagement, dissatisfaction, and even radicalisation. That is what my work with Social Change Factory tries to address.

We aim to change individuals, systems and communities. To achieve this, we develop and deliver youth-led and youth-focused programs that promote education as well as social and professional integration. We also create platforms on which youth can share their thoughts, observations, aspirations and ideas. Finally, we work to translate these initiatives and experiences into tangible data and use this data, and the outcomes of our programs, to connect youth with decision-makers to influence youth-and-data-driven policies and institutions. 

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un) employment in your country, and how it affects your country’s state of peace?

Since South Sudan got independence in 2011 and entered into a conflict two years after, the state of young people (72% of south Sudan’s population) has never been any better. South Sudan fell in a turmoil of economic breakdown, Our local currency (Pounds) lost value, prices in the market hiked and for regular south Sudanese civil servants or youths, it was impossible to provide for oneself or a family. As such, the majority of unemployed youths found more reasons to illegally join armed groups because they are promised a certain amount of money or promised higher ranks, they got involved in criminal activities including sexual violence, robberies, civilian road attacks. The criminal activities that they involve in have constantly created instabilities. There were constant road attacks on humanitarian workers and commercial civilian vehicles, there were increased rates of gang raping of girls and women, there were increased night robberies on civilian households, there were more killings of civilians both young and old, so many youths got divided along tribal lines (blaming another tribe for being privileged over the other tribes). All these factors will lead South Sudan towards continuous instability if the cries of the youth are not addressed.

How does your work  and/ or activism promote youth employment and/ or sustainable peace?

Having analysed the problems of youths as huge contributors to instability in the country, me and a couple of friends started an opportunity access platform that gives youths a chance to shape their path and change narrative to the situation of our country. The Opportunity Access Platform is a platform where we give them available opportunities like entrepreneurial opportunities, agricultural start up skills and civic education on the dangers of hate speech. We connected them with companies and organizations that can help build their career and got employed. As a result, hundreds of young people (Students, unemployed, armed youths and idled youths) benefited from the program and many more are benefiting from it.

We believe this has contributed genuinely to stability in the country because opportunities, employment and sources of livelihoods are offered to the youth. The rate of criminal activities have reduced along urban-rural connecting roads, which were a hot spot for looting and killings. Many young people indulged in agriculture and businesses and there were prominent co-existence among youths.

Our work has proved that sustainable peace in South Sudan is possible if only the needs of young people are addressed not only by the state but by youths themselves.   

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Youth unemployment is among the most pressing issues that are affecting the socio-economic fabric in Sudan. The economic crisis has taken a terrible toll on young people, particularly in Khartoum state where it has brought about significant disruptions to the capital's economy, infrastructure, demographics, and society. Unemployment is dramatically increasing the gap between young Sudanese and their socio-economic environment. Failure to find a job or keep it for long creates damaging long-term consequences that are negatively affecting their inner peace, mental and physical health. They often suffer from depression, self-loathing, and a range of mental health problems that are reducing their contribution to the society. Unemployed Sudanese youth are progressively marginalized from the labour market and in return they are developing anti-social behaviours that are pushing them into addiction, conflict, crime and violence. Consequently, youth unemployment has increasingly become a threat to stability, peace and social harmony in Sudan.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

As a social entrepreneur, I am using design as a positive force for social change, peaceful coexistence and economic development. My areas of expertise are inclusive architecture, socially responsible fashion, and human rights. Throughout the past seven years, I have actively volunteered as a founder/member of many youth associations, non-governmental organizations, and community awareness campaigns that promote human rights issues related to education, peace and social justice, youth unemployment, and women’s rights. 

In 2015, I co-founded Roshan Engineering; an architecture office specialized in small-scale and well-thought-out architecture that instills impactful change in the community through advocating for socially responsible design. We believe that architecture as an industry should focus on creating environments that encourage social cohesion, peace and respect. Additionally, as a fashion designer, I have recently established a social and ethical fashion brand that combines locally-made fashion with social development through creating income opportunities for Sudanese women and girls.  

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The unemployment rate in Sudan is extremely high due to the discouraging environment and hyperinflation. In addition to that, the youth constitute the largest percent of the population in Sudan. These two facts account for a serious crisis in my country. Firms are demotivated to invest in new businesses or to expand in order to create job opportunities. For this reason, along with the inadequate education and poor curriculums, the youth fall in the trap of unemployment. Therefore, they rely on marginalised jobs that do not require high level skills for income generation. These factors result in the instability of society and unfair distribution of income. Moreover, conflicts and crimes are becoming more common in the states, resulting in adverse effects on the community.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I aim to empower the youth in Sudan through entrepreneurship, as I believe in its powerful influence on youth and consequently the community and the country's economy. With the pressing economic conditions in the country, entrepreneurship can undoubtedly create decent job opportunities for individuals, through innovating ideas that can socially and economically tackle some issues. This will have a direct effect on the country's economy by increasing production and money circulation, hence increasing the GDP and reducing conflicts among people, specifically among ethnicities, over resources. My main strategy is to educate the public about the concepts and methods of entrepreneurship in order to strengthen and deepen the entrepreneurial skills among the community through mentorship. In the last five years, our organization IEC has resulted in the success of a pleasing number of start-ups that are now operating successfully and generating profits. Proudly,we have gone a step further now by establishing 249 start-ups, a platform for start-ups to grow, operate and seek potential investment both locally and internationally. I also aim to build global partnerships with organizations that can help entrepreneurs and provide opportunities for economic growth in Sudan.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The conflict in my country, Syria, has drawn dramatic effects on all aspects of life.

While many adults lost their jobs due to closing businesses and market instability, young people are facing challenges finding new jobs. They need to support their families after suddenly becoming heads of households, or facing the necessity to fund their education.

Conflict has caused changes in the cultural fabric, resulting in transformations in gender roles. Women become the main breadwinner of the family, if not the only one at all, and men think that they are stealing their chances.

Companies show increasing preference levels to hire females, for they, unlike men, are exempted from serving at the military and are usually expected to stay longer in their positions.

“Necessity is the mother of all inventions”; Moreover, "Entrepreneurship” has become a trendy solution to tackle “Unemployment,” as well as identify key characters of whom are aspiring a better world for all.

Syria has great potentials for ambitious and risk-taking entrepreneurs. It provides a vast market for long-term businesses and renovations.

On the other hand, female entrepreneur have essential contributions in growing new startups and creating more job opportunities.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

One of my greatest concerns is that traditional jobs, which modern universities prepare us for, are fading away in the coming future. With the rapidly developing technologies and advancing worlds, up to 47% of jobs will be eliminated according to a recent Oxford study. Luckily, youth get along with technology quickly.

I founded ChangeMakers which provide young people with the technical skills they need, like coding, to become freelancers and generate incomes.

By teaching the youth coding, we are not only contributing to expose more young people to the labor market, we are also building future jobs.

ChangeMakers is based on a complementary program of coding and entrepreneurial skills, where young people don't only learn how to code, but also how to think out of the box, dig deeper in world pressing problems and create innovative startups.

Visit our website:

http://changemakers.co

http://hackathon.changemakers.co/

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace.

Only a few people are aware of the size and potential of young people and their ability to develop or "destroy". The good management and employability of young people in the interest of the community will  make the wheel of development accelerated and tireless because the young people are one of the sources of “renewable” energy. Unfortunately, in my country, the administration and the youth took a wrong and dangerous turn and ended up destroying society and infrastructure. All of this happened because people were ignoring the role of youth. I hope to make change and I can lead young people to improve and rebuild Syria.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Since the youth was my source of inspiration and interest I worked to stay near them wherever I am here in Sudan. I worked to repay the community by employing my skills to work with the youth. I trained the teenagers and taught them basketball and we participated in the Sudanese national championship for schools and we won the bronze medal. I joined several community volunteer organizations to help people with disabilities and young people. I participated in the coordination of the first TEDx conference in eastern Sudan and through this opportunity worked with many people in the community at all levels. My success in my previous work attracted one of the largest Sudanese national organizations, "Talawiet Organization for Development " and today I work with them in many areas of community service and development. Through this I have gained great experience in supporting young people and working with them and I have been working on finding the most suitable formula for building a strong and meaningful youth generation capable of leading the community.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Youth unemployment in Syria is as a very complex topic, especially due to the logistical challenges involved with data collection and statistical operations. However, one main aspect to be discussed in Syria is how unemployment both before and in times of crisis could be a cause of war and/or cause a conflict to escalate. The more the unemployment in a country, the more damage can be caused by an armed conflict. Most of the Syrian youth involved in the armed conflict are either unemployed or uneducated. This begs to question the correlation between youth unemployment and escalation in armed conflict.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

The main aim of our work is to focus on the Syrian youth development through online education. We also focus on raising awareness on the positive role that the youth can play in building sustainable peace. Currently, we have over 6000 active Syrian youth online students, many of whom are living in Syria. We provide the youth with free access to online education through one of the biggest e-learning platforms. It is our belief that the access to online education will help develop youth skills and keep them away from joining one of armed parties in the country. Moreover, the skills development among the Syrian youth is a crucial element in the process of rebuilding the country after the war ends.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Unemployment in Tunisia has reached 15.5%, with the rate increasing to 24.5% in rural areas. 21.5% of the unemployed are graduates of higher education.

Reasons of unemployment in my country are common to many other countries:

• Skills mismatch: Businesses are unable to find suitable candidates for their vacancies.
• Lack of entrepreneurial and soft skills: School curriculums often neglect vocational, entrepreneurial and employability training in favor of more traditional and more academical ways of learning.
• Digital divide: the skills mismatch is exacerbated by insufficient access to technology or the internet in rural regions.
• Lack of access to capital: Young entrepreneurs often struggle to find access to affordable loans, or loans in general.  Also, our banks do not trust young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in general and lack appropriate experiences to accompany them.

One specific reason, in my point of view, is the fact that some young people, especially in rural regions, prefer running for positions in public administrations. It is what we call ‘’a nail in a wall’’ job. Indeed, working in a government structure usually offers financial and social stability. Many of our youth do not search proactively for jobs. They rely on the government efforts to find solutions and maybe create jobs for them in its structures.

This can be explained by the low number of startups and entrepreneurship initiatives despite the encouragements of many actors (national and international actors) to instill a real entrepreneurship spirit in Tunisian Youth, especially after the revolution of 2011 which was triggered by the unemployment issue itself.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I currently work on  sustainable social projects in several fields. My job consists of coaching and advising entrepreneurs and institutional partners to create projects that can offer employment opportunities and empower youth in rural areas. In Tozeur for example, a southern area in Tunisia, I helped creating a cooperative for 6 young people which offers agricultural services. In Tunis, I helped on a recycling project to formalize the situation of waste collectors, so called “barbechas”, who do not have any health insurance or sustainable revenues.

I also worked on a social project. It is a project of production and commercialization of washable hygienic pads for girls in need in rural regions in Tunisia. As a matter of fact, because of poverty, lack of hygienic education and unconsciousness, girls were using non hygienic methods to manage their periods. Some girls find themselves obliged to quit school because of their periods. Our team was inspired by a sustainable solution that proved its efficiency in India: washable sanitary pads produced in a manufacturing workshop in Makther, managed by 3 trained seamstresses. We also localized a sewing training center in Siliana, hosting more than 20 girls. To improve their learning and increase their employability chances once facing the labor market, we decided to make a win-win partnership. We believe that this is an efficient solution against unemployment since these students will be ready to create their own businesses.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (unemployment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

'Employment, freedom, dignity’, was the first slogan launched by the protesters during the Tunisian youth revolution. People protested  against unemployment that affected one in three young people, corruption and police repression.
8 years after the revolution, Tunisian youth situation remains marginalized. The youth is excluded both from the political scene and the labor market. Consequently, they feel desperate, without prospects and throw themselves into the sea or into ISIS’ arms.
In Tunisia, there is no policy for social and professional inclusion of youth. The government only takes note when outbreaks of violence and high numbers of drowning victims highlight the dangers of youth unemployment.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

How my work promotes youth employment:

I currently work with Jamaity, which is an interactive platform that brings together CSOs in the same space to facilitate their networking and give them access to information and opportunities available to them. Jamaity is mainly visited by youth (50% of its audience). These young people are seeking for job opportunities and trainings that develop their skills. The platform offers them a variety of information about the Tunisian civil society. This allows them, to engage in civil society organizations, benefit from their project, and become change makers in their environment.

How my activism promote sustainable peace:

I co-founded the social movement 'awareness builders. Its aim is to build a critical spirit and intellectual community among young people in marginalized neighborhoods where the activity of radical groups is concentrated. I created a space for reflection and debate where young people can analyze issues related to the challenges of unemployment, poverty, addiction, violence, extremism.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Over 70% of Uganda’s population is below 30 years of age of which a majority are unemployed. This explains the poor living conditions and highly growing levels of stricken poverty. Due to the strain of unemployment frustrations, the youth have resorted to criminal acts of violence, increased thefts and deaths of people. In rural areas, the young girls are traded off in exchange for money or property as bride price. To maintain peace and security, the state invests more in defence and security rather than in expanding sectors that support economic opportunities for unemployed youth. The solution is to creating and supporting entrepreneurship among young people. Besides creating employment, entrepreneurship solves other social challenges such as corruption, lowers the crime rate, promotes women empowerment and increases economic activity.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Through Namirembe sweater makers, I currently employ 25 youth and have trained over 80 youth every year in the skills of knitting, sewing, and entrepreneurship. I have provided training to youth groups, with the most recent one conducted among girls in the disadvantaged rural areas of the Karamoja region in Uganda. This region receives one rainy season per year, making it impossible for them to totally rely on agriculture. The parents resort to marrying off their daughters as early as 14 years to very old men in exchange for little money as bride price. After a needs assessment with people from this community, we found that training the youth, especially girls, to learn hands-on skills would be the perfect solution. In November 2017 we managed to train the first cohort of 12 girls and provided them with machines as a starting point for their entrepreneurship journey.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth unemployment in your country and how it affects your country’s state of peace.

In Uganda, the levels of youth unemployment stand at 80% which is significantly higher than the country’s general unemployment level, which is at 68%. As a result, the youth has remained with very low incomes and it is below below the poverty line. These high levels of unemployment have forced youth to think that the government has neglected them yet they are a majority in the country with 75% of the country’s population being youthful. The disappointed youth have remained idle and disorderly which has created an environment that is conducive  for them to engage in riots and revolutionary movements. This is evidenced by the rampant riots occurring in Uganda’s capital city Kampala. This has greatly made the country’s peace state highly volatile.

How does your work and / activism promote youth employment and or sustainable peace.

By offering an internship to high school leavers, we provide lifelong skills to students who would otherwise would  not be able to afford the usual education. These interns go ahead to establish agricultural enterprises in their homes of origin during their internship periods. These enterprises act as sources of employment to the students even after their internship period. 

By practically training children in schools to establish agricultural ventures and later working with individual learners to extend these trainings in their homesteads , results in the establishment of family owned agricultural enterprises. Additionally, sustainable employment has been created for these family members and their relatives.

Because of steady incomes, such families and their members are reluctant to participate in conflicts and riots  which may affect their income generating projects hence creating a more peaceful state.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

Currently, the level of unemployment among the youth in Uganda is on the rise as many youth reside in the city centers where jobs are limited. According to the International Labor Organization, Uganda’s unemployment levels have gone from 1.9% in 2005/2006 to 5.1% in 2012. In fact, there is a 12% rate of unemployment amongst the urban youth as compared to the 3% amongst the rural youth. This has affected Uganda’s state of peace as many youth have resorted to drug dealing, robbery and gambling which has undesirable effects. More still, the levels of destructive demonstrations has increased as a result of the government failing come through enough for the youth regarding unemployment. These demonstrations have disturbed the peace of the country leading to deaths and political insecurity. We can relate this to the current political situation in Uganda which has not only worried foreigners but nationals as well.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

I brought together 5 young people with similar agribusiness interests and provided them with skills in that particular interest area and supported them with a small interest micro loan. This is one way I am promoting employment among the youth in Uganda. Also, within my programs I have incorporated peace talks and think tanks which do not only involve the youth alone but the rest of the community members as well. These think tanks have brought together youth and community members from different backgrounds who would not have mixed together otherwise. There is still tribalism in Uganda and bringing these people in these meetings has helped eradicate the differences in tribe, education backgrounds and other social-economic differences in the communities I serve. We also do a community outreach once in a month to help sensitize communities on how to work together and develop each other as a group/cluster.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

With half of the country’s population being under the age of 25, India’s strong economic growth and prosperity depends on its millennials. However, the number of jobs created every year are drastically low when compared to the number of youth looking for employment. The lack of opportunities leads to youth being confused, vulnerable and gullible. Certain states have experienced instability for many years which in turn caused high levels of youth unemployment. In the process, to make a living, some job seekers are lured into destructive or unlawful activities due to distress and desperation. On the contrary, states like Gujarat and Karnataka are prospering due to the strong training and provision of better opportunities that actively engage young job seekers.

Human capital is the best resource, if nurtured properly. It is important to encourage our youth by emphasising skills development and providing access to the right employment opportunities locally and abroad based on their psychometric abilities.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

We are determined to bring positive change to the blue-collar segment, with particular focus on improving youth employment and reducing gender bias in under-developed/developing nations. Empowering youth and providing the right guidance can lead to economies turning around and attaining sustainable peace.  Hence, we facilitate their education and migration from regions of low income to places with better employment opportunities and economic empowerment. This creates a diverse workforce which boosts skill/knowledge transfer and sustainable impact at macro/socio-economic levels via greater exposure, development, productivity and standardization.  

The transparency of this process not only improves the labour supply chain but contributes to poverty alleviation via job creation at fair salaries based on skills and experience. It also increases candidate employability by engaging in skill development and training programs with source country governments and organizations like IFC and the World Bank. Hence, job seekers are encouraged to make informed decisions rather than compromise and end up in the wrong environment.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The situation of youth in Sahrawi Refugee Camps is quite complicated. It's reflected in every facet of our lives. Unemployment is one of the biggest challenges that is experienced by the youth. There are limited possibilities for a job unless one is able to start their own business.

Sahrawi Camp is considered to be a place with a lesser illiteracy rate in Africa. However, there are limited opportunities for the thousands of university educated professionals.

Young people in the camps are living in a state of desperation waiting for the conflict to be resolved, which itself poses a risk to the peace process. These young people are the third generation living in the camps and have seen their parents dreams fade away. Some are even considering taking the arms back.
 

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

My project Libraries for Women is dedicated to promote female empowerment and employment. The Bridge Generation is about those women who were born during war and have had the chance to earn university degrees but lack the opportunity to use their degrees. It is a space for women to have a better understanding of their inner and external strength, and to discover new ways of improving their own life conditions. The core objective of this project is to increase the possibilities for women who still have access to fewer employment opportunities than men. I undertake activism to give a voice to Sahrawi youth, to knock on doors and demonstrate reality of a whole prepared generation that needs to be listened to and given the chance to live with dignity, as a minimum.

Sahrawi youth need to recover faith in international community and know they matter.

Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?

The impact of Yemen War on Youth Unemployment (YU) is tragic, but a double-edged sword. In a country where youth constitutes 60% of population and 75% (22 million) of Yemenis need humanitarian assistance, YU is alarming. Since the Houthi-Saleh-coup in September 2014, political instability, economic stagnation and human insecurities left many employees jobless/unpaid and corporates bankrupted/terminated damaging the entrepreneurial, state and business ecosystems.

With the conflict and financial need, an entirely radical job emerged for many youths: militant combat. When murder and abduction become paid tasks of an income source, financial need stemming from unemployment force anything – it hinders peace formation. Unemployment has, therefore, underpinned conflict dynamics, expanded violent extremism and jeopardised peace prospects.

On the positive side surprisingly, war deepened entrepreneurial initiatives like Coffee-focused Mocha Hunters, job-centred SMEPS, entertainment-based Mizzabi and hundreds of humanitarian NGOs – of which created jobs and hopes. That is, perhaps, why the World Bank, unexpectedly, reported a significant decline in YU from 32% to 25%, 2011-2017. De-radicalisation and social entrepreneurship must be put forward to minimise unemployment and strengthen peace process.

How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?

Activism on ‘Conflict Resolution in Yemen and UN-led Peace Process’ across international policy-making and research stages has been a personal priority to reinforce a locally-aware pragmatic connotation on what is required for conflict resolution and sustainable peace home. Considering the enduring failure of the UN-sponsored negotiations and the shifting international agenda towards the region, I advance a historically root-centred analysis conscious of Yemen’s internal dynamics and geopolitics, unlike what international actors have discounted. This is to evade repeating history: an ad-hoc de-escalation of problem roots and formation of a fragile settlement in 2011 (collapsed in 2014).

Work-wise, responsible Yemeni youth overseas and within Yemen, and I attempt to proactively engage Yemeni youth in peace process, ranging from track-III peacebuilding at the grassroots level – via raising awareness and soon vocational training – and creating a forward-looking role for youth in the UN-led peace process coinciding with S/RES 2250 and S/RES 1325.