We need strong and innovative strategies, reaching out to specific groups, such as youth with

disability and young women, and supporting youth to be job creators. ~Ban Ki Moon

Introduction to the committee:

The International Labor Organization (ILO) was established in 1919, following World War I.
Incorporated in the Treaty of Versailles, the ILO demonstrated an understanding that in the
aftermath of war a key component of true and lasting peace would entail social justice on a
global scale.
Changes to global economics at the time also played a role in the committees creation. As it
became increasingly apparent that countries were entangled economically more than ever before
and that they were often competing for control over the same marketsit became necessary to
ensure similar work standards and conditions from country to country. The ILO aims to fulfill
four main objectives: to promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at
work, create greater opportunities for women and men to decent employment and income,
enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all, and strengthen social
dialogue. This last imperative, is unique; the ILO is the only UN agency that consists of nation
states, employers, and worker representatives.
It is structured this way for the purpose of bringing together comprehensive perspectives in a
forum that provides opportunities for open debate and consensus building. The hope is that these
combined voices will aid in the implementation of cohesive and significant international labor
standards.

With all the development happening around us nowadays in 2016, we still face the same problem
for several years. According to studies and research done, it has been proven that young people
around the world are three times more likely to face unemployment than adults. Not only do
young people struggle with unemployment but also are vulnerable when obtaining a job since
they are poorly paid and have no right to argue. This is why helping the youth to have more
access to jobs and chances to improve in what they do is a must. Young people are defined to be
individuals between the age of 15 and 24. Statistics in 2013 showed that the global
unemployment rate for individuals between 15 and 29 years old was 12.6%. In addition, in some
areas unemployment figures showed percentages as high as 28.3% in the Middle East and in
North Africa. These levels are alarming and even though are not associated with the global
economic context but trigger mortality and fertility that led to decreases in the non-working
population. In addition to unemployment, there is a huge concern about what the jobs being
offered are to young people and the quality they have access to. These concerns can be solved in
several ways and training the young people to better compete in the labor market is necessary.
Promoting the youth and boosting their self confidence in aiming for better jobs is undoubtedly
the first step to take since the demotivation young people have is really high and is throwing
away talents.

Young people must be at the center of building a sustainable future... Half the world's
population is under 25. We must tap into that enormous source of energy, ideas and potential.

Between 2007 and 2010 the rate for youth unemployment was at 13 percent and remained
constant for the next following years. In 2009 there were 76.6 million youth unemployed but this
number decreased in 2014 to 73.3 million. The rate is slowly decreasing year after year with all
the projects and help being offered to the young individuals. A huge step forward to help end
youth unemployment was the Global Employment Trends for Youth in 2013. The program
provided good news and helped solve the instability of employment offers. The positivity was
shown in the European countries and the stability of career prospects became tentative. In all
countries the young people aspire and aim for productive futures, well paid employment
opportunities and good conditions at work but unfortunately due to the lack of decent job offers,
individuals are not active anymore and lack enthusiasm. From the year 1991 until today the
number of active individuals decreased by 30 million and this sharp decline is a result of the
increasing unemployment rate which raises the tendency of young men and women to engage in
secondary education. Too many youth are still excluded from the labor market and education
system and despite the improvements in acquiring new students it is important to keep in the
mind that not all young men and women are benefiting from education in their schools. Low-
income countries let their students leave school early and let students work after school which
changes the way a student should live day by day. Students become committed to go to school
and work when theyre done to cover their expenses and help their parents live in the harsh
environment they are in. Secondary education is said to help the youth obtain a higher salary and
its guaranteed but one in five students actually acquire this secondary education. In Africa today
two in three workers do not have the minimum level of education to work properly but with the
wages they obtain they are not even encouraged to receive a decent education and they obviously
cant afford it. The fact that we are growing in an environment where technology is rapidly
developing, we are forced to adapt to these times and unfortunately we label those who cannot
keep up as the lost generation since this generation is not willing to create a better future and
have no potential at all to improve. The ILOs main mission for years has been youth
employment and when asked why the focus on such a matter the answer is that the global
community needs new skills and leadership to proceed. There is a need for youth who have a
better drive than past generations and youth who aim in bolstering the positive spirit of people
and make progress to build a better framework of inclusive development. There are several
strategies that the ILO aims on applying where theres a mix of interaction and intervention
targeting young people. For several individuals, entering the labor market with the idea of
unemployment is not a problem since it does not cause them mental stress or even financial
stress. However, Unemployment for a duration greater than a year can affect ones health and put
the individual in a state of social exclusion. Even though educational enrolment is improved but
millions of youth still face getting employed early with no skills or experience. This participation
in the labor market with no education or qualifications damages the labor market and results in a
segmentation where some youth are no eligible to handle such jobs.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 was a document that changed the
way development of youth occurs. The importance of young peoples energy and creativity for
development was recognized back then and thus the General Assembly highlighted how
important it is that the youth should guide adults and take part in developing their future. Another
important framework was the sustainable development goals set in 2015 specifically on 25 of
September. The goals were set to be achieved in 15 years and with the Millennium Development
Goals also engaged, this encouraged communities to help achieve these goals in their countries
respectively. Goal 8 of the sustainable development goals aims to help promote:
sustained, conclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and
decent work for all. ECOSOC is the main organ addressing the topic of sustainable
development and the central role is supervising the work to see if the goals set are actually being
met or not. The reality is that member states are not ready or havent yet taken the initiative to
help their youth and provide new opportunities. Crime rates are increasing and terrorism too
which puts youth employment aside and on hold to solve what is harming a country. The ILO in
2015 predicted that global unemployment will keep on rising until 2020 and with the 201 million
people who are unemployed at the moment, we have 74 million of these which are young people.
Another group that faces unemployment: the youth with disabilities which are estimated to be
200 to 220 million individuals with disabilities around the world. The majority of this group live
in poverty and they lack access to education and other resources and services. They are
discriminated and several barriers stand in front of them to achieve their goals. With the effort of
looking around and looking at which sector is actually vital, we can see that agriculture is highly
important for youth employment but due to the lack of incentives and encouragement of youth,
they are turning their backs at such offers and are working for other focuses which they believe
will provide them a better return. With nearly 5 to 6 million young individuals giving up on
finding jobs, there are clear effects f youth unemployment on young people, their countries, and
their families. Young people who are not finding jobs suffer from low self esteem and are
engaging in criminal activities and unsafe sexual activity too. This is increasing national poverty
and is also in turn lowering public health. ECOSOCs main focus is now linking good quality
jobs with sustainable development. Several economic policy areas are also being implemented
which is encouraging countries to provide social protection and access to decent work
opportunities.

In turn, literacy and proper education for individuals aged fifteen to twenty-four will improve the
education cycle and ensure appropriate futures and job opportunities for many. Overall, tose who
have not enjoyed access to education will have to face the difficulties of finding suitable jobs.
There are several promising sectors to boost youth employment especially in countries that are
well developed.

This is where member states should work on increasing youth participation when taking
decisions and include them when forming policies and taking political actions. This should
happen from schools to regional communities. ECOSOC should also work on promoting the
participation of young individuals and develop the policymaking process that drives young
people to be successful and work harder for sustainable development.

With higher youth unemployment in developed economies at the onset of the economic crisis
came a growing scarcity in the number of decent jobs. Yet even with economic recovery and
declining youth unemployment rates, the scarcity continues, thus hinting at longer-term
developments in how young people are engaged. At the same time, decent jobs can look very
different, depending on the geography and socio-cultural background of the youth. While a
young person raised in Europe can still reasonably aim to find a job with a written contract of
duration greater than one year, paid annual leave and possibly even health care and un-
employment protection in case of job loss, a young person in a low-income country is unlikely to
aim so high. For this reason, this sub-section will take a development perspective when
addressing how to discuss the issue of job quality for youth.

The typical indicators proposed for measuring the increase in non-standard jobs for youth in
developed economies part-time employment and temporary employment have limited
relevance to many developing countries. Or rather, the indicators should be interpreted
differently. In low-income countries where informality is omnipresent, where the labor market
institutions for promoting formal employment and labor standards are weak, where self-
employment is the dominant employment category and few young persons are reaching even
secondary school levels, it remains a small minority who will ever benefit from a standard
employment relationship. Part-time work in this context can be interpreted primarily in the
irregularity of hours of the most vulnerable young workers (own-account and contributing family
workers) as well as casual paid laborers.

Vulnerable employment is the sum of two status groups, own-account workers and contributing
family workers. Workers in the two groups are often characterized by inadequate earnings,
difficult conditions of work that undermine their fundamental rights, or other characteristics of
decent work deficits

Casual wage laborers are paid employees who are engaged on a casual basis, either due to
participation in seasonal or occasional jobs or because the work is considered task-based. The
assumption here is that large shares of casual laborers signal surplus labor and wide- spread
underemployment in the economy and that the precarious nature of employment and lack of
access to social protection is similar to the situation of vulnerable workers.
Temporary workers (non-casual) are paid employees engaged on a contract (oral or written) with
a duration of less than 12 months. Casual laborers are excluded from the group to avoid double
counting.

Irregular employment is the sum of the three preceding categories: vulnerable employment,
casual wage employment and temporary (non-casual) employment.

Youth and willingness to migrate:

The predilection to move abroad is closely linked to local economic opportunities weighed
against the perceived opportunities to be gained abroad. When youth migration takes place in
conditions of freedom, dignity, equity and security, it can boost economic and social
development in both countries of origin and destination. However, young migrants can also get
trapped in precarious jobs with reduced or no protection or worse, become victims of
exploitative and abusive employment practices, including human trafficking and forced labor.
According to the UN World Youth Report on youth and migration in 2013, by mid-2010 the
global number of international migrants aged 15 to 24 was estimated at 27 million, constituting
about one-eighth of the global migrant stock of 214 million. Young people represent a major
proportion of those migrating annually and there are no hints that this trend will abate in the near
future. Looking at recent data from the Gallup World Poll data, we find that more than one in
three youth in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South- Eastern Europe and CIS (37 and 34 per
cent, respectively) said they would like to move permanently to another country in 2014.
In the other regions, apart from Asia, the share of youth predisposed toward migration is also
high (around 30 per cent). Among the countries in Europe most severely affected by the
economic crisis, the share of youth that would like to move permanently to another country is
still very high: Slovenia (57 per cent), Italy (55 per cent), Cyprus (49 per cent), Portugal (40 per
cent) and Greece (38 per cent). On the other hand, shares remain low in other European countries
such as Austria and Finland (both 16 per cent) and Switzerland (13 per cent).

Questions to consider:

What are some policies that should be implemented to help the youth obtain a proper
education?
How can you offer decent jobs for young individuals?
How can you ensure a regional and global push for the young individuals that will help
towards achieving sustainable development?
On a national level, what are the current gaps that your country faces concerning policies
and institutional capacities?
 How can the European Union participate in addressing the employment situation for
students finishing school or leaving a job?