(ANS - New York) –During the Annual Ministerial review conducted by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held from 2 - 9 July at the UN headquarters, New York, a Salesian contribution on youth employment was presented. Fr Thomas Brennan offered two examples of best practice, one from India the other from Italy.

The Annual Ministerial Review was held during the High-level Segment (HLS) of the substantive session of the ECOSOC, July 2-9, 2012 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It focused on the theme “Promoting productive capacity, employment and decent work to eradicate poverty in the context of inclusive, sustainable and equitable economic growth at all levels for achieving the MDGs”.

It had been noted that if the world community is going to be able to eradicate poverty, achieve the MDGs and enable equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, it must concentrate its efforts on promoting decent work and productive capacity. The global economic and financial crisis exacerbated pre-existing challenges to the achievement of full employment and decent work in both developing and developed countries.

The 2012 AMR provided an important opportunity for ECOSOC to highlight economic growth models that promote job creation, are sustainable, inclusive and equitable and that can be tailored to the particular needs of countries, while promoting social protection and rights at work.
Civil Society was invited to participate in these important discussions with written and oral interventions calling the attention of the member States to issues that individual NGOs wish to emphasize. The Salesians of Don Bosco contributed to the general debate through a written and oral intervention on the issue of youth employment. These were prepared and presented by Fr. Thomas Brennan, SDB, ECOSOC consultor since 2007.

After presenting background information on youth employment trends in the written intervention,  Fr. Brennan highlighted two examples of programs to train young people for decent work especially for economically and socially marginalized youth. These were initiated and executed by the Salesians: DB Tech is a network of 125 Don Bosco Skill Training Centres spread across 25 states in India, the largest NGO engaged in livelihood training in India.  Their ambitious goal to provide skills training and job placement for 2 million young people within ten years is striking; and, the Salesian partnership with private industry through the National Centre of Salesian Works-Formation Professional Updating (CNOS-FAP), in Italy. Firms such as Fiat, Schneider, Siemens, Bosch all signed agreements with the Salesian Training Centres. Presently, nearly 25,000 young people take Salesian Vocational Training courses.

Recommendations contained in the oral intervention  included: providing youth with the skills needed to engage in a green economy; increasing collaboration between governments, employers, trade unions and technical training institutions;  training young people in entrepreneurship as well as in technical skills; and, enacting and enforcing legislation that provides for a living wage, health care and the protection of the rights of the young workers, guaranteeing their safety and ending exploitation.

Published 26/07/2012