Executive Summary

This Joint FGS-UN Programme aims to capitalise on recent security, governance and reconciliation achievements by expanding employment opportunities for young men and women in Somalia. As highlighted in the Economic Recovery Plan for Somalia, youth unemployment is one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s economic recovery. The plan states the aim of the government is to provide youth with employment opportunities so as to avoid the latter joining militia groups. This is to be achieved through vocational training, enterprise training and creation and rehabilitation of infrastructure through labour intensive employment methods. The programme recognizes the centrality of youth in fostering stability in the country and outlines specific interventions that can be taken within the next 18 months to begin to generate decent work opportunities for young people that will serve as positive alternatives to participation in violence and conflict. This will also contribute to the revitalization of the local economy. The employment generating interventions from this programme also aim to augment the credibility of the FGS and build trust and confidence in local governance and security sector institutions while providing immediate peace dividends to vulnerable sub-sections of the population.

 As encouraged in the New Deal Compact, this joint youth employment programme is a frontline intervention of the FGS to achieve rapid results under Peace and State-building Goal (PSG) 4 (Economic Foundations), which identifies youth employment through job creation and skills development as one of the most important priority projects over the next two years. The idea of a high-visibility, government-led campaign to mobilize young people in an effort to rebuild (or build a new) critical economic infrastructure remains highly attractive from the perspectives of economic recovery and state building.

 The programme aims at creating sustainable job opportunities for youth by addressing the below challenges affecting the labour supply and demand factors.

• The employment situation is bleak for Somali youth, as young people (15-24) struggle to find work, especially in the formal sector. Young Somalis cannot afford unemployment because of the absence of social protection and therefore face underemployed and are occupied in survival activities such as self-employment or as unpaid family workers. They often engage in low-productive and poor quality jobs mostly in the informal economy.
• Somalia's private sector has a serious competitiveness problem, which translates among others into important youth unemployment and a weak export performance. In fact, the main cause of youth unemployment in Somalia appears to be a result of “demand side” factors, i.e. low demand for jobs by companies.

 The Joint UN – Federal Government of Somalia Youth Employment Programme recognizes the potential of Somalia’s youth as agents of change for economic growth and social development and will focus on them to build Somalia’s future.