A nationwide attempt to create more and better jobs for young people in Egypt is gaining momentum, Nesmahar Sayed reports Egypt's efforts to reduce youth unemployment may reach its goal if the People's Assembly approves the National Action Plan on Youth Employment (NAP). The most recent comprehensive plan on employment that Egypt has ever adopted, the NAP was received with great enthusiasm by the audience that attended its launch last week. "The preparation of the action plan took more than two years," said Minister of Manpower and Migration Aisha Abdel-Hadi. "The plan aims to reduce unemployment among the youth, which has been further increased by the global financial crisis." Youssef Qaryouti, director of the Sub-Region Office for North Africa in Cairo of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), added that the NAP creates a framework for future youth employment and enhances the atmosphere of cooperation existing between institutions that are concerned with youth employment. The Egyptian NAP was created by Soad Rizk, dean of the Faculty of Administration and Information Systems at the French University in Egypt, and Nihal El-Megharbel, economic advisor at the Ministry of Local Development. According to Rizk, the process of formulating the NAP started in February 2006. Two bodies responsible for the development of the NAP were established then. The first was the NAP Steering Committee (NAP-SC), composed of some 25 decision-makers from different ministerial, employer and worker organisations, among other key stakeholders. The NAP-SC is responsible for strategic and political oversight of the NAP. The second body is the NAP Technical Commission (NAP-TC) that is composed of 15 technical experts from selected institutions, including social partners and youth groups, and was responsible for drafting and finalising the NAP and submitting it to the NAP-SC. The NAP was a result of Egypt's becoming one of the "Lead Countries" of the Youth Employment Network (YEN) in 2003. YEN is a partnership between the United Nations, the World Bank and the ILO. As part of its commitment as a YEN Lead Country, the government of Egypt embarked on the preparation of the NAP with the support of the Cairo ILO Sub- Region Office, the Employment Sector at the ILO's headquarters, and in partnership with the YEN Secretariat. According to YEN manager Markus Pilgrim, the YEN provides technical assistance in the development of youth employment initiatives, helps governments with capacity building in the field of engaging youth in national youth employment initiatives, explores funding opportunities to support the development and implementation of youth employment programmes in Lead Countries and gives chosen countries access to know-how and good practice experience from other countries. Lead Countries are committed to report on youth labour market indicators on an annual basis. "Most of the countries do not fulfil the commitment, although most of them are under pressure to do something about youth employment because it is a main issue in developing countries," Pilgrim told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to the 2006 Population Census, unemployment in Egypt is a problem even for highly educated university graduates. The NAP- TC agreed to define youth as those in the age group 18-30 years. In 2006, almost 91.5 per cent of the total unemployed were in the age group 15-30 years. The share of middle and highly educated unemployed represents 79.5 per cent of total unemployed, 93 per cent of which are first time job seekers. In terms of gender, unemployment hits females more than males, with the unemployment rate reaching 40 per cent for females and only 19 per cent for males. According to El-Megharbel, the goal is to reduce unemployment from 23 per cent to 15 per cent and provide "decent and productive" jobs for young people. As mentioned in the final draft of the NAP, efficient labour market policies and programmes are essential to reaching this goal as such programmes can play a major role in softening the impact of the global financial crisis on young people. The plan underlines the need for labour market information to be available. The total cost of the NAP (2010-2015) is estimated at LE17 billion over five years. In particular, the NAP aims at improving technical education and vocational training to help reduce unemployment among young people holding technical and vocational training certificates by 25 per cent, in addition to improving basic skills and knowledge by providing training courses for one million technical school graduates. The NAP also aims at helping to create more job opportunities, which it says can be done by encouraging entrepreneurship and promoting micro, small and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) and establishing five technology centres and five business incubators, mainly in Upper Egypt, and launching one portal for MSMEs owned and run by young entrepreneurs. For Pilgrim, the main risk regarding implementing the NAP is that, "we stay at the level of political plans, declarations and forget all about implementation." Ihab El-Gabbas, business development manager for the NAP, agrees, adding that the unemployment issue can be easily solved if the employer and the worker agree on the concept of decent work, and the improvement of skills and wages. El-Gabbas states that the government has earmarked LE500 million for training and raising the efficiency of the Egyptian worker. For Azita Awad, director of the Employment Policy Department at ILO headquarters in Geneva, the NAP shows that Egypt is one of the first countries in YEN to show commitment to good practice in promoting opportunities for youth. "This means that youth integration in the labour market equals good integration in society," Awad told the Weekly. According to Mariangles Fortuny, employment policy specialist at the ILO, the NAP is just a starting point and not an end in itself. "Basically it is a mechanism on how Egypt can move forward on the issue of youth employment. The will and the political ideas to implement the NAP are the main issues," she told the Weekly. "If Egypt successfully moves forward, it can act as a role model of how different communities can achieve concrete results by working together."
