| 01 Apr 2010 |
|
Spotlight on Middle East Youth
- Text size
About 50 students from the Middle East and North Africa will gather in Amman, Jordan, on April 4 for a town hall meeting with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn that will be broadcast live via BBC Arabic (add link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/) on television, radio and the internet.
The broadcast (to run from 1506 to 1630 GMT, or 1606 to 1830 in Jordan) is intended to be an exchange of views with the next generation of leaders on the economic challenges facing the region. The program is the next step in the IMF Middle East Youth Dialog, which aims to engage young people across the region to help define forward-looking policy solutions. First and foremost among these challenges is reducing youth unemployment, which calls for both sustainable growth and labor market reforms in the Middle East.
"With youth unemployment in the Middle East among the highest in the world, the region is an ideal launching ground for this new initiative," said Mr. Strauss Kahn. "The region's fast population growth makes it imperative to generate productive and sustainable jobs that will meet the aspirations of tomorrow's workforce."
In the first stage of the dialogue, roundtable discussions between economics students and IMF staff were held at universities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates over the past month. From those sessions, 24 students were selected to travel to Amman to participate in the broadcast. In addition, the other students from the University of Jordan also have been invited to attend.
"At the roundtable discussions, many students identified the need to reduce unemployment and poverty, and improve education systems as economic policy priorities for their countries," said Masood Ahmed, Director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department . "Good macroeconomic and financial management lays the bases for the sustained growth that can help to address these concerns. The IMF is working with countries in the region in finding innovative and country-specific solutions to enhance growth prospects".
The roundtables and BBC town hall are just a few of the steps in a process of IMF outreach to young people across the Middle East and North Africa. The interaction also is centered on an online forum (www.imfyouthdialog.org) that enables a broader audience of young people to communicate with each other and IMF staff on their visions for their economic futures. The website--in Arabic, English and French--offers discussion boards, videos, accounts of the university roundtables, and many other features, which the region's young people are now using.
During the April 4 town hall, the students will be asked to raise questions with Mr. Strauss-Kahn on many of the same issues. The BBC moderator also will take questions by phone and email from other young people viewing the program, which will be broadcast in Arabic.
The economic problems facing young people in the Middle East and North Africa are particularly important because of demographic trends that are resulting in a rapid increase in the region's youth population. By one estimate, the region's work force is projected to reach 185 million in 2020, 80 percent higher than in 2000. But employment growth has lagged far behind the demands of growing populations, a problem only heightened by the impact of the global financial crisis. According to the January 2010 IMF World Economic Outlook Update, growth in the region plummeted to 2.2 percent last year from 5.3 percent in 2008, and it is projected to recover to only 4.5 this year. So the task of overcoming youth unemployment has become more difficult.
- Ends -
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.