I Will be participating in this High Level Meeting in Ghana a UNIDO/AU High Level Consultative Meeting on Productive Work for Youth in West Africa with emphasis on the Mano River Union (MRU) in cooperation with the Secretary-General’s Youth Employment Network (YEN) and
the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) .4.5 million jobs for youth in the Mano River Countries and Côte d’Ivoire: an agenda for a multi-stakeholder programme .

A High-level Consultative Meeting on Productive Work for Youth in West Africa with emphasis on the Mano River Union (MRU) will be convened on 19 and 20 February 2007 in Accra, Ghana. The meeting is organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) together with the African Union (AU) in cooperation with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Youth Employment Network (YEN) and the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA). The recommendations of this meeting will be submitted to the AU Summit in July 2007, which will focus on Africa’s Industrial Competitiveness.

In West Africa, with 60 per cent of the population under 20, youth employment is one of the most pressing economic and social issues. In the Mano River Union countries - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea - as well as in Côte d’Ivoire, the number of young people without work exceeds half of the population.

The MRU countries and Côte d’Ivoire are particularly acute examples of the dangers of high youth unemployment since, in these countries youth unemployment and sub-regional security have become intimately linked. There is an urgent need to create employment for 4.5 million youth aged 15 to 29 years in the four countries now, whose youth population will reach its peak within the next 10 to 15 years.

The future of the MRU countries, and West Africa as a whole, is conditioned by the prospects for young people, in terms of finding decent jobs and means of livelihood. This requires concerted efforts by governments, the international community, the private sector, youth themselves, and other relevant stakeholders to generate prospects that afford a better future for young people.

In the Mano River Union Countries and Côte d’Ivoire governments and other stakeholders have conducted assessments, drawn up policy instruments and identified initiatives to address youth employment. The challenge lies not in rethinking the issues but in creating a multi-stakeholder effort to implement what has been envisaged, and acting on a sufficiently large scale, and in a coordinated manner. It is an imperative for discussions not only to stay at the level of ideas, but for concrete political and financial commitments to be made, in order to realize programme objectives.

Therefore, the meeting provides the basis for discussions on a multi-stakeholder programme framework at the country level. Ministers of Industry and Ministers of Youth of the four countries will work together with Youth Groups, the Private Sector, and multilateral and bilateral players to find solutions for balancing demand for and supply of youth labour. The need for a more direct role of the private sector in programmes that generate jobs for youth will be discussed.

The High-level Consultative Meeting is a follow-up to a Ministerial Breakfast Roundtable Meeting hosted by the Director-General of UNIDO with the support of the YEN at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) High Level Segment in Geneva, on 4 July 2006. It is based on the outcomes of a Working Group Meeting of experts and practitioners in Vienna, Austria, on 11 and 12 January 2007, which was jointly organized by the YEN and UNIDO.