The UfM joins the efforts for improving employment services for youth in Africa and the Middle East

27-29 August 2019, Turin. The UfM-labelled Global Initiative on innovative employment services for youth – YouMatch, brings together a network of around 90 employment service practitioners from 25 African and MENA countries within 9 interregional Communities of Practice (CoPs). From 27-29 August 2019, the network met at the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Training Centre in Turin, Italy to dialogue and share their experience with experts from the ILO, the European Training Foundation, the private employment agency INGEUS as well as the public employment service agencies of the Balearic Islands and South Korea. All the 9 CoPs had also the opportunity to brainstorm and, through a structured exchange process, set their own priorities and elaborate their action plan for the next 6 months.

Endorsing a multi-stakeholder approach, the CoPs include representatives from over 70 public, private and civil society organizations. This practice perfectly captures the multi-stakeholder perspective of the UfM as it fulfils its role a regional platform of dialogue. A regional component of YouMatch is part of the UfM Med4Jobs Initiative, a pipeline of projects aiming at addressing labour market supply, demand and intermediation. The CoPs are theme-specific and address such topics as career guidance and life skills, setting up effective job centres, labour market information systems, public private partnerships and multi-stakeholder approaches in the field of employment services as well as employment services for rural youth, all of which fall within the priority areas of action under the umbrella of the human development dimension of the UfM.

The objective of the YouMatch programme is to contribute to the capacity development of the CoP members, exchange best practices amongst countries and formulate policy recommendations for continental, regional and national policy makers.

The CoPs regularly meet face-to face as well as online via the African Skills Portal for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (ASPYEE) of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).

YouMatch is implemented in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES).