Sri Lanka’s youth unemployment at 17% – UNDP report
View(s):A new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report has noted that local youth employment, which it indicated to be 17 per cent, is an area of concern for Sri Lanka.
According to a recently issued Asia Pacific media statement, which outlined some regionally relevant contents, the report commented, “a lack of decent, well paid jobs – especially for youth – is a major challenge in Asia and the Pacific. In many countries of the region, youth unemployment is relatively high: 23 per cent in Iran, 22 per cent in Indonesia, 17 per cent in Sri Lanka, 16 per cent in Philippines and Samoa and 14 per cent in Timor-Leste. The Report urges governments to fast-track education reform policies and to accelerate broad-based economic growth to create decent and well paid jobs that are essential to improving living standards”.
Recently also launched in Sri Lanka, the UNDP’s Global Development Report 2014, also entitled “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience”, was initially disseminated at an official gathering which featured Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, a co-laureate of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, as its keynote speaker. He was quoted in a statement as saying: “Make development more sustainable with empowerment, action, and foresight, looking at well-being and happiness as a developsement also added “(staggering) rates of poverty, high inequality and frequent natural disasters and crises threaten the progress of human development in Asia and the Pacific… In addition, food insecurity, violence against women, and civil conflict and disaster risks (such as landslides and rising sea levels) linked to climate change further threaten the security of millions of people”.
Further, it also noted; “Across Asia and the Pacific, over a billion people live just above the extreme poverty line, on more than US$ 1.25 but less than US$ 2.50 a day. The report asserts that those who face multiple deprivations are especially at risk of falling back into poverty if a disaster or crisis should occur”.
Elaborating even more, the statement also commented: “The Report introduces the idea of life cycle vulnerabilities, which arise from sensitive points in life where shocks can have greater impact. It stresses the importance of the first 1,000 days of life, and of the transitions from school to work, and from work to retirement.
The Report urges governments to commit to the universal provision of basic social services and social protection to build resilience, especially for the poor and other vulnerable groups. It argues that countries in Asia and the Pacific do not have to wait to become rich in order to provide adequate social protection or basic social services. It shows that Nordic countries, as well as countries such as Republic of Korea and Costa Rica, were able to provide universal basic social services when their per capita GDP was lower than that of India or Pakistan today.
Making the case that cohesive societies work better, the Report calls for strong social protections such as pensions and unemployment insurance for countries at all stages of development”.
At the same time, the report itself states that the “UNDP’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows deprivations are declining overall, but large numbers of people – some 1.5 billion in the 91 developing countries surveyed – are still multi-dimensionally poor, and close to 800 million are at risk of falling into poverty if setbacks occur, whether financial, environmental or otherwise… South Asia has the largest multi-dimensionally poor population, with more than 800 million poor and over 270 million near-poor – that is, more than 71 per cent of its population. This makes the region home to 56 per cent of the world’s poor and more than 35 per cent of the world’s near-poor”.
It also went on to add: “Yet some people are much more vulnerable than others. And in many cases discriminatory social norms and institutional shortcomings exacerbate this vulnerability, leaving certain groups without the household, community and state support needed to boost their coping capacities.
These groups and the institutions and norms that weaken their capabilities and restrict their choices are the main focus of this Report… Those living in extreme poverty and deprivation are among the most vulnerable. Despite recent progress in poverty reduction, more than 2.2 billion people are either near or living in multidimensional poverty. That means more than 15 per cent of the world’s people remain vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. At the same time, nearly 80 per cent of the global population lack comprehensive social protection. About 12 per cent (842 million) suffer from chronic hunger, and nearly half of all workers – more than 1.5 billion – are in informal or precarious employment”.
Additionally, the report notes: “Conflict and a sense of personal insecurity have pervasive adverse impacts on human development and leave billions of people living in precarious conditions. Many countries in the bottom tier of the Human Development Index are emerging from long periods of conflict or still confront armed violence. More than 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by conflict – about a fifth of the world’s population. And recent political instability has had an enormous human cost: About 45 million people were forcibly displaced due to conflict or persecution by the end of 2012 – the highest in 18 years – more than 15 million of them refugees. In some areas of West and Central Africa lawlessness and armed conflict continue to threaten human development advances, with long-term repercussions for national progress. And in a number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite high human development achievements, many people feel threatened by rising rates of homicide and other violent crimes”.