SOCIAL SAFETY NET FIRST CONFERENCE ON:
“CHILDREN AND YOUTH PROTECTION: FUTURE STRATEGY”
Quality Inn Hotel – Tripoli (Lebanon)
April 19, 2010
1. Introduction
Since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in 2000, the Arab region achieved high progress in several fields such as health and education. Yet, and despite the efforts exerted by the Arab countries, there is very limited achievements in the less developed ones, to the extent that it will be difficult for them to achieve most of the intended goals by the year 2015. Moreover, the rate of poverty in the Arab countries is still high (reaching 40%). This means nearly 140 million persons in the Arab World live below the poverty line. Also unemployment rate (especially among youth) in the Arab countries reached very high levels; being the highest in the world. This is a major cause of poverty.
Countries of the MENA region are experiencing high level of urbanization. More and more people are living in urban centers, and with these urban settlements come problems of unemployment and poverty. There is a lot that need to be done at the local urban level in these countries.
Most of the efforts to tackle issues of poverty, employment opportunities, schooling…etc are made at the national level by mainly the central governments, or by dedicated governmental organizations or agencies. There is an immense need for the Arab Countries to use a more bottom up approach to deal with issues, problems, and even opportunities that exist at the local level in order to complement (not substitute) the national level efforts. In fact, this could be one of the best approaches given the experience of other countries and the need for innovative ways to deal with these issues.
The Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI)/ MENA Child Protection Initiative (MENA CPI), being the technical and scientific arm of the Arab Towns Organization, with more than 450 cities as members has a unique role to play in this respect. Audi works mainly at the local and city level and therefore promote the local involvement through its activities. Based on a local and participatory approach, AUDI/MENA CPI organized this conference on “Children and Youth Protection: A Future Strategy” in Tripoli, Lebanon aiming to develop a framework for an integrated executive plan at the Tripoli City level, that includes applicable initiatives, development projects and recommendations that can help design appropriate programs for children, youth employment and poverty alleviation in the city. This is hoped to be achieved through enhancement of education, health, and social and economic conditions, and via active partnership between public and private sectors, and the civil community. The ultimate goal is for all stakeholders to play a developmental role and become real partners to achieve the intended objectives through setting executive development plans.
The participation of other cities’ officials, city council members, and mayors of different Lebanese and regional cities is going to raise the level of awareness of all participants of their roles, capabilities, and responsibilities for children and youth issues and the complementary role they may pay to national authorities.
2. Main Objective
The conference aimed to launch the social safety net in the Union of Fayhaa Municipalities and to focus on the goals, aspirations and methods of work, and to encourage associations working in the sector of children and young people to join this network and coordinate in all fields.
On the other hand, the conference addressed the major problems facing children and youth, such as school dropout, child labor, youth employment, urban poverty, and the negative impacts at city level.
The conference was an important occasion for the concerned associations by presenting their experiences and studies and proposing solutions and future plans.
3. Specific Objectives
1. Define the status of youth employment through a study conducted in five cities, among them Tripoli, and other studies on ‘the vision of the officials and city mayors on opportunities to youth employment.
2. Encourage participating agencies to create constant communication networks, expertise exchange, coordination of efforts for interventions in issues of children and youth in all fields to achieve activation, cooperation and roles integration.
3. To foster awareness on the importance of issues of children and youth and poverty, being one of the priorities of these responsible through the governors and members of administrative departments at Lebanese cities.
4. To conduct a capacity building program in partnership with the International Youth Foundation (IYF).
4. Activities
· Present studies and create areas for discussion and exchange of ideas.
· Organize specialized workshops on themes of the conference to exchange expertise on problem analysis and suggest solutions for:
- Youth employment
- Child labor and school dropout reintegration
- Poverty reduction through improving social status
- Poverty reduction through improving health status
· Present local, regional and national, successful experiences on conference themes, to enable exchange of expertise and find out possibilities of creating the ‘experience model’ for solving problem through examination of lessons learned from others experiences.
5. Participants
The conference was attended by 130 participants representing:
- Public Sector (Ministries and Public institutions)
- Private Sector (Chamber of Commerce, syndicates, …)
- Union of Fayha'a Municipalities
- Lebanese and Syrian Municipalities
- World Bank
- UN agencies
- 20 International Organizations
- 110 national NGO's
- AUDI / MENA Child Protection Initiative (CPI)
- International Youth Foundation (IYF)
- Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)
- Higher Council for Childhood
- Experts and activists in the civil society
Conference:
Conference Agenda (English)
Conference Agenda (Arabic)
Tripoli Conference Agenda & Presentation
Tripoli Conference Report
OLM Training workshop:
M&E Training workshop report