ILOJapan Tripartite Regional Meeting on Youth Employment in Asia and the Pacific

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ILO/Japan Tripartite Regional Meeting on Youth
Employment in Asia and the Pacific

• 27 February - 1 March 2002
• Bangkok

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Promoting youth employment through information
and communication technologies (ICT) Best
practice examples in Asia and the Pacific

• Paper by Richard Curtain (Australia)

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Contents

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Five key principles for ICT generated
  employment opportunities for young people
• 3 Some examples of best practices
• 4 Recommendations

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1 Introduction

• No country can afford to ignore ICT. (WER
  2001).
• because
• Limit their ability to acquire knowledge tap
  into global networks.
• Could be excluded from markets.

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2 Five key principles for ICT generated
employment for young people

• Youth entrepreneurship has important roles.
• Public-private partnership is valuable.
• Can assist vulnerable groups of young people.

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• ICT can help link the informal economy to
  opportunities in the world economy.
• Important that young people are in charge.

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3 Some examples of best practices

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Entrepreneurship

• Grameen Telecoms Village Pay Phones
• Young women as information intermediaries
• Greenstar India
• Community-based telecenters (India)
• Cable television
• Technopreneurship in Singapore

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Start an E-Commerce Movement

• Greenstar India
• 50 solar-powered community e-commerce centres
  in remote villages,
• income through e-commerce on traditional culture
  (art, music, literature, history, )
• Fund basic needs e.g. clean water,
  telemedicine, basic education, micro-credit,
  Internet connection to the world.

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An IdeaYoung Women as Information Intermediaries

• Qualification from community, knows English
  can use computers,
• JD work at community centres
• get information from internatl sources
• relay it to local women farmers.
• Assist in 2-way comm.
• Takes a PC Internet access stipend
  1,000/community/year

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Public-private partnerships

• ICT infrastructure (Korea)
• Investment promotion in ICT (China, India,
  Malaysia)
• Softbank Emerging Markets
• Cisco Networking Academies
• Oracle Academic Initiative

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An International public-private partnership to
assist local entrepreneurs to close the digital
divide

• SOFTBANK Emerging Markets
• Incubating Internet companies in 100 developing
  countries,
• Partnership with industry leaders,
• Leading-edge Internet models to countries,
• Generates investor interests,
• Prices subscribers
• promotes free or subsidized Internet service to
  schools, etc.

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Assisting the vulnerable

• Vaancha ICT Association (India)
• Finding unexploded bombs (Lao PDR)
• Marketing pro-poor tourism (Nepal)
• Internet Learning Centres (Lao PDR)
• Recycling PCs (Australia)

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Informal economy digital economy

• IndiaShop
• SEWA distance learning, e-commerce by members
• TARAhaat.com (India) a portal for local people

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For best practices to diffuse more widely

• Should be linked to an integrated strategy
• delivered by governments and the private sector
• with the support of civil society orgs
  international agencies.

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• This strategy needs to encompass
• appropriate infrastructure provision
• adequate skills pool
• supportive public policy
• financial support to enterprise ...

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• Capitalising on the potential of the Internet
  also requires
• relevant local content applications
• suitable to the needs and capabilities of the
  population.

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4 Recommendations

• 1 Develop supporting strategies
• Potential to generate employment for young people
  will not be realized without supporting
  strategies.

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• 2 Encourage self-employment
• Many opportunities for self-employment SEs with
  ICT skills
• Need to promote ICT-related self-employment as a
  viable option
• Role models an image of success and achievement

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• 3 Provide business skills
• Other business skills needed
• manage cash flow
• Assess ones strength ability
• Seek info advice
• Plan, communicate, negotiate
• Solve problem, resolve conflict
• Evaluate performance, etc.

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• 4 Organize youth competitions
• National or regional competitions a high profile
  way of promoting youth enterprises related to
  ICT.
• Opportunity for young women and men to explore
  and develop a business idea with the assistance
  of a business adviser or mentor.
• Likely to generate significant publicity in the
  media.

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• 5 Encourage mentor support
• Mentor support for starting ICT-related
  enterprises
• To offer informal advice and guidance based on
  relevant business experience
• Could also be a means of gaining access to
  business networks.

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• 6 Provide business capital
• Young people face more constraints than older
  people on access to finance.
• Identify specific measures for young people to
  obtain credit.

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• 7 Develop public-private partnerships
• Partnerships between governments and private
  sector enterprises are emerging as essential to
  enable the transfer of ICT infrastructure and
  knowledge to developing countries.

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• It is recommended that governments explore the
  use of public-private partnerships in relation to
  ICT as a basis for creating and expanding
  employment opportunities in this area or in
  providing up-to-date ICT skills.

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• 8 Develop web sites
• The UN ICT Taskforce has recommended that the UN
  and its agencies provide assistance in building
  local, national and regional networks of
  partnerships.

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• One way to assist the process of building
  networks is to create a web site to post
  information about case studies of partnership
  initiatives in different countries and to
  otherwise assist in the exchange of information.

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• 9 Create transparent partnerships
• Principles underpinning the business
  arrangements developed by governments and private
  sector companies to transfer ICT should be made
  transparent and subject to public debate.

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• 10 Recognize external benefits
• It is recommended that the business models
  identify and attempt to quantify public good
  benefits.

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• 11 Incorporate social responsibility and
  pro- poor development
• It is recommended that the business models
  underpinning public-private partnerships should
  incorporate a strong element of corporate social
  responsibility and a significant development
  dimension, esp. poverty

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• 12 Monitor public-private partnerships
• Need develop mechanisms/tools to monitor, measure
  and evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge
  technology transfer
• In relation to achieving specific socio-economic
  goals and targets as defined by the partners

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• 13 Publicize Internet marketing
• Possible for craft producers in poor and remote
  areas to use ICT to tap directly into regional,
  national and global markets.
• Case studies with obstacles solutions should be
  on a website.

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• 14 Encourage youth participation
• Participation of young people a key to success.
• Involve young women men through representative
  orgs
• Developing concepts
• Implementing projects
• Evaluating outcomes of ICT employment generation
  initiatives.
• Case studies should be on websites.

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An initiative of the ILO

• An interactive website (Gateway or Portal) to
  facilitate exchange of knowledge and information
  by practitioners of youth employment programmes.
• Good practice principles and tools will be
  uploaded.
• In partnership with CIDA IDRC