Dead Sea, Jordan – According to the World Bank and the United Nations, 80 million jobs will be needed for new graduates and the unemployed across the Middle East and North Africa over the next twenty years. The Arab Labor Organization predicts more than 32 million people will be looking for jobs in Arab states by 2010. Masses of jobless young Arabs not only represent a tragic waste of human potential – they also threaten regional harmony and security.
For too long, government intervention has been seen as the solution to this challenge, but jobs that provide meaningful employment can only come from real private sector growth.
There is much talk of what should be done yet too little practical action that builds on existing good practices. Bad news dominates media coverage from this region, but there are some good examples of companies and local partnerships that have been creating significant employment opportunities.
The challenge is to scale up these good practices and inspire more business leaders and entrepreneurs to get involved. With proper leadership, this could deliver a massive boost for sustainable job creation across the region.
Concurrently, governments need to loosen their hold on their economies to promote enterprise growth – particularly to help micro-businesses, which are critical to the delivery of new jobs. They also need to refocus education to deliver skills employers need. But the motor for development must be the indigenous private sector and its international business partners.
There are many regional examples of what can be done to tackle this crisis according to a report to be published this month by the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) with the support of the Young Arab Leaders, Emirates Environmental Group, Young Entrepreneurs Association, the United Nations Development Program and a consortium of companies. An analysis of success factors in over twenty private-sector-led projects from Morocco and Lebanon to Saudi Arabia and Jordan shows that, with strong leadership, companies can create jobs within their core business activities. This not only helps their reputation as good corporate citizens, it also helps their business.
Essentially, these good practice projects follow four models. First, businesses can help by offering more work experience and training to high school and college graduates. This helps to equip young people for work. Dubai Aluminium Company, for example, organized pre-employment courses in a project that doubled employment of national youth, including women, while doubling its number of indigenous managers.
Second, businesses can find ways to stimulate and support new jobs linked to their products, processes, supply and distribution chains. Sekem Group in Egypt enabled two thousand small farmers to find livelihoods in higher-value agricultural production, and to gain access to education for their 6000 dependents.
Abdul Latif Jameel Company (ALJ) developed a series of community programs committed to furthering and promoting opportunities for thousands of young Saudi men and women each year. One of the programs involved building a new cadre of local taxi owners/drivers by making auto finance loans more accessible. Another initiative combines microfinance-style loans with training to match the required skill sets of the labour market, targets women and is set to create more than 16,000 new job opportunities this year alone. On a wider scale The Grameen-Jameel Pan Arab initiative www.grameen-jameel.com has targeted the creation of 1 million jobs through a microcredit program by 2011. Over 200,000 clients will be reached through guarantees to microcredit institutions by this initiative by the end of 2007.
Third, businesses can collaborate through education and training partnership projects to improve vocational training and school linkages. INJAZ is an organisation working across the region that has mobilised private sector mentoring for work experience and preparation for over sixty thousand students. The Jordan Education Initiative, stimulated by the World Economic Forum, Cisco Systems and others, is delivering curriculum access and IT to schools and over fifty thousand students across the nation.
Finally, companies can mount outreach programs to bring their management and development skills to sustainable community programs that stimulate new enterprise. Some can train unemployed youth for areas of the economy where there are skills shortages – such as services, IT and handicrafts. The IBLF s Centennial Fund youth business program in Saudi Arabia, and the newly launched Youth Careers Initiative in Jordan s hotel sector, are two such platforms for private sector mentoring. In another initiative, the Sawiris Foundation, supported by Orascom in Egypt, has trained almost one thousand graduates to fill nursing vacancies.
Supporting sustainable economic and enterprise development for young people makes good business sense. We need to align our business activities and priorities with the enterprise needs of the Middle East. We will make the greatest impact when we move beyond discussion and donations, and apply our business skills and strategic mindset. We need to work together, in partnership with other businesses, with government, and with the charitable sector.
Finding eighty million jobs is a daunting challenge – it requires us all to pool our resources to help. But what greater resource does the business sector have than its spirit of enterprise, adaptability and willingness to learn from models which have been shown to work?
Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameelis president of ALJ Group of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of IBLF for the Middle East. Robert Daviesis founder and CEO of the International Business Leaders Forum, IBLF. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.
