getting more bang for the eu s buck in the arab...
TRANSCRIPT
Getting more bang for the EU’s
buck in the Arab Mediterranean
countries
Ana Martiningui
Research and Communications Manager, Education For Employment
Europe
Salvatore Nigro
Global Vice-President, Education For Employment; and CEO, Education
For Employment Europe
SAHWA Policy Paper, 12. 2016. Education For Employment Europe
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Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………...…………3
1. It’s also about the jobs……………………………………………….…….5
2. Education as a problem not as a solution…..……………………………..7
3. European instruments and initiatives……………………………………10
Conclusions and recommendations…………………………………………14
References……………………………………………………………………19
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Introduction
A stable, economically-successful and developed neighbourhood has been a stated strategic
priority of the European Union (EU) for many years. In 2003, the EU launched the European
Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) to govern its relations with 16 of its closest neighbours to the
east and south, including the eight Arab Mediterranean countries (AMCs) – Algeria, Egypt,
Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia –, with the objective of building a
“ring of friends” and “strengthening the prosperity, stability and security of all” (European
Commission, European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Overview; Bildt,
2015). However, despite some positive achievements, on balance the EU’s strategy seems to
have backfired. Currently, almost all of Europe’s closest neighbours, in particular to the
south of the Mediterranean (but also many to the east), face serious challenges that both the
region’s governments and the international community are struggling to solve, with
subsequent spillovers into EU member states. To quote former Swedish Prime Minister Carl
Bildt, “as we look at the situation now, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are
surrounded not by a ‘ring of friends’ – but by a ‘ring of fire’” (Bildt, 2015).
In the Middle East and North of Africa (MENA), to different degrees, there is a crisis
wherever we look – religious turmoil and profound sectarian strife, economic hardship,
social unrest, power politics, proxy wars, failed and failing states, conflict, violence and
fundamentalism, humanitarian crises, and rampant (youth) unemployment. These crises have
also resulted in a sudden, massive increase in the number of refugees settling in many
AMCs or using them as platforms to pursue their journey towards Europe, putting further
pressure on the region’s already strained economies, on EU member states, and on the EU
itself.
To respond to these and other evolving challenges, the EU’s approach toward these
countries must also evolve. The ENP offered “money, markets, and mobility” – the 3 Ms –
but not membership in return for adopting the EU acquis (the body of common rights and
obligations that is binding on all EU member states) (European Commission, 2016). But, as
it turned out, there were too few incentives and too many conditions, which some countries
were unwilling and sometimes incapable of meeting. Following the Arab uprisings, the ENP
was reviewed in 2011 and again in 2015 in an attempt to offer a more “differentiated
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approach to […] neighbours [that] respect[s] their different aspirations and better answer[s]
EU interests and the interests of its partners” and to achieve “increased ownership by partner
countries and member states” (EU Neighbourhood Info Centre, The European
Neighbourhood Policy). However, since then (and after around €20 billion committed by the
EU until 2020), the AMCs, with a few exceptions, do not seem to be faring much better.
While the EU's urgent need and instinct to contain and manage the influx of hundreds of
thousands of refugees, the economic and institutional crises that affect many of its member
states, the uncertainty brought about by the Brexit vote, rampant (youth) unemployment
within its own borders, as well as several other ills, combined with member states’ own
individual national priorities, are likely to take precedence, EU policymakers must not forget
that European well-being depends, in large measure, on the stability of others, not least
because the proximity of the MENA region exposes the EU to the instability that stems from
there.
In her strategic assessment in preparation for the 2016 EU Global Strategy on Foreign and
Security Policy, entitled “The European Union in a changing global environment: A more
connected, contested and complex world”, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini
acknowledged that, regarding the MENA, the “EU needs to tackle the immediate challenges
in its South by sharpening its tools [… and …] to respond to old and new conflicts and help
address the root causes of resentment through tailor-made responses” (EEAS, 2015a).
In the MENA region, massive youth unemployment has been identified as one of the main
root causes of the area’s many problems, with youth unemployment rates more than double
the global average. Over 25 million young men and women between 15 and 24 years old
(the age group defined as “youth” by the United Nations) are unemployed, and a growing
percentage are not in education, employment or training (NEETs), which hinders economic
growth, development, and stability, with dire consequences for the region and for Europe
and beyond (World Bank, World Development Indicators).
Drawing on the extensive field research conducted by the SAHWA Project and additional
research made by the authors, as well as on lessons learnt from the implementation of youth
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education for employment projects on the ground, this Policy Paper focuses on the youth
unemployment crisis in five AMCs – Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia –,
exploring some of the overarching European instruments and initiatives in these countries,
with a view to offering practical region-wide policy recommendations for EU policymakers
in an attempt to make the EU’s approach to some of its southern neighbours much more
“tailor-made”.
1. It’s also about the jobs
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), we are
witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record: 65.3 million people have been
forced from home, of which nearly 21.3 million are refugees (defined by the UNHCR as
persons fleeing armed conflict or persecution) (UNHCR, Figures at a Glance). The
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that over one million people
arrived in Europe by sea in 2015, and almost 35,000 by land; other thousands have died on
their journey (BBC News, 2016). In 2015, the number of first-time asylum (a form of
protection given by a state on its territory based on the principle of non-refoulement and
internationally- or nationally-recognised refugee rights) applicants in the EU-28 was almost
1.26 million, more than double the 563,000 registered in 2014 (this excludes repeat
applicants, thus more accurately reflecting the number of newly-arrived persons applying for
international protection). Of those, more than four in five (83%) were under 35 years old,
while nearly three in ten (29%) were minors aged less than 18 years old. Only six in every
thousand (0.6%) were 65 years of age and older (Eurostat, March-April 2016). Syria is the
largest source of refugees, totalling 4.9 million at the end 2015, and Syrians remained the
main group of asylum seekers worldwide, with 373,700 new applications registered during
2015 (UNHCR, Facts and Figures about Refugees).
The Syrian conflict, in particular, but also the intensification of several other conflicts in the
MENA, as well as in neighbouring areas such as Afghanistan, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa
and northern Nigeria, have led millions to flee their homes, many to fragile or economically
weak countries such as Lebanon and Tunisia, or to use these and other AMCs as gateways to
Europe. UNHCR figures indicate that 39% of the world’s displaced are being hosted in the
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MENA region. Lebanon, in particular, has received over one million refugees, equivalent to
one-quarter of the country’s population – the largest level among neighbouring countries
(UNHCR, Figures at a Glance; World Bank, World Development Indicators).
But not all who leave their homes are escaping conflict. Many young men and women
decide to migrate to seek better job and living opportunities elsewhere. As of 2015, the
number of international migrants (persons who choose to move not because of a direct threat
of persecution or death, but mainly to improve their lives by finding work, or in some cases
for education, family reunion, or other reasons as defined by the UNHCR) worldwide stood
at almost 244 million (United Nations Population Division, 2015). Of these, almost three-
quarters (or 177 million) are of working age (IOM Slovak Republic, Migration in the
World). In a comprehensive survey of 10,000 young people in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon,
Morocco, and Tunisia as part of the SAHWA Project, 86% of respondents cited a lack of
professional opportunities, lower income, and poor living conditions as reasons for wishing
to emigrate. In relation to choosing where to emigrate to, most respondents cited rich job
opportunities in the host country as the main decision driver, with France being considered
the most attractive (SAHWA Youth Survey, 2015).
At 32% in 2014, youth unemployment in the AMCs is among the highest in the world – it is
more than double the global average of 14% and considerably superior to the 25% registered
in the EU-28. Countries like Egypt have a record high of 42% and a staggering 64.8% in the
case of young females. Plus, at country level, more often than not the youth unemployment
rate has been double that of total unemployment. In some states, such as Lebanon and Egypt,
the youth unemployment rate is more than three times that of total unemployment (World
Bank, World Development Indicators). The population of the AMCs is also one of the
youngest in the world, with nearly one in five people being between 15 and 24 years old
(compared with one in eight in the EU-28) (Eurostat, 2014; CIA World Factbook). These
figures imply that around 15 million young men and women in the eight AMCs alone find
themselves out of a job, compared with the same number for the 28 EU member states as a
whole (World Bank, World Development Indicators). Another common characteristic
throughout the AMCs is the high incidence of informal or low-quality jobs. In Egypt, for
example, 91% of young workers are informally employed (Said, 2015).
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Inactivity during youth has a negative impact on employability, future earnings, and access
to quality jobs. It is estimated that people who begin their careers without work are likely to
suffer a wage penalty of up to 20%, lasting for around 20 years. This seems to worsen with
the length of joblessness and is handed down to the next generation (The Economist, 2013).
In Egypt, 88.5% of the total unemployed suffer from long-term unemployment (defined as
unemployed persons with continuous periods of unemployment extending for a year or
longer) (World Bank, World Development Indicators). Also, after years of searching for
employment with no success, many young people may become discouraged and decide to
leave the labour force – in the AMCs, already two out of three working-age youths do not
participate in the labour market and, in some countries, one in four (or 25%) are NEETs,
compared with around one in eight (12.9%) in the EU-28 (World Bank, World Development
Indicators). According to the European Training Foundation (ETF), NEETs represent “one
of the most serious social problems in the AMCs, as the exclusion of young people from the
labour market contributes to high levels of poverty and lost opportunities for economic
growth” (ETF, 2015).
In addition to representing a huge loss of productive capacity, as it increases the dependency
on older generations, this can also lead to frustration, which in turn becomes a potential
source of social unrest, violence, fundamentalism, or a motive to emigrate as the SAHWA
Youth Survey has found.
2. Education as a problem not as a solution
It is estimated that 40 million new jobs need to be created per year until 2030 to keep pace
with the growth of the working-age population worldwide (ILO, Decent work and the 2030
Agenda for sustainable development). In the MENA region alone, there is a need for 5
million new jobs per year, requiring sustained annual growth rates of at least 6.5% (World
Bank, 2014), over three times the regional average for 2015 (2.9%) (World Bank, World
Development Indicators).
That said, companies working in the region are having difficulties filling positions and jobs
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that have already been created. While in most advanced economies (including in the EU-28)
the jobless rate for people with less than a secondary-school education is twice as high as for
those with university degrees (The Economist, 2013), in the AMCs unemployment tends to
increase as education increases. In Egypt, unemployment among diploma-holders (those
with post-secondary or tertiary education) is eight times higher than among those that have
only completed primary education. The situation is far worse for young females, where
unemployment among women with degrees is 30 times higher than among those with
primary education. In some countries, such as Palestine, unemployment among female
diploma-holders surpasses 90%, compared with 2% among those with primary education
(World Bank, World Development Indicators).
The quality of education remains an unrelenting problem, despite significant improvements
and increased government spending in past decades. As the AMCs become more and more
involved in the global economy, there has been a major shift in the skills in demand, but
regional educational systems are failing to keep pace in preparing students to successfully
find and maintain a decent job or be able to offer their services as self-employed
professionals. Universities continue to focus on preparing students for civil service jobs even
as private-sector companies are reportedly struggling to find skilled workers to fill
vacancies. A report by employment services firm Manpower indicates that over one-third of
employers worldwide have trouble filling positions (The Economist, 2012). A 2013 study by
McKinsey & Company found that less than 50% of employers consider graduates
adequately prepared (Mourshed, 2013). Along the same lines, a 2010
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey reveals that almost 90% of Arab CEOs believe that
the limited supply of candidates with the right skills is one of the biggest challenges for
businesses in the AMCs today (PwC, 2010).
At the same time, young people’s aspirations are growing and changing. Students
themselves find that their education is not in line with market needs. Interviews in Morocco
as part of the SAHWA Project revealed that university curricula are mainly theoretical, with
no practical applications or tests, and are devoid of soft skills or personal development, areas
that are highly valued in today’s business environment. Demotivation often occurs, not only
in terms of looking for employment, but also in terms of wanting to get an education. In
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Egypt, many young people end up wishing they had never spent their money on an
education that yields no employment, and would rather have saved it to cover the needs of
their families. In Tunisia, most of those fortunate enough to get a job end up working in
areas very much unrelated to their fields of study. In Lebanon, focus groups revealed a lack
of access, inadequate materials, unprepared lecturers, and a large degree of discrimination
based on political affiliation and socio-economic or religious backgrounds. Similarly,
interviews in Algeria showed that those who do find a job are often faced with below-the-
market conditions. This is especially the case for young women, as a result of which many
prefer not to participate in the labour market (SAHWA Ethnographic Fieldwork, 2015a;
2015b; 2015c; 2015d; 2015e).
Education in the AMCs has become part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.
There is a persistent gap between the skills acquired at schools and universities and the
requirements of businesses, with women being particularly affected.
Unemployment among young females is almost double that of young males in places like
Algeria and Egypt, for example. Plus, the unemployment gender gap has been widening in
the past decade. In the case of Algeria, it grew from 3.3 percentage points in 2004 to 14.4 in
2014 (World Bank, World Development Indicators). In the 2015 Global Gender Gap
elaborated yearly by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – which ranks 145 economies
according to how well they are leveraging their female talent pool – the five AMCs analysed
in this Policy Paper were all at the bottom of the list: Tunisia (127th
), Algeria (128th
), Egypt
(136th
), Lebanon (138th
), and Morocco (139th
) (WEF, 2015). In addition to having fewer
opportunities than men, many women choose not to join the labour market or exit early due
to family obligations, inflexible work arrangements, poor salaries or other reasons. In the
next decades, it is estimated that 50 million women will come of working-age in the region
(Barry, 2015). Yet, four out of five working-age women do not participate in the labour
force, constituting 80% of the AMCs’ inactive population (World Bank, World
Development Indicators). This is seriously affecting the region’s potential for social and
economic development and represents an enormous loss of human capital utilisation and
returns from education (Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and PwC, 2008).
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All this has given rise to a spiralling youth unemployment crisis that will affect many
generations to come and which the region’s economies and the international community are
increasingly struggling to address. Considerable resources have been invested at national
and international levels, but given the nature and magnitude of the problem, current
initiatives are not producing the necessary results to make a significant impact.
3. European instruments and initiatives
Creating more and better jobs is a priority for the EU, both internally and in its relations
with its neighbours. In particular, the revised version of the ENP recognises “youth
employment and skills” as “key” to southern neighbours’ “stabilisation” and “economic
development” (EU Neighbourhood Info Centre, The European Neighbourhood Policy). This
is reflected in all ENP Action Plans (AP) signed between the EU and its neighbours (of the
AMCs analysed in this study, only Algeria has not yet signed but is currently negotiating an
AP), setting out an agenda of political and economic reforms and serving as the political
framework guiding the priorities for cooperation.
The European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI), currently the ENP’s funding mechanism,
has €15.4 billion for 2014-2020 (compared to €11.2 billion in the previous 2007-2013
period), the bulk of which (up to 80%) is used for bilateral cooperation under these APs (EU
Neighbourhood Info Centre, The European Neighbourhood Policy). This is complemented
by regional and multilateral cooperation initiatives, including neighbourhood-wide
cooperation, cross-border cooperation (CBC), and regional cooperation. Southern
neighbours represent the bulk of EU aid under the ENI, with an indicative allocation of
between €7.5 and €9.2 billion foreseen for the region for 2014-2020.
At regional level, some initiatives in the area of youth education and employment with
southern neighbours worth mentioning include, inter alia: the Euromed Youth Programme
(since 1999), with hundreds of projects in the region, including in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon,
Morocco and Tunisia; Erasmus+, which in 2014 awarded 65 scholarships to AMC master’s
students and 11 fellowships (European Commission, 2014); and the Youth mobility and
regional integration of Maghreb countries project, benefitting, among others, Algeria,
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Morocco, and Tunisia (see EU Neighbourhood Info Centre, Regional Cooperation Projects,
for a more extensive list).
Regional cooperation in the southern neighbourhood also includes activities financed
through the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis and the North Africa
window of the Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular
migration and displaced persons in Africa. The latter, which includes
Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, aims to foster stability and address the root causes of
destabilisation, displacement and irregular migration by promoting economic and equal
opportunities, security and development. However, the fund considers North African states
as countries primarily “of destination and transit rather than of origin for migrants” and thus
actions undertaken there focus more on improving migration management rather than
tackling the drivers of irregular migration, such as youth employment, as it does in the Horn
of Africa, the Sahel region and Lake Chad area, considered countries of origin (DG
DEVCO, EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa).
In terms of cross-border cooperation – launched in 2004 to promote cooperation between an
EU country and a neighbourhood country sharing a land border or sea crossing – since
December 2015 the ENI CBC “Mediterranean Sea Basin” Programme, in particular, intends
to create economic opportunities and jobs to reduce high rates of unemployment. It has four
thematic objectives. First, “Business and SMEs development”, by supporting start-up
enterprises and enhancing Euro-Mediterranean value chains and clusters. Second, “Support
to education, research, technological development and innovation”, focusing on
technological transfer, commercialisation of research results and links between industry and
research. Third, “Promotion of social inclusion and fight against poverty”, including issues
such as support for NEETs as well as for actors from the social and solidarity economy. And
fourth, “Environmental protection, climate change adaptation and mitigation”. Over €209
million have been granted by the European Union to the programme for 2014-2020, which
represents a fifth of the total CBC financial allocation (€1 billion). While this implies that it
is the largest from a financial point of view of the 16 programmes to be implemented under
CBC, it is but a grain of sand in terms of the resources needed to solve the youth
unemployment problem in the region (ENI CBC Med Programme). Italy also has a CBC
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sea-crossing programme with Tunisia to promote economic, social, institutional and cultural
integration. However, no similar individual programmes exist with other AMCs (European
Commission, European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Cross Border
Cooperation).
Bilaterally, education and employment are included in all country programmes; however,
despite being a stated priority, very few actually fall within this category, except for in
Lebanon (EU Delegation to Lebanon). In Tunisia, for example, only 1 of the 48 (2%) EU-
supported programmes currently listed by the EU Delegation in Tunisia falls under social
cohesion and employment, and only one is dedicated to professional training (EU
Delegation in Tunisia). Plus, there are hardly any youth-specific programmes listed at
country-level (most are multi-country and sometimes multi-regional) or programmes
specifically designed to improve the role of women in these countries (EU Neighbourhood
Info Centre, Country Cooperation Projects).
All five AMCs analysed in this study also receive additional funding through thematic
cooperation programmes, such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human
Rights or the thematic programme Civil Society and Local Authorities, but these are mainly
in the area of human rights, the environment or civil society, not education and employment.
While many experts attest to the positive impact of the EU’s approach in the region – it has
encouraged economic governance standards in Morocco, such as competition law and
transparency requirements; it has helped bring about some convergence in energy
regulations north and south of the Mediterranean; it has encouraged dialogue between
hostile actors in Tunisia and Egypt; it has put in place an education system for refugees in
Lebanon and Jordan as a response to the Syrian crisis –, they also agree that it has simply
not been enough to prevent states from falling apart and exporting instability across borders
(Youngs, 2015; DG DEVCO, 2014).
Sometimes, it has been the case that EU-level policies toward the region have come into
conflict with those of member states, leading to a zero-sum approach that has all but helped
the countries of the region. Conversely, at times countries have simply refused EU
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cooperation while at others they have accepted the EU’s money but then not carried out the
expected reforms – the latest ENP progress reports indicate that all countries have made only
modest progress in implementing the ENP Action Plan, and the unemployment situation in
all AMCs under review has worsened (EEAS, 2015b).
Seemingly, there are simply too many priorities, sometimes diluting the effectiveness of the
European investment, with too few incentives. For years EU policymakers (and the
international community at large) have acted upon the belief that the MENA region would
react to calls for democracy and human rights above all else, and events such as the 2011
Arab revolutions seemed to confirm such credence. And while it is true that the region’s
populations would like to live in a freer and more just place, at present this is rather low on
their list of priorities. According to results of the SAHWA Youth Survey, less than 1% of
the young people interviewed cited political and security circumstances as a reason for
wishing to leave their countries (SAHWA Youth Survey, 2015).
There is little doubt that youth’s frustration with unemployment and the lack of
opportunities was among the main factors that triggered the protests. In fact, since the
beginning of the financial crisis, social unrest (calculated here as the number of protests as a
percentage of the total number of events) has shot up by almost 10%, demonstrating that
social unrest tends to increase as joblessness persists and the risk is more acute in places
where youth unemployment is high or rising rapidly, such as the AMCs (ILO, 2015).
Moreover, recent research reveals that unemployment is one of the main sources of
resentment among young people, the very thing that the EU has pledged to address. A poll
conducted in 2016 of 3,500 young people in 16 countries by PR firm Asda’a Burson-
Marsteller revealed that young people believe the lack of jobs and opportunities to be the
main reason why disenchanted youths are pushed into the arms of jihadists (The Economist,
2016).
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Conclusions and recommendations
It is clear that what affects the MENA region reverberates very intensely in the EU and its
member states. Beyond the more immediate security concerns, the EU also depends on the
region for a significant share of its energy needs (especially Algeria, which ranked as the
EU’s third largest energy provider in 2014) and trade ties are increasingly important.
Bilateral trade between the EU and Lebanon has been growing steadily over the years, with
an average annual growth of 12.7% since 2008. Also, the EU is the largest trading partner
for Tunisia (accounting for 62.8% of its trade in 2015), Morocco (55.7%), Algeria (54.1%),
and Egypt (covering 22.9% of Egypt's trade volume in 2013) (European Commission,
Trade). Moreover, southern neighbours represent more than half of the total ENI Budget for
2014-2020 (€7.5–9.2 billion). Under the previous European Neighbourhood Partnership
Instrument (ENPI), the ENP’s funding mechanism for the period 2007-2013, the EU had
already made available over €9 billion for the southern neighbourhood region (European
Commission, European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Southern
Neighbourhood).
So how can the EU more effectively channel its resources to mitigate youth unemployment
in these countries, and hence also serve its own interests? While recognising that the latest
renewed focus of the ENP since 2015 still needs time to show its impact, and without aiming
to cover the full spectrum of measures needed in these countries, the following
recommendations could be useful in helping the EU get more bang for its buck in the Arab
Mediterranean countries:
1. Better align EU and member-state policies. A crucial question to improve the
effectiveness of the European approach in the AMCs is to ensure better coherence
between EU-level policies and the national priorities of its member states. It is not a
question of one overriding the other, but of making sure that they are complementary.
The EU cannot solve the many challenges of the region by itself, and there are limits to
its leverage, but a combined approach, with the full weight of and ownership by EU
member states, will be much more efficient in engaging southern neighbours to carry out
the reforms needed.
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2. Reduce the number of priority sectors and increase flexibility of funding. Most EU
initiatives in the region have too many priorities, fragmenting the effort and sometimes
diluting the effectiveness of the European investment. To maximise its impact, instead of
having hundreds of overarching objectives, thematic objectives, priority areas, priority
sectors, priority sub-sectors and so on, the EU should concentrate its resources on fewer
areas that have been identified as the underlying cause of the region’s many other
problems the EU is trying to solve. Increasing flexibility in terms of the use of funds to
better adapt to the changing needs of the region would allow to cover some of the areas
that might be left out, should the need arise.
3. Give more priority to education and employment. Youth unemployment has been
identified as one of the main underlying causes of the region’s many problems, with
inadequate education seriously aggravating the situation. High youth unemployment was
one of the main triggers of the Tunisian revolution of January 2011 that led to the Arab
uprisings. As such, bilateral, regional, and cross-border cooperation should place greater
emphasis and allocate more funding to education and employment initiatives, in
particular those that attempt to bridge the persistent skills gap.
4. Invest more in self-employment and entrepreneurship initiatives. More investment
should be made not only to encourage self-employment and entrepreneurship (in
particular in areas such as ICT, where the fast-changing market environment requires
rapid skills innovation), but also to build young people’s confidence by showing how
they can succeed with good initiatives and ideas without needing large investments or
access to capital. Self-employment and entrepreneurship create new companies, open up
new markets, and nurture new skills. Economic growth and job creation in the AMCs
(but also in other regions) could be spurred with greater support for the growth of
enterprises. The EU should invest in initiatives that help create the foundations for an
entrepreneurial career, but especially that help support it afterwards.
5. Recognise AMCs as countries of origin not only of destination. While traditionally
North African countries have been a prime destination for migrants from other parts of
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16
the African continent, in the past few years they have also become an important source
of migration, in particular towards Europe. Apart from the obvious case of Syria, more
and more young people from the AMCs are leaving their homes not only to flee conflict
but also to look for a better future elsewhere. For example, the SAHWA Youth Survey
revealed that 52.8% of young Tunisians would like to emigrate (SAHWA Youth Survey,
2015). The EU should thus adapt its instruments, such as the EU Emergency Trust Fund
for Africa, to begin considering North African countries also as countries of origin of
migrants and thus tackle the drivers of irregular migration accordingly. In addition,
treating these countries as countries of destination only and concentrating efforts on the
migrant communities there might alienate the local population and lead to further
frustration.
6. Invest more in women-specific initiatives. In the AMCs, women are increasingly more
educated than their male counterparts, yet youth unemployment among females is twice
as high as that of males and women’s participation in these countries’ economic and
political life is marginal. In addition to fostering dignity and financial independence, it is
believed that raising the rate of female labour force participation (FLFP) and advancing
women’s equality could add $300 billion (or 11%) to the MENA region’s GDP by 2025
(Woetzel, 2015). The EU should thus include more women-specific programmes in its
bilateral, regional, and cross-border cooperation with the region, working also with
governments to incentivise the private sector to improve conditions for women in these
countries.
7. Work to better regulate private-sector engagement both in Europe and in the AMCs.
Cooperation with the private sector is key to efficiently address the problem of youth
unemployment in the region. In the AMCs, companies present in the area should
increase cooperation with schools and universities, for example by contributing to design
curricula, engaging as lecturers and guest speakers, offering training, internships,
apprenticeships, and mentoring as part of courses, job shadowing, participating in career
fairs, and committing to hire students upon graduation, among many other kinds of
involvement. At home, EU companies’ investment in unemployment programmes in the
AMCs is scant to non-existent. While it is true that there is a need to focus on youth
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unemployment within the EU’s own borders, it is important to remember that
unemployment in the AMCs has a direct impact on the EU and its member states, both
economically and in terms of security. Thus, the EU should promote greater investment
by European companies, either through their corporate social responsibility (CSR)
budgets or foundations.
8. Work more with educational institutions to improve education.
The EU must work with national governments and educational institutions to foment a
closer relationship between education and work. The lack of such links has been proven
to be one of the major causes of unemployment in the AMCs. And change must be
fomented at all levels. It is necessary to include career planning and guidance in
secondary school curricula; to take into account current and future market needs when
designing university programmes; to shift from an overly theoretical focus to one centred
on developing more practical skills that are applicable in the job market; and to pay
attention to vocational education and training by broadening its scope to also include soft
skills, as demanded by today’s labour market, and devoting efforts to eliminate the
stigma associated with this sector, which is vital to the economy.
9. Invest more in organisations working on youth education and employment.
Significantly higher investment is needed in tailor-made and demand-driven youth
education for employment programmes that can equip those that have already graduated
with the necessary skills to compete in the job market. There are already several NGOs
undertaking programmes in the region in close cooperation with international and
national institutions, as well as the private sector. But more support for such
organisations is warranted, especially to scale up pilot initiatives that have already
proven successful.
10. Invest in technology to scale up programmes. Applying all this at the scale necessary to
impact positively on the region’s youth employment perspectives is a very costly
endeavour. To massively scale up these efforts, technology can play a vital role. The
rapid development of e-learning and blended learning approaches and platforms,
“serious games” and other kinds of simulations can help by offering tailored, practical
SAHWA Policy Paper, 12. 2016. Education For Employment Europe
18
experience to large numbers at comparatively low costs. Technology is also making it
easier to take work to people who live in work-deprived areas. Here, the EU could be of
tremendous value, providing not only financial support but also the necessary
technology, and could leverage the partnerships with large IT companies working in
those markets.
SAHWA Policy Paper, 12. 2016. Education For Employment Europe
19
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The SAHWA Project (“Researching Arab Mediterranean Youth: Towards a New Social Contract”) is a FP-7 interdisciplinary cooperative research project led by the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) and funded by the European Commission. It brings together fifteen partners from Europe and Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries to research youth prospects and perspectives in a context of multiple social, economic and political transitions in five Arab countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon). The project expands over 2014-2016 and has a total budget of €3.1 million. The thematic axes around which the project will revolve are education, employment and social inclusion, political mobilisation and participation, culture and values, international migration and mobility, gender, comparative experiences in other transition contexts and public policies and international cooperation.