LONDON, 19 March 2004 — Few would doubt that one of the most pressing challenges faced by countries today is how to secure active employment for young people. The price of failure to create a stake in the economy and society for the young generation is not just alienation and risk of conflict, but waste of talent and valuable human resource.
The private sector shares an urgent interest in stability and competitiveness, and has a key role to play alongside governments and civil society. Experience shared by the Prince of Wales in recent visits to the Gulf suggests that partnerships for enterprise creation, training and youth community service could be central to meeting this challenge.
Twenty years ago, in response to a youth unemployment crisis in Britain, and when many British cities experienced unrest and even violent riots, Prince Charles, Heir to the British Throne, formed his Princes Trust. It was a focus to help young people help themselves and help their communities. It was one of a number of voluntary initiatives engaging business and voluntary organizations in the task of regeneration of local economies and community spirit.
At the time, and frequently since then, some cynics have scoffed — claiming that this was a job for schools, governments, for individuals or to be left to market forces. But in just 20 years over 60,000 small youth businesses were created thanks to micro-loans and business mentors. Several hundred thousand young people have been enabled to find a stake in their community and the missing pride in themselves.
It shows that determination and persistence pays off! In 1990 The Prince of Wales then founded The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) to help exchange ideas and good practices in business social responsibility, business ethics and sustainable economic regeneration. It was a time when free market economies were spreading like wildfire across Central Europe, East Asia and Latin America. Globalization, with its promise of opportunities and threats of a widening poverty gap, was developing unchecked.
His idea was that business could be part of the solution to social and economic divisions and threats of unsustainable development. But it must commit to principles of social responsibility and being a partner in development. This provided an opportunity to share ideas on how business leaders could work together to develop systematic programs, applying their business skills to the planning, design and implementation of practical initiatives to create jobs.
Training programs could be designed using business expertise to give school and university leavers better skills, motivation and essential disciplines for work in the private sector. Youngsters could be encouraged to develop business ideas, then get small loans and have access to mentors to start their own enterprises. Incubators could be created as a “beehive” for new enterprises.
Women could be encouraged to develop business ideas particularly in areas of fashion, personal service and home products. Not all young people are suited to setting up businesses, and some have a chronic lack of confidence and self-esteem. We found that voluntary community service was a valuable option to get young people active — whether in environmental clean-up, personal service with children, physically disabled, sick and elderly.
This could be a first step to greater motivation for employment. In many cases, sports activities could be supported by companies to encourage a sense of teamwork, leadership, good health and confidence building. At the heart of everything was a sense that motivation for employment and engagement in society comes from a sense of worth and pride in self, family, community and country.
The opposite is a recipe for alienation, conflict and long-term loss of value. There may be lessons in this experience for the Gulf and Middle East. With the encouragement of the Prince of Wales, his IBLF has been working in several countries in the region over the past five years to share ideas for new initiatives in enterprise and training. The crescent from North Africa, across the Middle East to Iran has a youthful population, with 60 percent under 24 years old. According to the World Bank, of 300 million people in the MENA region, some 20 percent of the active population are unemployed. So in this region alone, 100 million jobs have to be created in the next 20 years. Of this, 80 million jobs will be needed for the new entrants on the job market, and 20 million to reduce the present levels of unemployment. This challenge will require a scaling up of many of the ideas and solutions tried elsewhere. We believe that partnerships with the private sector, inspired by business leaders with vision and commitment to work together for community and country, will play a decisive part.
IBLF now has the support of some prominent Arab business leaders and key international investors in the region, and is committed to assist. Globalization has upsides and downsides, and no country can shield itself from competition these days. But equally, it means that all in the region and internationally share an interest in the stability and success of others in our shrinking world.
Learning from experience of job creation, training and community service could be a significant contributor to change and progress in the region.
(Robert Davies is the founder CEO of The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and leads its activities on over 50 countries.)