Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum Hosts UN Secretary-General Envoy for Youth

AMMAN ------ April 17, 2014 ------ Under the patronage of HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, president of the Economic Policy Development Forum held a discussion session with HE Mr. Ahmad Al-Hindawi, the UN Secretary-General Envoy for Youth at Talal Abu – Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum.

The session, headed by Forum member Mr. Fadi Al Dawood was enriched with extensive interactions and participations mostly by youths representing university and school students, representatives of UN agencies and international organizations, a host of Senators and Parliament Representatives, as well as Ambassadors, including the Ambassadors of Great Britain, Canada, and Brazil, in addition to representatives of diplomatic bodies and the members of the Economic Policy Development Forum.

Mr. Al-Hindawi expressed his appreciation to Dr. Abu- Ghazaleh as the Forum provided this opportunity to meet with the youth, "In the United Nations, there is no clear definition to the age of youth. There are various definitions but the symbolism of youth is a series of tests that should be passed. It includes education, seeking employment, having family, being independent, then take part in the political and civilian participation."

He addressed in details what the youth face in each of these stages. He added that there is a disparity in the education quality between the countries of the region pointing out the difficulty to pursue the higher education and the clear imbalances in justice and the distribution of the learning opportunities, in addition to the lack of alignment between the education outputs and the needs of the labor market.

Mr. Al-Hindawi explained that the business sector is developing faster than the education institutions and there is a critical challenge in the labor market at the global level by having 75 million unemployed persons, and the world must create 600 million employment opportunity over the next fifteen years.

Mr. Al-Hindawi explained the UN vision saying that the UN Secretary-General places youths at the top of his  priorities

The lecturer proposed a number of solutions as seen by the United Nations in terms of supporting the micro pioneer projects, training, qualification, participation, and investment in youth and human resources where he said that the states must consider these issues since they are not aids or gifts, but their results bring about significant outcomes as the case of the Asian tigers, adding that this world is "Young" and half of its population are under 25 years old, with one billion and eight hundred million between 10-24 years old.

Mr. Al-Hindawi reiterated the UN commitment to support youths saying that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonstressed the concept of working with the youth rather than working for them to achieve the desired total development.

HE Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his overjoyed happiness, as one of the figures who served the United Nations and assumed many tasks and positions, to have the UN for Youth represented by a 28 years old youth from our beloved country Jordan, a position created for the first time. 

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh indicated that the taskforce of "A Vision for Jordans Desired Future in 2022" (the Kingdom 100^th anniversary), guided by the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II in his message to the Government, will include the UN Program for Partnership with Youth in the issue paper research papers which the team will adopt in the preparation of the plan to be submitted to His Majesty.

He said that the session is of a significant importance as it provided the youth with the opportunity to discuss and tackle their reality, future and ambition. There are youth from universities and schools and all of them showed maturation and interaction with the presented topics and the message of the UN Secretary-General to work with youth in shaping the future.