Poverty Eradication and Youth Unemployment Top the Agenda at United Nations Commission for Social Development (UNCSD)

The Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) have been invited to attend the 50th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (UNCSD) which launched February 1st at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The ten-day Commission will focus on one of the greatest challenges to global stability, namely, poverty and the chronic unemployment and social exclusion of
many of the world’s young people. UN figures indicate that youth are about three times more likely than adults to be unemployed, and about 75 million presently find themselves unemployed or with few prospects in the informal job market.

As President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Milos Koterec noted, “with almost one in four young workers unemployed in developed countries and the majority of young people from developing countries working
in the informal economy, the world is experiencing a youth unemployment crisis, which further propagates social instability.”

Broader poverty eradication and development policies will be addressed by the Commission, which will work through a series of panels and discussions on how to most effectively shape policy and enact change, taking into account additional factors such as climate change and the global recession.

This year’s
spotlight on young people in the midst of these universal economic and social hardships is an appropriate reflection of the past year’s revolutionary events, in which young people played an integral role as catalysts for much-needed social and political change. “The youth will play a central role in the various social movements calling for democracy, equal opportunities and better employment,” emphasized Koterec.

In addition to being a
platform for UN agencies and partners to debate and integrate strategies, the Commission is also widely seen as a springboard to build political momentum for the upcoming UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) in June. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro stressed that participants need to seize the opportunity to build consensus during the session in order to make an impact on the Rio+20 debate, which will likewise concern poverty reduction, inequality and access to
resources.

http://social.un.org/index/