The region faces high youth unemployment rates, with a significant disparity between young men and women. In response, the Regional Offices of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have proposed to convene the second regional high-level meeting on young people’s learning, skilling, and transition to decent work to address bottlenecks affecting young people’s transition from learning to earning, with a specific focus on digital and green skills/jobs – and particular attention to the challenges facing girls and young women. The meeting aims to enable an exchange of promising practices, promote policy and regulatory frameworks, and support implementation to facilitate young people’s transition to decent work. It will also focus on enabling young people to contribute to solutions and accelerating public-private sector collaboration, with particular emphasis on the equal access and full inclusion of girls and women.

Agenda 

Day 1

09:30-10:00 | Plenary: Official opening and High-level UN panel (JOIN THE SESSION)

Objectives: Setting the Stage of the High-Level Meeting

11.20-12.20 | Youth-led plenary: Young people's session (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• Facilitate an inclusive dialogue led by young people, aiming to share their firsthand experiences, challenges encountered, and future opportunities envisioned. This dialogue will serve to inform and guide subsequent thematic discussions, drawing on insights gleaned from previous preparation and discussions conducted by young people to feed the HLM 2024 Agenda.
• Empower young people to take the lead in the dialogue, providing them with a supportive environment to freely express their perspectives, ideas, and recommendations to national delegations. This objective aims to cultivate a culture of active participation and engagement among young people in the high-level meeting and subsequent discussions with their national representatives, thereby fostering a more inclusive and responsive decision-making process.
• Inspire and engage the audience by showcasing personal experiences, creativity, and innovative solutions proposed by young people. By highlighting the contributions of young change-makers, this objective seeks to underscore the critical role that youth play in shaping the future of the region and galvanize support for their endeavors to build a prosperous tomorrow.

13.30-15.00 | Parallel Thematic session: 1.1. Investing in bridging the gap through second chance education for out-of-school children and NEET (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session objectives:

• Create a space to showcase successful second chance education solutions in the Arab region, outlining the unique needs for girls and boys.
• Foster a tripartite policy dialogue among government bodies, programmes beneficiaries, and the private sector to promote learning and training and inclusion of out-of-school children and NEETs. The dialogue also aims to contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of second chance education programmes by addressing the specific needs of girls and boys.
• Advocate for international collaboration to explore funding opportunities and develop effective strategies and policies aimed at reducing the number of out-of-school children and NEETs. Collaborations should focus on reintegrating these children into the education or vocational system and supporting their transition to the labour market.
• Stimulate the discussions around partnership with the private sector to unleash the potential for a better transition from second chance education to vocational training and earning, especially in new promising areas like green and digital jobs.

13.30-15.00 | Parallel Thematic session: 1.2. Fostering pathways to formality including through digitalization and just transition (JOIN THE SEESION)

Session Objectives:

• Explore the drivers and characteristics of informality and its implications on the labour market and economy as a whole in the Arab region.
• Discuss potential informality risks associated with the digital and green transitions.
• Identify and explore policy interventions to facilitate the transition of young men and women workers, as well as businesses, to formality. 

15:30-17:00 | Parallel Thematic session: 2.1. Digitalization and the artificial intelligence (AI) economy: Opportunities and risks for youth and women (JOIN THE SEESION)

Session Objectives:

• Identify key region-specific challenges facing youth and women in the digital and AI economy as well as macroeconomic and infrastructure challenges that hinder digitalization.
• Highlight potential opportunities, including the platform economy, and strengths that the region’s workers and enterprises may already possess or can easily acquire.
• Share information on successful policies and programmes from the region and beyond that have maximized gains or mitigated losses.
• Derive insights on essential policy and programmatic interventions to empower workers and enterprises including technical, financial and institutional support. Also, include a brief discussion on social protection as it pertains to new types of jobs.

15:30-17:00 | Parallel Thematic session: 2.2. Digital learning and skilling pathways for the most vulnerable young people (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• Explore how digital technologies can provide inclusive and relevant learning and skilling pathways for the most vulnerable young people in the Arab region.
• Focus on ‘what works’, and what needs to be done to replicate/adapt and scale up.
• Present real-life scenarios focusing on young people’s experiences: challenges faced in accessing learning and skilling opportunities, what worked well, and how to move forward at scale focusing on the most vulnerable learners.
• Present country initiatives (public and private) that succeeded in improving access and quality of digital learning and skilling, in particular learning for young people (ages 14 to 18) especially girls, people with disabilities, and learners affected by conflict and the climate crisis.
• Deliberate on policy development and implementation to improve access to learning via digital technologies, including the roles of different stakeholders (present examples of policies in the region).

Day 2 

9:15- 10:45 | Plenary: The Power of Partnerships (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• Profile specific partnerships between government, private sector, youth-serving organizations, international finance institutions, youth and UN which are delivering results at scale.
• Enable UN partners from governments, private sector, youth-serving organizations, international finance institutions, and youth to advocate for broader stakeholder engagement.
• Inspire partnership action amongst both in-person and virtual delegates. 

11:00-12:30 | Parallel Thematic session: 3.1. Empowering Youth for a Green Transition- Innovative Green Skills Development and Capacity Building for a transition to earning (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• To facilitate the exchange of specific practices, policies and measures aimed at supporting young people for a just transition through greening of TVET and skills development;
• Outline the key skills for a just transition differentiating and exemplifying green technical skills as well as core skills and entrepreneurship skills
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• To advocate for partnerships and collaboration among governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations through social dialogue, with the overarching goal of ensuring that skills development initiatives are effectively tailored to shape a future that is both equitable and environmentally sustainable; and
• To provide a platform for youth to contribute their insights and solutions to the challenges they encounter in accessing green jobs, encouraging their active involvement in decision-making processes.
• To identify key actions needed in skills development for a just transition that take into account youth led organizations

11:00-12:30 | Parallel Thematic session: 3.2. Inclusive futures: Paving the way for gender-responsive just transition (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• This session will explore how to create an enabling environment for a green transition that is socially just, gender equitable, and leaves no one behind.
• To summarize the key findings and latest research regarding green jobs potential for youth, address gender inequalities, generational barriers, and social justice issues of the green transition, and share possible solutions and ways forward.
• To share lessons learned and experiences from various countries in terms of just transition policies, programs, and initiatives which help advance a gender-responsive just transition.
• To explore the gender dimensions of the just transition process, identifying strategies to avoid reproducing existing barriers and challenges and highlighting the potential of this transition to challenge and disrupt gender stereotypes.
• To highlight the critical links between climate change, its impact on women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and bodily autonomy, and access to skills and employment for a just transition.
• To address key challenges and opportunities related to private sector engagement, including the role of start-ups and SMEs, in the green transition, and better understand the role of the business environment and how it can facilitate a just transition.
• To learn from examples of youth and girls’ involvement in green transition processes, such as stakeholder dialogues, and showcase innovative youth- and women-led initiatives, such as social enterprises, start-ups, or grassroots organizations.
• To highlight the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships in advancing a gender-responsive just transition.

13.30-14.30 | Youth-led plenary: Young people's session (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• Reflection on young people’s personal experiences (opportunities and challenges) in relation to the topics of the high-level meeting and asks that will shape the agenda of the following sessions.
• Introduction to the recommendations and how they can be implemented (recommendations from the youth to the audience to support in the process of transition from recommendation to commitment)

14:30-15:30 | Community session: Youth leadership in action: Partnering with forcibly displaced young people (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives

This session will use an interactive role play and an informal talk show format to facilitate dialogue on Youth Leadership in Action - how engagement and meaningful participation can support forcibly displaced young people’s transition from learning to decent work in the MENA Region. Young people will share their experiences of overcoming challenges and good practices related to their supporting young people to engage, develop skills, access decent work, and become self-reliant.

In doing so, it will aim at the following objectives:

• Reflect on challenges identified in 2022 related to social protection, restrictions and regulations related to getting decent work, and national commitments to address them.
• Hear from forcibly displaced young leaders about overcoming challenges and good practices in terms of supporting the transition from learning to earning.
• Hear from other stakeholders on commitments made and what more could/should be done to enable forcibly displaced young people to access digital skills, green skills, and self-reliance.
• Share a call to action to contribute to the MENA HLM outcome document and the Summit of the Future (Sept 2024).

14:30-15:30 | Community session: Safe digital space (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• Raise awareness about the prevalence and impact of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TF-GBV) on women and girls in the Arab region.
• Showcase good practices for addressing TF-GBV.
• Discuss multi-stakeholder approaches to address TF-GBV, including the roles of government, the private sector, youth, and civil society organizations.
• Provide actionable recommendations to prevent and address TF-GBV.

14:30-15:30 | Community session: Women's entrepreneurship in twin green and digital transition (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session Objectives:

• To examine the factors behind the low share of women among entrepreneurs in the Arab region and to develop strategic initiatives to boost female entrepreneurship.
• Analyze the cultural, social, and economic barriers that contribute to the low presence of women-led businesses in green and digital sectors.
• Showcase experiences of women-led businesses to share success stories, best practices, journeys, challenges, and achievements in the green and digital sectors.
• Create opportunities for networking among participants, including women entrepreneurs, youth, policymakers, investors, and support organizations, and encourage collaboration and partnerships to strengthen the ecosystem supporting women-led enterprises in green and digital transitions.

14:30-16:00 | High-Level round table: Closed door session

Session Objectives:

• Discuss ways forward to implement the national commitments and, more broadly, to advance the learning to earning agenda at country level​;
• Discuss and reaffirm the different stakeholders support on this agenda and on the implementation of the national commitments; ​
• Discuss enhanced effective and coordinated modalities for monitoring and evaluation at both national and regional levels.

16:00 - 17:00 | Plenary: Closing session (JOIN THE SESSION)

Session objectives:

• To take stock of, and celebrate the main outcomes of HLM24;
• To share an overview of the reviewed National Commitments by emphasizing outstanding commonalities/priorities for the Arab/MENA region, as well as outstanding initiatives;
• To summarize the key insights and takeaways from the thematic sessions on facilitating a seamless transition from learning to earning;
• To share concluding remarks on behalf of the host country and the organizers.