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Join us for a World Refugee Day webinar hosted by No Lost Generation initiative (NLG) and NetHope's NLG Tech Task Force. This webinar will mark World Refugee Day by engaging the NLG community, including NGOs and private sector companies, in a conversation about the work of NLG, challenges that refugee youth face, and opportunities for the broader community to work together to address them. Webinar will include:
Background
The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. Close to 12 million people have been displaced by six years of war in Syria, including 4.81 million who fled to neighboring countries.
No Lost Generation (NLG) is an initiative launched in 2013 to ensure the wellbeing, education, and future of children and youth affected by the Syria and Iraq crises. It is an interagency effort co-led by UNICEF, World Vision International, Save the Children, and Mercy Corps, with 30+ UN and NGO partners. It combines collective programming on the ground with an evolving advocacy agenda, responsive to the changing context and the priorities of children and youth. It covers Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt. No Lost Generation focuses on three pillars essential to the response: Education, Child Protection, and Adolescents and Youth. In March 2017, NLG initiative and NetHope, a tech consortium of 50-plus global NGOs, set up the NLG Tech Task Force to facilitate collaboration within the international development community and between the NGO and private sector with the focus on ICT-enabled programs for refugee children and youth.
Featured Topic: Refugee Youth & Adolescents
Currently, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has one of the highest proportional youth populations in the world. According to the United Nations (UN), over half of the region's population is under the age of 25, with roughly one-fifth between the ages of 15 and 24. This demographic growth, or youth bulge, represents an enormous supply of human capital with the potential to drive economic growth. Unfortunately, despite high average levels of educational achievement, MENA also has one of the largest regional rates of youth unemployment.
Syrian refugee youth, and their counterparts in host communities, face severe barriers in making a successful transition to productive adulthood. Political instability, conflict and division based on sectarian affiliation, the exclusion of minorities, and heightened competition for (low-paid) jobs and services have eroded human rights in host countries and increased tensions. Youth find that they are not recogniZed as democratic actors and thus have limited opportunities to contribute to and improve their communities.
To support career advancement, research reveals that refugee youth also desire access to high-quality tertiary education and skills-building opportunities (including work experience) that will translate into employment. In the countries surrounding Syria, 70 to 90 percent of refugee youth are out of school. For these displaced youth, who often struggle with access, documentation, and school fees at formal institutions, accredited non-formal education opportunities are also a priority. Course topics frequently requested include information technology, vocational training and instruction in English or other languages. This demand for language courses, particularly English, is high among both displaced and host community youth, as they believe it will be crucial to their success in the workforce.
| Presenters: |
| Katy Barnett, No Lost Generation Advisor, UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa |
| Mark Chapple, Head of No Lost Generation, World Vision Regional Syria Response |
| Veera Mendonca, Regional Advisor, Adolescent Development and HIV/AIDS, UNICEF
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| Host: |
| Leila Toplic, NLG Tech Task Force
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Yasmin Al Assi, a young entrepreneur from Deir Ez-Zor living in Damascus. Her project focuses on providing education to children who are out of school due to the war. Lessons in Arabic, English, and Math will be given through an interactive curriculum.
Batool Zahra, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee from Homs living in Jordan: Participatory Action Research is an approach to build capacities of the most marginalized young people to conduct research, act on the findings, and engage in UNICEF and partner supported programs. 121 young researchers in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria conducted research with 985 peers.
George Khowry, 24 years old, engineer. His project is to establish a car maintenance and training center for newly graduated engineers.
