In Egypt, government work accounts for 70% of nonagricultural jobs. In Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, government jobs are almost one-third of all employment. In many countries, the government is the one of the largest employers. Education and training programs don’t always line up with the jobs that are available. Other rules discriminate against young women seeking work. In many Middle Eastern nations, regulations and laws about hiring and firing workers discourage employers from creating new jobs when times are good, for fear they’ll have to keep those people employed when times get worse again. Local and international governments and organizations have tried for years to create more opportunities for young people, but with little success. ![]() The struggle of high youth unemployment in the region is not a new challenge. Haidar Mohammed Ali/AFP via Getty Images Economic struggles Karrar Alaa, a 20-something Iraqi, could not find work, so he started his own small traveling coffee business in Basra. This number is almost twice as many jobs as are currently in the U.S. The World Bank estimates that to provide employment for those currently out of a job and those who will soon be seeking work, Middle Eastern and North African nations need to create more than 300 million new jobs by 2050. Thirteen countries in the region have a youth unemployment rate of at least 20%, with the rate above 50% in Libya, above 40% in Jordan and Palestine, and above 30% in Algeria and Tunisia. The region’s young workers – those from ages 15 to 24 – already struggle with the highest unemployment rates in the world, averaging 25%. Its people now number over 450 million, up from 300 million in 2001. ![]() In addition, the region’s population is growing at a much faster rate than the global average – and has been since the World Bank began keeping records in 1961. It is a field mission of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and has offices in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Gaza.Since the pro-democracy protests and uprisings of the Arab Spring in 2010, the region has experienced some sort of significant conflict in eight of its 21 countries: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. UNSCO is also responsible for coordinating the activities of more than twenty UN agencies, funds and programmes on humanitarian and development assistance to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people. The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ( UNSCO), was established in June 1994 following the signing of the Oslo Accords. The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General's Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority is the focal point on the ground for UN support in all political and diplomatic efforts related to the peace process – including as UN Envoy to the Middle East Quartet. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Senior officials of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, particularly the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, provide regular briefings to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East and the state of the peace process. The Secretary-General also works to ensure close cooperation in international peacemaking efforts with the League of Arab States and the broader international community.ĭPPA also assists the Secretary-General’s crisis management activities, which include his direct involvement in efforts to prevent the recurrence of violence. In addition to making his own diplomatic “good offices” available to the parties, the Secretary-General is a principal member of the Middle East Quartet (composed of the United States, the Russian Federation, the European Union, and the United Nations), a key mechanism established in 2003 to coordinate the international community's support to the peace process. ![]() ![]() The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) supports UN peacemaking efforts in various ways, including by advising and assisting the Secretary-General in his Middle East diplomacy and by overseeing UN political activities based in the region aimed at furthering peace efforts, preventing an escalation of the conflict, coordinating humanitarian aid and development assistance, and supporting Palestinian state-building efforts. Support to the Secretary-General’s Peacemaking Efforts The United Nations cooperates with regional and international partners in efforts to defuse tensions, encourage improvements on the ground, and advance political negotiations toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East based on all relevant Security Council resolutions, as well as the Madrid principles and Quartet Road Map.
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