Promoting Youth Employment Through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Prepared for ILO/Japan Tripartite Regional Meeting on Youth Employment in Asia and the Pacific

Bangkok, 27 February - 1 March 2002

[This is a working paper written to serve as a basis for discussion at the ILO/Japan Tripartite Regional Meeting on Youth Employment in Asia and the Pacific. The views and opinions expressd in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Organization. The paper has not been edited and should not be cited or distributed without consent from the author(s) and the ILO. Please send comments and suggestions to ILO BAO/EASMAT at teerasak@ilo.org]

Executive Summary

The focus of this paper is on best practice examples from mainly Asia-Pacific ILO member countries of the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to generate youth employment. The initiatives are presented against a background that acknowledges the differences in the technological and socio-economic capacity between countries.

Examples of ICT-related employment opportunities for young people are used to illustrate the following best practice principles: promoting youth entrepreneurship; promoting public-private partnerships; targeting vulnerable groups of young people; and bridging the gap between the digital economy and the informal sector and putting young people in charge.

The third part of the paper discusses, in more general terms, some common misconceptions about the use of ICT in developing countries, the potential gains ICT offers in relation to youth employment and society more widely, and the obstacles developing countries in particular face in trying to realise these benefits.

The best practice initiatives confirm that several constraints to access, which apply in high-income countries, are much less important in the different social context of developing countries. The best practice examples cited show that ICT access does not require personal ownership of a computer; nor does it require the use of expensive computers. The initiatives also show the potential that the widespread use of mobile phones offer for young people both as an income generator in its own right and as an alternative to fixed line telephones to gain easier access to the Internet. Some best practice examples show that other infrastructure constraints such as electricity supply can also be addressed. Evidence is also presented to show that the use of the Internet is not limited to the literate or to English users.

The final part of the paper offers fourteen recommendations aimed at promoting ICT-related opportunities for young people. The digital divide is real and best practice examples of ICT-generated employment for young people are not necessarily easy to repeat elsewhere. This paper seeks to balance optimism about ICT's potential with an awareness of the constraints that obviously exist for many countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

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