On 23-25 May 2012, the ILO Geneva hosted a Global Youth Employment Forum to address the challenges young people face in the labour market. The ILO Programme on HIV/AIDS and the world of work (ILO/AIDS) organized two market place sessions in the Youth Employment Forum, with participation of the ITUC representatives: 1) Youth employment strategies: Listen to 5 million young voices living with HIV, 24 May 2012, 11:35-11:55, circle 5, Espace Gobelins, R2 South, ILO. 2) HIV and AIDS: What do you need to know as a young person? 24 May 2012, 12.05-12.25, circle 5, Espace Gobelins, R2 South, ILO.
“I almost got my dream job of being a flight attendant, but after they found out that I am HIV positive, I lost the opportunity. My dreams got shattered. Finding a job for a young person like me, who is living with HIV, is so difficult.” - Mohamad Arief, Indonesian, 22 years old. Arief is one of 5 million young people living with HIV today.
Young people constitute around 40% of the global unemployment and around 40% of global new HIV infections.
The ILO Youth Employment market place sessions provided an opportunity for participants to discuss HIV/AIDS, youth and employment and to enrich perspectives of the ILO Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work (ILO/AIDS), the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The sessions highlighted the obstacles young people living with HIV face in finding jobs and continuing employment. ITUC was represented by Ms. Rhoda Boateng, ITUC Africa Youth Coordinator.
UNAIDS interactive web platform CrowdOutAIDS (www.crowdoutaids.org) was used as a case study to show how youth participation can be used in policy development. Participants were also informed about discussions on HIV and youth unemployment emanating from the portal.
More information is available here: http://www.ilo.org/aids/Eventsandmeetings/WCMS_179818/lang--en/index.htm
