MAPPING OF YOUTH EMPLOYMENT INTERVENTIONS IN CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES: ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA BARBADOS BELIZE DOMINICA GRENADA GUYANA JAMAICA ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES TRINIDAD & TOBAGO May 2018 Warning: this document is a draft. Notwithstanding the substantive amount of work and research carried out for its completion, it may still contain omissions or errors. It is made available solely for the purpose of verification and correction or further research from third parties. The ILO declines all responsibility for any errors or omissions which this document may contain, or for any use which may be made of it by third parties. 1 Preface The Mapping of youth employment intervention was prepared by Nadimah Mohammed, Independent Consultant during the fourth quarter of 2017 hinging, amongst others, on background work carried out by Marcia Rampersad, Independent consultant, during the same period of 2016. A network of country focal points attached to the respective Governments contributed relevant information and reviewed the final product. ILO wishes to thank them for their valuable contributions and the time devoted to this activity. The present report is intended to be a draft for research, made available to interested stakeholders and policy makers, to enhance youth employment related policies and programmes. The composition of the report was supervised by Diego Rei, Employment and Labour Market Specialist with the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean. Additionally, ILO Caribbean colleagues Ariel Pino, Social Protection Specialist and Hassan Ndahi, Skills and Employability Specialist) made punctual inputs to the report. Given the changing nature of programmes discussed, while the ILO Office for the Caribbean takes no responsibility for any errors or omissions in, or for the correctness of, the information contained in papers and articles, should interested parties be willing to rectify any of the content herein they can contact the ILO Office for the Caribbean at: [email protected]. The responsibility for opinions expressed in the report rests solely with the author, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Organization of the opinions expressed in them. 2 Contents Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... 4 GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................................................... 14 LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................................... 16 LIST OF ACRONYMS .............................................................................................................................. 20 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................... 24 I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 25 1.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 25 1.2 Focus of the research and analysis .............................................................................................. 25 1.3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 26 1.4 Data Collection ........................................................................................................................... 26 II. THE REGIONAL PICTURE: MAPPING AND ANALYSIS ........................................................... 28 III. COUNTRY PROFILES .................................................................................................................. 45 ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA ................................................................................................................ 45 BARBADOS ........................................................................................................................................... 72 BELIZE ................................................................................................................................................... 96 DOMINICA .......................................................................................................................................... 115 GRENADA ........................................................................................................................................... 135 GUYANA ............................................................................................................................................. 161 JAMAICA ............................................................................................................................................. 187 ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES ......................................................................................... 215 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO ................................................................................................................ 234 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 263 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research project was designed to provide the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and national and international stakeholders with a detailed mapping and analysis of ongoing youth employment interventions in the following Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago; along with a preliminary evaluation of the gaps encountered. It is anticipated that the information would be instrumental in the design of future development cooperation interventions in the context of the UN Multi-country Sustainable Development Framework 2017-21 in the Caribbean region. METHODOLOGY Data for this study was collected by desk review including review of international and government publications, and online resources such as official ministry and news websites, and by collaboration with stakeholders in relevant government and non-governmental agencies who provided details on the interventions. Interventions facilitating the school-to-work transition, providing job opportunities, promoting youth entrepreneurship, facilitating the reintegration of youth from vulnerable backgrounds, and those intended to promote intra-regional migration, specifically via the Caribbean Vocational Qualification were mapped. Under each intervention identified, details of structure, target, geographic availability, funding, rationale, and number of beneficiaries are mapped in as much as possible and where applicable. The analysis based on this mapping sought to highlight the main gaps identified, in terms of policies, programmes and their implementation. This included consideration of coverage and completeness in terms of the number of programmes and initiatives offered, the areas covered and the number of beneficiaries; considerations regarding implementation challenges; and considerations about inclusion and/or attention to decent work deficits. Preliminary recommendations were made for the region and each country based on this analysis. It should be noted that this analysis is a preliminary attempt to connect the dots and evaluate the results of this mapping, incorporating whatever prior evaluations, studies and relevant government documents exist to go one step further in our understanding of the youth employment intervention environments in the region. Given the limits of the information available, this therefore represents a foundation step for deeper analysis in future projects. YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND THE CARIBBEAN The global youth unemployment rate is estimated at 13.1 per cent, according to the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2017, – and it is highest in the Arab States, at 30 per cent. In light of those figures and the trend over the past twenty years, governments have long pinpointed the issue as one of the key challenges for development. ILO Member states agreed on two global policy instruments adopted by 4 the International Labour Conference, namely: The 2005 Resolution and conclusions concerning youth employment , adopted by the 93rd session of the ILC (2005); and The Resolution and conclusions concerning the youth employment crisis: A call for action, adopted by the 101st session of the ILC (2012). Both resolutions acknowledge that the youth employment challenge is closely related to the more general, qualitative and quantitative employment situation in a country, and has to be addressed in a systemic way, including macro and micro level interventions and avoiding fragmentation. In line with the global situation, providing decent employment for youth continues to be a major challenge for the Caribbean region with high youth unemployment rates observed for eight of the nine countries in this study and with limited prospects for drastically improved economic performance in the near future. Policy makers recognized that a host of obstacles to this goal exist including huge gaps between young men and women and