Lesotho is including Youth into Social Structures

21 December, 2010

As part of the ‘Youth Employment towards Poverty Reduction’ project, the Government of Lesotho through Ministry of Employent and Labour and Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation and supported by UNDP and ILO, is working to include young people into the social dialogue in Lesotho.

This programme supports UNDPs work on poverty reduction and the need for including youth originates from the recognized skills mismatch at the job market and diminishing job opportunities in the country, which have resulted into high unemployment among youth and high brain drain.

The aim is to include youth issues in the structures and to strengthen interaction and dialogue among government, training institutes, employers’ organisations, trade unions and civil society organizations to improve effectiveness, relevance and efficiency of the skills development programmes.

In 2010, two workshops were held to bring the Government, Labour Unions, Employers’ Unions and the Youth Organisations together to discuss the situation and plan for improving the system

The first workshop for stakeholders on social dialogue was organized in May. It was attended by stakeholders from employers and workers organizations, civil society and youth organizations and relevant Government Institutions. Recommendations made included engaging a specialist to assist in restructuring social dialogue structures in Lesotho to become more accommodating of non-traditional social partners, such as youth.

Based on the recommendations a consultant was engaged on studying the structures and making future recommendations on improving the system. A review workshop was organised on 16 December 2010 to include stakeholders comments. The final report will be finalized soon and the project will start supporting the recommendations as well as building the national capacity to solve issues of youth unemployment through social dialogue.