Indicator 8.b.1 Existence of a developed and operationalized national strategy for youth employment, as a distinct strategy or as part of a national employment strategy

Indicator 8.b.1: Existence of a developed and operationalized national strategy for youth employment, as a distinct strategy or as part of a national employment strategy

Target 8.b: By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization

International Labour Organization (ILO)

The proposed methodology draws on:

1. Global policy instruments, notably:

• Resolution on The youth employment crisis: A call for action^[1], adopted at the 101^st session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2012. In calling for vigorous, collective action to address an aggravated youth employment crisis, this resolution advocates for a multi-pronged approach with policy measures that are context-specific and integrated, entailing strategies which bring together in a coherent manner a variety of instruments to increase the demand, enhance the supply and improve matching in youth labour markets.
• Recovering from the crisis: A Global Jobs Pact^[2] adopted by the ILC at its June 2009 session. Based on the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda, the Global Jobs Pact presents an integrated portfolio of policies that puts employment and social protection at the centre of crisis response, recognising the critical role of participation and social dialogue.

1. ILO databases:

• International monitoring of youth employment policies was carried out over the period 2010-2012 by the Youth Employment Network (YEN) – a partnership between the ILO, United Nations and World Bank – utilising a questionnaire sent to national authorities. This evolved into YouthPOL^[3], an inventory of youth employment policies and programmes maintained by the ILO (65 countries covered to date).
• The ILO also maintains EmPol, a dataset of broader national employment policies (143 countries covered).

Categorical variable with values possible values of 0, 1, 2 or 3.

1. Global survey for data collection: Requesting responsible national entities to provide relevant information and support documents; a survey questionnaire is developed and administered by the ILO with biennial frequency to assess progress.This will be complemented by regular information and updates from ILO country offices on development, adoption and implementation of youth employment policies in countries covered by these offices, every year.

1. Data compilation: by the ILO; disseminated through ILOSTAT, a new repository dedicated to Indicator 8.b.1 and the active use of YouthPOL, EmPol and other databases (e.g. NATLEX – the ILO database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation), as appropriate.

1. Data validation: Regular quality checks are conducted on all data, in particular when: (i) an already available document has not been directly provided by the government itself; (ii) it is unclear if the strategy and related action plan have been officially adopted; or (iii) there are doubts regarding the implementation of the strategy.

National entities (ministries or other government agencies) responsible for development, employment and youth policies. The ILO maintains a roster of national actors involved in the monitoring process.

Governments may have de facto national strategies for youth employment, but lack an officially adopted de jure document. For SDG 8.b.1 monitoring purposes only what emerges from de jure documents is considered.

The information and documents provided by national authorities will be analysed by the ILO to classify countries according to this grid:

In all cases, the grid refers to a national strategy for youth employment as a distinct strategy or as part of a national employment strategy.

Missing values (i.e. no response/unknown) are noted as such. They are omitted from the final global and regional breakdown: proportions are only calculated on the basis of received responses. However, the global and regional response rates will be indicated.

The possible development of metadata notes complementing the grid is being considered. Among other aspects, these notes may refer to the measures and provisions in place, and would also consider the involvement of national constituents in the development and operationalization of the strategies.

The ILO may also envisage to conduct a more detailed analysis of selected country documents for purposes which go beyond the scope of SDG monitoring, in order to gather insights on institutional and operational matters in national efforts for youth employment.

The following steps are followed in developing the indicator methodology:

1. Examination of relevant policy instruments, including the above-mentioned Call for action and Global Jobs Pact. Adopted by ILO tripartite constituents, these documents provide a sound framework for defining SDG indicator 8.b.1.
2. Review of ILO databases on employment and youth employment policies (EmPOL and YouthPOL), maintained by the Employment Policy Department.
3. A methodology for defining, measuring and validating this indicator (the present document).
4. A survey instrument (questionnaire) to collect national-level information on youth employment policies from national entities. The information is used to determine if countries have developed and operationalized a national strategy for youth employment as a stand-alone strategy or as part of a national employment or sectoral strategy, in line with the above-mentioned ILC resolutions.
5. Technical guidelines for data providers and compilers, along with the above-mentioned questionnaire and detailed notes.

Consultations with pertinent ministries and social partners’ representatives are held throughout the process.

2023-12-15

International Labour Organization (ILO)

8.5.2; 8.6.1; 8.7.1

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