ILO and UNICEF joint initiative supports youth in Iraq to promote green jobs

EIIP links infrastructure development with employment creation, poverty reduction and local economic and social development.

Youth from forcibly displaced and host communities in Iraq will be trained to support and monitor green jobs initiatives, that aim to restore and protect their local environment.

Supported by the Government of the Netherlands under PROSPECTS, the initiative is part of an on-going collaboration between the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to help youth  in their transition from training to decent employment.

Under the unique collaboration, young women and men who have completed UNICEF-supported life skills and entrepreneurship training programme, are being referred to ILO’s employment-intensive investment programme (EIIP) interventions in Dohuk for further training and capacity building to further their employability skills.

EIIP links infrastructure development with employment creation, poverty reduction and local economic and social development. It uses local labour and resources to create much needed employment and income and increase the capacity of local institutions. In Iraq, EIIP interventions under PROSPECTS focus on infrastructure improvement and Green Works, which aim to improve water irrigation systems on farms, promote sustainable waste management and promote forest restoration.

“One of the greatest opportunities in Iraq is to invest in future changemakers – young people. They have the potential to contribute to peace and stability and to expand economic opportunities. Our ongoing partnership with the ILO contributes to boosting social inclusion of young people, benefitting entire communities” said Mads Sorensen, Chief Adolescent Development and Participation for UNICEF Iraq.

“Building on UNICEF’s life skills training, the ILO will engage the young engineers from Duhok Governorate at its EIIP interventions, which will allow them to learn these labour-based approaches and skills at the workplace that will support their transition to decent employment,” said Shaza Al Jondi, Chief Technical Advisor for ILO PROSPECTS for Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

The youth, many of whom come from engineering backgrounds, will be given theoretical and on-the-job training in project management, Occupational Safety and Health, Decent Work principles, and specialised technical training in EIIP related to water irrigation, waste management and forest restoration.

Following the completion of the training, some of the youth will have the opportunity to become team leaders in specific EIIP interventions, providing technical support to new partners and organizations to help mainstream Employment Intensive Approaches into planned infrastructural improvement.

The collaboration between the two agencies is being carried out under the partnership for improving prospects for forcibly displaced persons and host communities (PROSPECTS), a four-year global partnership between the Netherlands, the ILO, UNICEF, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Bank. PROSPECTS operates in eight countries across the East and the Horn of Africa and the Middle East to support education, employment and protection in the context of forced displacement.