Youth Policy Council under President of Kazakhstan to deal with unemployment
"I hope that, further on, the Council's efforts will focus on generating proposals for tackling the youth problems. This refers to combating youth unemployment, reducing the proportion of marginalized youth, eradicating consumerism, decreasing the risk of radicalization among young people. And at today's meeting we, already in a new composition, will be the first to discuss the issue of youth employment. According to statistics, in our country there are 8.5 million people of the economically active population, of which 24 percent, i.e. over 2 million people, are young people under 30," Ms. Abdykalikova said.
The Secretary of State highlighted that certain work has been done since 2008 when the Council was established by a Presidential Decree. The Council has hosted 19 meetings, comprising 10 in the regions, to discuss the main lines of the Youth Policy: educational and cultural programs, employment, housing, healthy lifestyle, and the development of physical culture.
In the last part of October this year, a new composition of the Council was approved by the President's Decree.
In addition, the Youth Policy Department, including regional youth policy offices, has been established within the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Civil Society. At the akimats of all levels, there are now councils for youth affairs. Moreover, there are resource centers operating in all administrative divisions of the country. The regulatory and legal framework is getting better.
The concept of the 2020 National Youth Policy has been under implementation since 2013. The second phase of this concept started in 2016. In 2015, the Law "On National Youth Policy" was adopted for the first time. Interagency interaction has been strengthened, and that resulted in the central and local executive bodies' closer attention to the Youth Policy. Moreover, a list of the target indicators for evaluating the work with youth has been made up.
Gulshara Abdykalikova also said that funding for work with youth is increasing. Over the last 3 years, nearly KZT 2 billion and KZT 17.5 billion have been allocated on a nationwide and local scale respectively. The implementation of "With Diploma to Village", "Zhassyl Yel", "Youth Apprenticeship", "Youth Personnel Reserve", "Mangilik Yel Zhastary" programs is underway. In fact, these measures let Kazakhstan rank 61st of 183 countries in the 2016 Global Youth Development Index.
The meeting was attended by the ministers of labor and social protection, education and science, national economy, religious affairs and civil society, heads of the country's non-governmental youth organizations, and experts.