Governments must recognise that for its young people, the Arab spring was a yearning for new opportunities. Is it time for a culture shift in the employment sector?
Dr Nader Kabbani, director of research and policy at the Arab social innovation organisation Silatech, told the Emirates Foundation philanthropy summit that the establishment of legally-defined enterprise zones where refugees could set up businesses aimed at export markets could generate opportunities for unemployed young Syrian refugees.
Speaking at a session on how the private sector can tackle youth unemployment, Dr Kabbani said that economic activity in Jordan had increased as a result of the influx of refugees from neighbouring Syria.
Dr Bessma Momani, a senior fellow at the Canadian Centre for International Governance Innovation thinktank and Brookings Institution, said that Arab countries required a "culture shift needed to harness critical thinking" and called for academic tests in schools that went beyond rote memory.
Dr Momani said that there was a desire among young people in Arab countries to be known and recognised as an individual, and not just as a member of their family. She said that while the Middle East would not be a China, with large manufacturing clusters, it could be a player in the service sector, and particularly in the creative industries if it tapped into the talents of its young people.
"The challenge for Arab leaders and governments is to recognise that the Arab spring is the yearning for something more, for challenging and thinking how they can contribute to society beyond simply being recipients of the state. It is about changing the relationship between state and individuals."
Dr Momani said that there was a cultural trap from governments and parents in the Arab region that pushed young people towards established career paths in, for instance, engineering and medicine and asked: "Why are we only pressing our children to be engineering and medical students? Why do we not respect vocational training?" She added that a focus on entrepreneurship must not be a pretext for governments and leaders to avoid their responsibilities for providing work for young people.
Jasmine Nahhas di Florio, the vice president of Education For Employment, an Arab youth unemployment NGO, told the summit that while entrepreneurship could be a solution to some of the challenges facing young people looking for work, it was not the complete answer. She said that entrepreneurs needed support and would probably need a job at some stage in their entrepreneurial career, with job placements being especially important when supporting young people from excluded backgrounds in their entrepreneurial efforts.
Emirates Foundation paid for the flights to and from Abu Dhabi and accommodation for the journalist who wrote this article
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