El Houcine Haichour
Director‚ Learning & Technology
AED Information Technology Application Center

If you are poor and you don’t have the right social networks‚ then you don’t have access to the right jobs‚ or to the appropriate jobs; so you could be employed‚ but it’s not the right match. And therefore social development … is access to resources … access to capabilities like education‚ access to networks‚ [and] access to professionals.

What we are learning in the Middle East and north Africa basically is that … in addition to providing quality education and training‚ we also need to provide these young people with social capital. What I mean by that is simply the network and relationships to professionals‚ and professional associations‚ which would open doors for these people to access the job market.

So unemployment is not only a question of knowledge and skills‚ it’s also a question of having access to networks and financial resources.

 

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