The Commissioner of Labour, Lionel Kaluat, has taken steps to clarify a television news item broadcast on Tuesday evening September 9 on youth and unemployment in the Ohlen area.
Mr Kaluat explained that the Department of Labour, under his direction, and with the support of the South Pacific Office of the International Labour Organization since July 2007, has been implementing a series of practical measures to tackle the youth unemployment crisis in Vanuatu.
The latest initiative involving youth in the Ohlen area, which was televised on the news on Tuesday evening, was a continuation of what the Labour Department and the ILO have been doing for more than a year.
It is not a micro-credit scheme and it is not an initiative of the new Port Vila MP Ralph Reganvanu, as the public may have been led to believe from the TV news.
Mr Kaluat explained that the ILO office in Fiji contracted an international consultant, Mr Rudy Baldemor, to work with a wide range of employment sector intermediary organizations including VIT, VRDTCA, the Agriculture College, the Chamber of Commerce and VNTC as well as youth focused NGOs including Wan Smol Bag, Habitat for Humanity, the Young Peoples Project, World Vision, plus relevant government departments including the Dept of Coops and Ni- Van Business.
Mr Baldemor and the ILO have developed a range of tools and systems which have proven a success in helping create sustainable employment opportunities for communities in other small island countries such as Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Mindanao in the Philippines.
Mr Kaluat stated that his Department was very interested in testing these tools and systems to see if they can be adapted to the specific context of Vanuatu, and to see if they could help with practical measures to increase the employment opportunities for our youth.
The ILO and Department of Labour hosted a stakeholders workshop at the end of August and several local organization have agreed to test tools with some communities in Port Vila and Luganville.
Ohlen is one of these communities and this project is working closely with Habitat for Humanity, Wan Smol Bag, YPP, VRDTCA and Vanwods to try to create some self employment opportunities for some of the youth in the area.
Mr Kaluat stressed that all the youth programmed stakeholders ad partners are delighted and Ralph Reganvanu has shown his active support for our initiative. But Mr Kaluat also stressed very strongly that nobody wants the youth employment programme to get stuck in politics.
The Department of Labour has convened a national level committee called the ‘Decent Work Steering Committee’’ to provide policy and strategic guidance for all ILO support activities, including this initiative in Ohlen.
The public should be aware that this programme is not directly connected with Ralph’s policy platform, and he does not have project advisers working for him in Ohlen.
Mr Kaluat stated that if anybody would like further information on the Department of Labours youth employment activities, they should contact his office directly ad ask to speak with the ILO Project Coordinator.