Efforts are underway in Serbia to improve access to decent work for
young people through better policies and programmes addressing
youth employment and migration.

With USD 6.1 million from the Spanish government's Millennium
Development Goals Achievement Fund and USD1.9 million from the
Serbian government, IOM is leading a programme over a
two-and-a-half-year period targeting disadvantaged young men and
women, especially Roma, and those most at risk of social exclusion
and prime candidates for emigration.

About 500,000 young people left Serbia between 1991 and 2001 in
search of better livelihoods. In the Serbian districts of Pcinjski,
South Backa and Belgrade where the programme will be carried out,
it is estimated that in the last five years, 96,500 young people,
or more than 35 per cent of the current youth population, have left
their communities and migrated abroad.

In close partnership with the UN's Development Programme, the
International Labour Organization, the UN Children's Fund, the
Serbian Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, the Ministry
of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the
National Employment Services and partner NGOs, IOM will focus on
developing evidence-based policies on youth employment, on
strengthening the capacity of national institutions to design
integrated labour market and social services aligned with policy
objectives and on supporting local institutions in piloting
innovative employment programmes and social services.

For further information, please contact:

Gregoire Goodstein

IOM Serbia

Tel: +381 11 382 1703

E-mail: "mailto:ggoodstein@iom.int">ggoodstein@iom.int