| Resumen: |
This special issue commences with a comparative article from the editors, followed by an
article by UNICEF on adolescence. It then introduces specific sections dedicated to each
BRICS country as per their respective order within the BRICS acronym. The opening articles
of each section provide a general overview of social programmes and the creation of jobs
for young people, while the closing articles from each section provide studies focused on
the promotion of youth employment through more specific social programmes.
In an analysis of Brazil’s youth employment situation, Corseuil et al. point out that
keeping a job is more of a problem than getting one. Ana Lobato and Valéria Labrea
qualify other social characteristics that lead to youth unemployment, such as race,
gender and educational background in Brazil. Anna Bilous, Alexandra Karpova and
Michael MacLennan then provide an overview of the Russian Federation’s changing
demographic composition, its federative set-up and other structural challenges that
have an impact on youth employment/unemployment.
Two articles on India offer an interesting contrast: Jayati Gosh highlights the weaknesses
of the Indian government and its recent setbacks in its attempt to promote social
protection for young people, while Ravi Shrivastava presents encouraging findings
from his study on the possibilities of India building a youth-friendly Social Protection
Floor by the end of its 13th Five Year Plan (2021-22).
The section dedicated to China presents two complementary articles. The first, by
Minquan Liu, shows how the pre-economic-liberalisation social investment in youth
created human capital crucial to China’s recent economic boom. The author also
discusses the future of this human capital in light of the challenges entailed in China’s
federative set-up (the hukou system) and how this affects the provision of social
programmes for young people. Zhu Ling then emphasises the improvements in job
creation programmes that were possible due to the enhanced role the market played
in the strategies adopted since the 1990s.
Finally, the issue turns to an examination of South Africa, which faces the biggest
challenges in terms of youth unemployment among the BRICS countries. The country
has a plethora of social programmes dedicated to improving this scenario, covered in the
last four articles of the issue. The first one, by Avinash Govindje, provides an overview of
the South African situation vis-a-vis other countries and its BRICS partners, while at the
same time introducing four national initiatives. Marianne Ulriksen and Lauren Graham
highlight the gap in safety nets that affects South Africans as they turn 18 years old. The
authors advance an argument that favours the usage of social programmes as pathways
to youth employment. Letlhokwa Mpedi also presents an extensive description of
social programmes that promote jobs for young people in South Africa, while at the
same time debating proposed laws in this regard, and evaluating the extent to which
beneficiaries of such programmes successfully find stable jobs afterwards. Finally, Maikel
Lieuw-Kie-Song looks at the Expanded Public Works Programme to understand how it
succeeds at targeting opportunities for young people and, at the same time, also fosters
communitarian initiatives, which are necessary to buffer the high unemployment rates
South Africa is expected to face, even in the best case scenario.
It is hoped that these articles further emphasise the strategic importance of relating
social programmes that promote employment to the ultimate goal of protecting the |
