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UD prof to make presentation at the U.N. Monday
4:46 p.m., Feb. 9, 2007--Julio F. Carrion, associate professor of political science and international relations and director of the Latin American Studies Program at UD, will give a presentation in a panel discussion during the 45th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development from 3-6 p.m., Monday, Feb. 12, at the U.N. in New York. The panel discussion is in preparation for the release of the 2007 World Youth Report at the end of the month. Carrion, who wrote the chapter devoted to Latin America, will address an audience of high-level national officials dealing with social matters, including diplomats from the permanent missions to the U.N., representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and representatives from the U.N. secretariat and other international organizations. The report examines the challenges and opportunities existing for the estimated 1.2 billion young people ages 15-24 in the world and provides a regional overview summarizing the major youth development trends in the 15 priority areas of the U.N.'s World Programme of Action for Youth. The report, which highlights youth as positive forces for development and provides recommendations for supporting their essential contributions, explores major issues of concern to youth development, including employment, education, health, poverty and violence. In his contribution to the report, Carrion describes how the youth in Latin America still faces significant challenges in terms of employment and education despite the great progress made in some key social and demographic indicators in the region. “I find that the youth are worse off today than they were 15 years ago in terms of employment and income levels,” Carrion said. “Unemployment rates among young people are twice and even three times as high as the ones found among adults, and their incomes are also significantly lower than those of adults. The situation is particularly bad for young females, who have higher unemployment and lower income than their male counterparts.” Carrion wrote that when the youth do find jobs, they tend to be in the informal sector or in domestic employment, jobs that offer very low pay and come with no significant fringe benefits. More young people were employed in these low-productivity occupations in 2002 than in 1990, indicating the deterioration of their situation. Not surprisingly, poverty is widespread among the youth, especially among the 15-19 age group, almost half of whom live in poverty. “I also describe how migration has been one route adopted by many young people to escape poverty and exclusion. I also discuss the significant lack of political trust that the youth exhibit in the region. My presentation will summarize the findings and discuss some possible policy avenues to improve the youth condition in Latin America,” Carrion said. Carrion, who joined UD in 1998, received his bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru, in 1984. He earned his doctoral degree in political science and a graduate certificate in Latin American studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993. In Peru, Carrion was a teaching assistant at San Marcos University, associate researcher at the Institute for Peruvian Studies and research assistant at Pacific University. He served as a teaching fellow at the University of Pittsburgh from 1988-93 and as a research professor of political science at the Latin American Faculty for the Social Sciences in Quito, Ecuador, from 1993-95. He was an assistant professor of political science at Troy State University in Alabama from 1996-98. Carrion is the author of Working-Class Youth in Peru (Spanish), the editor of The Fujimori Legacy: The Rise of Electoral Authoritarianism in Peru, and coauthor of Working Class and Wage Earners in Peru. He has written dozens of published book chapters, Internet articles and book reviews. Article by Martin Mbugua |
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