The Silatech Index: Voices of Young Arabs
Today, Silatech released the second "Silatech Index: Voices of Young Arabs", a study based in partnership with the Gallup Organization on young people’s opinions and perceptions about job creation efforts and business environments in their respective countries. The Silatech Index is the first comprehensive, nationally representative, semiannual poll of young people’s opinions throughout the region and will serve to amplify their voices to decision-makers and opinion shapers.
An electronic copy of The Silatech Index: Voices of Young Arabs can be found on www.silatech.com and www.gallup.com.
Silatech is an innovative initiative engaging the private, public and civil society sectors to promote large-scale job creation, entrepreneurship, and access to capital for young people. It is intended to help address the critical issue of youth employment, a serious and growing challenge impacting countries throughout the Arab world. Silatech means “your connection” in Arabic, and its strength is in partnering with leaders, corporations and organizations around the globe to promote opportunity and innovation.
Silatech and Gallup partner to publish the Silatech index to serve as a resource for Silatech’s country operations teams to support Silatech’s efforts in tackling the regions foremost challenge of employment for young people. The Silatech Index amplifies the perspectives, ideas, hopes and fears of young Arabs and creates a foundation that facilitates the change needed in the lives of young people throughout the region. The Index also serves to connect the opinion of young Arabs and their behavior to various indicators or metrics of economic achievement that are traditionally used by governments to plan for the progress of their nations.
The index focuses on measuring, through the opinions of young people throughout the Arab world, Silatech’s three pillars: Mindset, Access, and Policy, and provides an array of analysis and theory on how to best develop a comprehensive framework for changing the lives of young people in a meaningful way across the Arab countries.
The Silatech indexes rely on three core constructs: Mindset, Access, and Policy. The Mindset Index measures factors that either help or hinder young people’s inclusion and productivity within society. The four overarching concepts addressed by this index are attitudes toward work, attitudes toward self-determination, community support to accelerate growth, and community support to enhance engagement in society and the economy. The Access Index measures factors that address both individual and macro level engagement in business. The four overarching concepts addressed in the index are basic systems and framework for access, economic demand, job availability or placement, and access to capital and business development services. The Policy Index measures factors to address increased employment and economic opportunity. The three overarching concepts addressed are social inclusion, improvement of competitiveness of markets, and stimulating employment and economic opportunities.
Some Highlights of Key Findings Include:
Productivity and momentum matter more than wealth. Although it might appear that the Silatech index scores are just other measures of national wealth. The index scores are not significantly related to gross domestic product (GDP). Instead, the scores are related to labor productivity, or the annual percentage growth of GDP per person employed.
A country’s greatest assets are also its most mobile. The most likely individuals to express a desire to migrate permanently are those who are the most educated, are already employed, and aspire to start their own businesses.
Lower Mindset, Access, and Policy scores = higher brain drain. Twenty-six percent of young Arabs say if given the opportunity, they would like to leave their country permanently. A desire to leave one’s homeland is associated with lower index scores. Given that the most dynamic young people are also the ones most likely to express a desire to migrate, action on their desires could potentially have a tremendous effect on many countries’ ability to innovate and compete in the global marketplace.
What is the one thing that can improve a country’s Silatech index scores? While several factors, such as assessments of the health of the national economy and business climate, are found to affect some index scores, the one attitude-based factor that affects all three scores is the perception that children in one’s country are treated with respect and dignity. This relationship underscores the importance of human development to economic development.
Aspiring entrepreneurs are more likely to already have a job. Although widespread unemployment plagues most countries in the region, young Arabs don’t necessarily turn to entrepreneurship because they have no other option to earn a living. It is those who are already employed who are the most likely to have plans to launch a business venture.
There is value in good governance. Pervasive views that corruption is widespread in government and business are associated with lower Mindset, Access, and Policy index scores.
Less (paperwork) is more. Simplifying permits and paperwork for people who want to start businesses is a strong predictor of entrepreneurial intentions among young Arabs. Countries where young people perceive it to be relatively easy to navigate paperwork to start a business are also more likely to have higher index scores.
Silatech is investing in young people living in the MENA region and working with partners to ensure that a comprehensive approach is being taken by academic institutions, governments and local organizations concerned with enterprise development and job creation, to make available and affordable tools each person needs to succeed. Silatech and Gallup aspire to broadcast the voices of young people to the wider world that has overlooked them and utilize the statistics to create a better future for the region.
