At the current stage, Youth Initiatives will take place systematically in conjunction with regular EGAR meetings. These initiatives will center around the most important topics discussed on online forums where Arab youth will come up with issues, which are of most concern and play an important role in the development and prosperity of societies.

Some of the issues Arab youth will discuss online include:

• Youth unemployment;
• Current educational system and ways of reforming it
• How to tackle the sense of isolation and insecurity many young Arabs experience
• Ways of active participation in the economic development of the country
• Analysis of the situation of the labor market and ways of facilitating entry and providing more opportunities to the labor market for first-time job seekers and fresh university graduates
• Focus on capacity building and skills development
• Exploring alternative employment opportunities such as public-private partnerships, entrepreneurial initiatives, vocational programs

Future plans include creating a Youth Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Center, the outline of which has already been presented to local senior government officials during the EGAR meeting in 2007.

This Center will help provide a more systematic and institutionalized approach to different issues of concern highlighted by EGAR Youth Initiatives. The Center will be responsible for providing trainings and consultation for young people in business-plan writing, market research analysis and other entrepreneurial undertakings in addition to facilitating access to companies, providing news, and organizing seminars and conferences.