Youth and Employment among the BRICS

This report is dedicated to the analysis of the usage of social programmes to promote youth employment in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. In light of the 2014 BRICS Academic Forum, which will officially transfer the responsibilities of host country from South Africa to Brazil, the report sets out to understand how the BRICS countries have made use of their extensive expertise in social policies and programmes to go beyond mitigation of crisis, towards the realisation of young people’s ambitions. 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.