A/67/310 and vocational skills development to empower youth and promote entrepreneurship. 19 In West Africa, traditional apprenticeships are considered generally to offer the largest opportunity for acquiring employable skills in the informal sector. 19. In the Arab region, the lack of appropriately skilled young workers is reported to account for the prevailing unemployment among youth, especially educated youth. 20 The Regional Expert Meeting for the Arab States, organized in Muscat, Oman, in March 2012 in view of the Third International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education and Training, mentioned above, addressed the major challenges facing Arab States in the next decade for creating employment for the millions of people entering the labour market, and ensuring that job-seekers have both qualifications and appropriate skills and competences, which are currently lacking. 20. In the Asia-Pacific region, with almost two thirds (65 per cent) of the world’s population of illiterate adults and with 40 per cent of those who remain out of school, daunting challenges remain in terms of quality of the education and skills, especially occupational skills, required for growth in today’s society. At a UNESCO regional meeting on Education for All and the post-2015 global education development agenda organized in May 2012 in Bangkok, experts underlined the key importance of a human rights-based approach for equipping young people with the skills necessary in a changing world. 21. The Latin American region is also in search of innovative ways to harness the potential of technical and vocational education. According to an evaluation on recent trends in technical education in the region, “One of the greatest challenges facing vocational training and educational transformation in the region, while responding to the demands of the labour market and to local and national development is the organization of education and training circuits that open paths to employment for youth … there is broad agreement in the region on the role of secondary education in the development of general and transversal competencies and knowledge”. 21 22. The Montego Bay Declaration, adopted at the Caribbean Conference on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in March 2012, recognizes the profound implications of technical and vocational education and training in the twenty-first century with radically different knowledge-based economies and societies in which such education and training represents an integral component of lifelong learning. The Declaration contains a set of recommendations to assist “in harnessing the power and potential of TVET in order to build and maintain a sustainable future for all in the Caribbean”. 22 23. While a diverse range of initiatives taken and declarations adopted at international and regional levels, such as those mentioned above, reflect important commitments of Governments, it is international treaties that form the normative __________________ 19 20 21 22 8 African Union, Decisions adopted during the 17th African Union Summit, 2011, p. ii. “Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education Quality (ARAIEQ)”, Concept note (UNESCO, Beirut, 2011). C. Jacinto (ed.), Recent Trends in Technical Education in Latin America, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (Paris, 2010), pp. 21 and 16. University of the West Indies/UNESCO, Montego Bay Declaration on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Caribbean (2012), Preamble, para. viii. 12-46486