The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has mandated the Youth Employment Network, an initiative to address youth unemployment. Policy recommendations have been finalized, including an ambitious political process now being put into place. It invites heads of state and government to develop national action plans with targets for job creation and unemployment reduction and to take personal responsibility for presenting these plans to the UN. Implications that can be drawn from the political process are that youth employment provides an entry point into broader issues of employment and the political commitment of governments provides an umbrella and space for action for non-governmental actors. The policy recommendations present youth as an asset. The political message that is the basis for the recommendations can be summarized in these four "Es": employability (invest in education and vocational training for youth and improve the impact of those investments); equal opportunities (give young women the same opportunities as young men); entrepreneurship (make it easier to start and run enterprises to provide more and better jobs for youth); and employment creation (place this at the center of macroeconomic policy). Implications of the network's conclusions are that education and training are important to creating good quality employment and youth employment is a particular concern in developing countries where most youth live. (YLB)