The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?

Youth in many low-income countries are entering the labor force in unprecedented numbers, yet many struggle to secure rewarding livelihoods. This paper outlines the economic development challenges that constrain youth's transition into employm...

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Main Authors:	Fox, Louise, Kaul, Upaasna
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	YOUTH EMPLOYMENT JOB CREATION LABOR POLICY INFORMALITY STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION MICROENTERPRISE LABOR SKILLS VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/837861530219586540/The-evidence-is-in-how-should-youth-employment-programs-in-low-income-countries-be-designed http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29973

id	okr-10986-29973
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-299732021-10-14T00:24:34Z The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed? Fox, Louise Kaul, Upaasna YOUTH EMPLOYMENT JOB CREATION LABOR POLICY INFORMALITY STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION MICROENTERPRISE LABOR SKILLS VOCATIONAL TRAINING Youth in many low-income countries are entering the labor force in unprecedented numbers, yet many struggle to secure rewarding livelihoods. This paper outlines the economic development challenges that constrain youth's transition into employment, and it parses the evidence on which programs and policies appear to speed that transition. It concludes that it may be time for a fundamental reassessment of approaches for addressing youth employment and the youth transition in low-income countries. Employment opportunities in low-income countries reflect the pace of economic and structural transformation. In designing strategies, policies, and programs to meet the entry-into-employment challenge for youth, the starting point is to diagnose the economy and current/future employment opportunities. Combined with the analysis of youth employment problems from a structural transformation perspective, evidence from rigorous evaluations of youth employment interventions provides new insight into which kinds of interventions are more likely to help youth succeed in certain contexts. The evidence reviewed here casts serious doubt on the efficacy and value of training interventions to help youth enter formal wage employment. The case is stronger for interventions that speed the transition to self-employment in farming or non-farm household enterprises. Support for development of transferable character skills and social integration among youth through positive youth development programs should be tested further for employment and earnings impacts, perhaps along with cash transfers to youth or access to finance. In reviewing the evidence on the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of youth employment impacts, the paper also notes the need for better measures of displacement and general equilibrium effects. 2018-07-13T18:51:43Z 2018-07-13T18:51:43Z 2018-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/837861530219586540/The-evidence-is-in-how-should-youth-employment-programs-in-low-income-countries-be-designed http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29973 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8500 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	YOUTH EMPLOYMENT JOB CREATION LABOR POLICY INFORMALITY STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION MICROENTERPRISE LABOR SKILLS VOCATIONAL TRAINING
spellingShingle	YOUTH EMPLOYMENT JOB CREATION LABOR POLICY INFORMALITY STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION MICROENTERPRISE LABOR SKILLS VOCATIONAL TRAINING Fox, Louise Kaul, Upaasna The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8500
description	Youth in many low-income countries are entering the labor force in unprecedented numbers, yet many struggle to secure rewarding livelihoods. This paper outlines the economic development challenges that constrain youth's transition into employment, and it parses the evidence on which programs and policies appear to speed that transition. It concludes that it may be time for a fundamental reassessment of approaches for addressing youth employment and the youth transition in low-income countries. Employment opportunities in low-income countries reflect the pace of economic and structural transformation. In designing strategies, policies, and programs to meet the entry-into-employment challenge for youth, the starting point is to diagnose the economy and current/future employment opportunities. Combined with the analysis of youth employment problems from a structural transformation perspective, evidence from rigorous evaluations of youth employment interventions provides new insight into which kinds of interventions are more likely to help youth succeed in certain contexts. The evidence reviewed here casts serious doubt on the efficacy and value of training interventions to help youth enter formal wage employment. The case is stronger for interventions that speed the transition to self-employment in farming or non-farm household enterprises. Support for development of transferable character skills and social integration among youth through positive youth development programs should be tested further for employment and earnings impacts, perhaps along with cash transfers to youth or access to finance. In reviewing the evidence on the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of youth employment impacts, the paper also notes the need for better measures of displacement and general equilibrium effects.
format	Working Paper
author	Fox, Louise Kaul, Upaasna
author_facet	Fox, Louise Kaul, Upaasna
author_sort	Fox, Louise
title	The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?
title_short	The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?
title_full	The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?
title_fullStr	The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?
title_full_unstemmed	The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?
title_sort	evidence is in : how should youth employment programs in low-income countries be designed?
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/837861530219586540/The-evidence-is-in-how-should-youth-employment-programs-in-low-income-countries-be-designed http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29973
_version_	1764470952484143104

The Evidence Is In : How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries be Designed?

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