Youth Employment: Supporting Evidence-Based Policymaking through Local Capacity Development

Capacity Building, Research and Policy Engagement

Active

The overall objective of PEP’s commitment is to support and increase evidence-based policy making in nine African countries. The immediate objective is to develop the capacity of local experts to produce a reliable evidence base on youth employment issues, while engaging with policy to ensure uptake in decision and advisory processes. PEP will support local researchers to carry out contextualized research and policy engagement activities through nine projects supported by PEP’s current core donors: DFID, IDRC and Hewlett Foundation. The commitment will run for three years from January 2020 to December 2022.

Entity

Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) Youth organization, civil society, non-governmental, non-profit organization

Technical assistance, expertise and implementation; Policy, advocacy and convening power; Financial and/or in-kind contribution

Sustainable Development Goals & targets

4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

Themes

Transitions to the formal economy
Youth in the rural economy
Youth entrepreneurship and self-employment

Achievement At Glance

The key achievements that have resulted from the nine selected PEP supported projects include:

- Strengthened capacity (of both individual and institutional stakeholders) for rigorous analysis of youth employment policy issues. The 52 direct beneficiaries are affiliated with local institutions, including academic and government institutions, in seven different African countries.

- new, reliable and contextualized knowledge and evidence base now available to inform youth employment strategies, policies or programmes in accordance with local populations' needs, in 6 of the 7 target countries (1 project has not yet completed research)

- New linkages and collaborative working between local experts, government institutions and other stakeholders/practitioners around youth employment policy issues, in all 7 countries.

- Significant career advancement for 16 local researchers in 8 countries, including 11 women and 8 aged 30 or younger at the time of project selection. For 10 of these researchers, the events led to their increased involvement in national policymaking processes.

- Improved policy design (Zambia) and decision (Ghana) in favor of better employment opportunities for youth.

Key Highlight On Guiding Principle

Focus on achieving impact at the country level and pursuing regional perspectives, where appropriate
Multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral approach
Combining immediate action with long-term policy interventions

description

PEP supports researchers from developing countries through its unique programme, the grant plus model, that uses a “learning by doing” approach to provide local researchers with a comprehensive package of intensive training, continual mentoring, and international peer-review, designed to strengthen a range of skills related to the production and brokering of scientific evidence to inform policy from project design to publication and dissemination. PEP grantees are required to hold periodic consultations with policy stakeholders throughout the research cycle, including organizing high-level national policy conferences, which include the public and media. Through nine ongoing youth employment projects, PEP will contribute to Decent Jobs for Youth by providing access to information on youth employment policy as an evidence base. PEP will also provide support to promote the uptake of this evidence for policy action. The projects will result in a series of knowledge products, including working papers, policy papers, policy briefs and publications in peer-reviewed journals. PEP also publishes summaries of the projects’ findings for its news channels and website. At least 27 knowledge products will be produced that will contribute to the Decent Jobs for Youth Knowledge Facility. PEP will also support researchers’ participation in international conferences, which could include conferences of Decent Jobs for Youth, where they share their research findings with peers. A total of 49 youth employment stakeholders will be supported through technical assistance, capacity building and peer learning. It is estimated that at least 27 knowledge sharing events will be held as part of the projects.

https://www.pep-net.org/page-ii-2016-2020; https://www.pep-net.org/page-ii-round-3; https://www.pep-net.org/ie-mentoring-govt-east-west-africa
https://www.facebook.com/PEP-Partnership-for-Economic-Policy-177569982270547/
https://twitter.com/PEPNetwork
https://www.youtube.com/user/PEPvideochannel
https://www.pep-net.org/joint-national-conference-employment-policy-recommendations-zambia
https://www.pep-net.org/benin-national-conference-informal-credit-boosts-youth-entrepreneurship
https://www.pep-net.org/ghana-national-conference-fertilizer-subsidies-promote-growth-employment
https://www.pep-net.org/benin-national-conference-policies-to-boost-maize-production

Deliverables and links to SDG targets

Progress: 52 youth employment stakeholders supported through technical assistance, capacity-building or peer learning

8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

Number of researchers conducting research projects on youth employment who benefit from technical (scientific) and non-technical (policy engagement) training. All projects involve policy actors, either directly (as team members) or indirectly (through consultations), who benefit from new knowledge and skills that will contribute to their work as youth employment stakeholders.

BY: Dec 2022
Progress: 53 knowledge sharing or advocacy tactics on youth employment carried out, including events, campaigns and media items

8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

Number of periodic consultations held with policy stakeholders throughout the research cycle and also the high-level national policy conferences, which include the public and media. PEP assists in preparing communication tools (briefs, press releases). PEP publishes summaries of the projects’ findings for its news channels and website.

BY: Dec 2022
Progress: 12 out of 18 knowledge products on youth employment developed

8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

Number of knowledge products to be produced through the nine projects on youth employment. These include working papers, policy papers, policy briefs and publications in journals and other channels. These also include the summaries of projects’ findings that PEP produces for its news channels and website.

BY: Dec 2022
National strategies for youth employment supported in their development or operationalization in 2 countries (Ghana, Zambia)

8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

We expect that many of these projects will result in findings used to inform policy decisions (either at design/formulation, implementation or revision stage). This is based on PEP’s previous experience, as well as recent accounts of the ongoing youth employment project teams.

BY: Dec 2022

Start

01-Jan-2020

End

31-Dec-2022

Target: All ages 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-35

Primarily:

Young people in urban areas
Young people in rural areas
Young women
Young men
Low-income individuals
Young people with low levels of education and/or drop-outs

Challenges faced in implementation

The only challenge faced in the context of this initiative pertains to the "re-orientation" of the research work in two projects, in Benin and Ghana. While as for all projects' their initial research objectives comprised a youth employment focus, in these cases (mainly for methodological reasons) the research was redirected away from the youth dimension to consider a broader population. However, youth can/will nonetheless benefit from the better-informed policy design or decision - in Ghana for example, young farmers will benefit directly from the decision to extend implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.