Why
Studies show that young people want to start businesses, yet the established business rate among adults is substantially higher than it is for youth. This implies that young people face higher barriers to entrepreneurship than adults, and there is a need for better policies aimed at enabling young entrepreneurs to realize their ambitions. Youth-led enterprises also primarily employ their peers, which could potentially catalyze more quality job creation in an enabling environment.
What
Decent Jobs for Youth focuses on supporting the development of policies, regulations and institutions that enable and encourage the creation of youth-led enterprises. To tackle weak skills and knowledge transfer, it is crucial to foster peer-to-peer support networks. Improving access to adequate information, training, finance and technology can help lift many of the obstacles that prevent young people from succeeding in business.
Who
The ILO, ITC, UNCDF, UNCTAD and UNIDO lead on this thematic priority. Decent Jobs for Youth brings together a growing number of partners who are committed to unleashing the potential of youth entrepreneurship and self-employment through fostering enabling environments and improving access to productive assets.
Synthesize evidence from randomized evaluations
J-PAL produces J-PAL-branded Policy Insights that synthesize global evidence with the goal of providing a tool to inform policy decisions with scientific evidence. J-PAL’s academic chairs and staff draw these insights from randomized evaluations. Policy Insights summarize J-PAL’s perspective on the evidence on a topic, with links to the original research and policy summaries. Within this broader effort, the J-PAL Labor Markets Sector has committed to producing Policy Insights through December 2020 that focus on how to help young people succeed in the world of work. The lead entity is J-PAL, and the source of financing is J-PAL core funding.
Create and Implement entrepreneurship
The ICSB Academy provides students with a full immersion experience in the making of a new entrepreneurial venture, while exposing them to the latest developments in entrepreneurship science under the mentorship of a global team of successful entrepreneurship experts (including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business experts, and faculty).