Guidance Note - Youth in Growth and Employment

Guidance Note

Purpose

Though youth constitute a vital resource by virtue of skills such as flexibility and innovation, they tend to be under-employed, underpaid and subject to poor working conditions3. Young people are often left with precarious income in the informal sector.

There is a growing recognition of the particular challenges faced by youth in terms of employment. The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) has published the “Private Sector Development Synthesis Note” on youth employment, which provides an overview of key challenges.

In the Danish development programmes with focus on growth and employment, agriculture and agri-businesses typically play a central role along with technological development. Some of these programmes focus specifically on youth or include a component addressing youth.

Agriculture
Like in other sectors, the geographical divide is a determinant in youth employment. In rural Africa, the agricultural sector is crucial to supporting global rural economies, and it has significant potential to address the disproportionately high level of youth unemployment and poverty. “Youth represents a massive untapped potential (..) they can serve as a skilled group of farmers and community developers to meet the agricultural demands of a rising global population”8. Youth is the next generation of farmers, and small-scale agriculture is the leading source of employment. Nevertheless, limited access to land and the claimed tendency among young people to be increasingly disinterested in agriculture as a way of life may challenge the potential of engaging young people in in agriculture, despite lacking opportunity elsewhere.

Technology
The digital economy is rapidly transforming the employment landscape across industries including financial services, health, entertainment, transportation and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The growth of the ICT sector and the application of technology represents new opportunities, including job opportunities and access to market information. The opportunities for youth in ICT may to some extent materialise in rural areas and in agriculture, but more significantly in cities or peri-urban areas. However, in many low-income countries, a lack of digital skills and the lack of access to technology represent a barrier for marginalised population groups, such as young people in rural areas and young women.

Gender
A significant divide with respect to job opportunities for youth is gender. Research in general supports the findings by the African Development Bank that young women feel the sting of unemployment even more sharply than young men. In Sub-Saharan Africa it is easier for men to get jobs than it is for women, even if they have equivalent skills and experience.

Entrepreneurship and self-employment – examples

Evidence from a systematic review shows that youth entrepreneurship programmes have on average had a positive effect on increasing young people’s earnings – entrepreneurship promotion programmes appear to be a promising intervention for improving income.13Young people display the highest entrepreneurial activity compared to other age groups, although they often struggle with a lack of access to finance or limited skills and knowledge. The aim of entrepreneurship programmes is to lower such barriers to market entry and to support youth in the process of establishing businesses.

The Danish Country Programme in Mali: Fonds d’Appui à la Création d’Entreprise par les Jeunes (FACEJ) 2018-2021. The overall purpose of FACEJ is to support young people leaving technical, vocational or higher education to start their own business. The main expected effects are i) that the creation of enterprises by trained young people is facilitated by means of capacity building and access to funding, and ii) that the companies created by young people are financially viable.14

The Danish Country Programme in Ethiopia: Agri-Tech Incubation and Innovation Lab (2018-2021). The overall objective of the support to the Agri-Tech Incubator is the transformation of agriculture and related agri-business in Ethiopia through enhancing the incubator’s innovation reach and ability to apply a digital perspective on all incubated start-ups in its programmes.

Inspiration for a Theory of Change (TOC) on Growth and Employment

The following figure illustrates some of the key features and causalities important for youth which should be considered when developing a ToC and a results chain for an engagement on growth and employment. As such, the ToC is intended to provide inspiration, and it is a supplement to the development of the sector-specific ToC and not a stand-alone tool. It is intended for inspiration in the youth situational analysis and understanding of the background against which youth mainstreaming and youth engagement should be formulated, planned and implemented. See also aid management guidelines: Guidelines for Country Strategic Frameworks, Programmes and Projects.

figur Growth guidance note side 3

Youth Assessment Tool: Growth and Employment

An important first step in mainstreaming youth within a thematic employment programme/development engagement is to assess their access to skills development, employment and opportunities for engagement in own business development. In this respect, the extent to which the environment enables or hinders the access and opportunities for youth is a key factor. (Youthhood - a Period of Personal and Social Development)

The matrix below describes some of the common and overall hindering and enabling factors at different levels that may impact young people’s access to employment and income.

	Hindering factors	Enabling factors
	Young people are deprived of income and employment opportunities by virtue of:	Young people are accessing income and employment opportunities as a result of:
Society	Attitudes towards youth are negative, labelling and stereotyping them as being irresponsible, inexperienced, lacy, rebellious, etc. Policies and regulations are unfavourable – lack of job centres, lack of access to credit, bank accounts and financing and access to land	Acknowledgement of the need for specialised and targeted support for youth as a result of influential labour market representatives advocating and building the case for youth. Key facilities and resources are in place, building conducive space for youth employment and youth businesses.
Community	Cultural and social norms that give prevalence to adults and which do not allow for youth to compete on equal terms for income opportunities. Cultural and social norms that retain a negative framing of youth and sustain gender inequalities.	Interpersonal support and commitment from peers, family and opinion leaders to promote income opportunities for youth. Community opinion holders engaged in building awareness and support to youth employment and income along with measures to promote gender equality.
Institutions	Lack or inadequacy of government policies and regulations to promote youth income opportunities. Lack or inadequacy of initiatives among private sector institutions to support youth. Lack or inadequacy of public facilities to inform and guide youth towards jobs and business development. Lack or inadequacy of marketable skills development facilities.	Government provides policies and monitor implementation to support income opportunities for youth. Private sector institutions and local economic development forums adopt mechanism to implement specific support to youth employment. A range of different facilities are in place to ensure information about job, entrepreneurship and income opportunities. A variety of skills development facilities for youth are supported.
Individual	Lack or inadequacy of knowledge, skills, motivation and/or means to access income.	Youth have the knowledge, skills, motivation and means to make informed decisions and to cope with the challenges involved in getting access to employment and income.

The following example of guiding questions for a contextual assessment of the realities of young people in relation to growth and employment is a supplement to the general thematic and contextual analysis and appraisals, cf. Annex 1: Context Analysis in the Guidelines for Programmes and Projects, AMG.

Contextual assessment: youth

To what extent is youth knowledgeable of labour market regulations such as business registration, bank accounts and credit opportunities?

To what extent is youth knowledgeable of existing schemes and incubators supporting entrepreneurship and youth business development?

To what extent do youths have the required competencies and skills?

To what extent do young women have access to work and to generate income?

To what extent are youth in the rural areas and in the agricultural sector knowledgeable of off-farm opportunities for income generation?

Contextual assessment: environment

To what extent do public and private skills development institutions provide sufficient, relevant, high-quality and marketable skills?

To what extent does the government (at national and local level) have policies in place and monitor implementation, enabling the access to income opportunities for youth in the formal as well as informal sectors?

To what extent do government, labour institutions and/or international actors have mechanisms to collect data and to measure results to establish evidence on feasibility in relation to youth, growth and employment?

In what sectors/areas are there opportunities for youth that can be taken to scale?

To what extent and in which ways does ICT provide opportunities for youth?

To what extent can youth access support to manage their micro and informal businesses, i.e. street or market vendor activities?

Which, if any, youth-oriented local and national platforms, unions, networks and coalitions exist for young people to take part in employment sector and policy issues?

To what extent are financing opportunities for youth entrepreneurs available?

To what extent does youth migrate in search of work?

CONTACT:

In case of questions, please contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Global Youth Advisor at [email protected]