Publication: Integrated Youth Employment Programs: A Stocktake of Evidence on What Works in Youth Employment Programs
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2018
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2019-03-20
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This Note is a stocktake summarizing evidence on “what works” in youth employment programs on both the supply and demand side. Employment outcomes refer both to direct and indirect job creation, including through firm start-up, as well as improvements in the quality of jobs as manifested in higher earnings as self-employment or increases in household income. This paper is based on an extensive desk literature review and analyzes the major meta-analysis and literature reviews on both the labor demand side and labor supply side.The supply side has a large body of evidence and evaluations of the whole Active Labor Market Policies (ALMPs) package as a whole. Kluve et al. (2016) and McKenzie, D. (2017) have a rigorous methodology and provide wide analysis and recommendations of the major studies on the supply side and provide the basis for that section. We supplement this information with key studies which had Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) or rigorous evaluations.In some sense the supply side stocktake is an analysis of a few existing meta analyses complemented by key studies not included in the meta-analysis. On the demand side the evidence base on what works for jobs outcomes is weak – so we used an extensive desk literature review. We include meta analysis where they exist for sections of the demand package (for example micro-credit). For both the supply and demand side, the team worked with experts across thematic areas (Agriculture, Social Protection, Entrepreneurship, Social Development and Urban Development) to ensure we had a mix of literature from the diverse thematic bodies included. The note does not look at evidence on policy reforms that address systemic problems. We recognize that rural and urban investment climates, regulatory frameworks, the overall macro-economic framework, human capital (education and training policy, basic health), are prerequisites for many interventions on the demand side of the labor market to be successful. In what follows, these fundamentals are taken as given and the note focuses primarily on interventions with specific identifiable enterprise, firm or farm beneficiaries, rather than broad investment climate reforms.
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“Datta, Namita; Assy, Angela Elzir; Buba, Johanne; Johansson De Silva, Sara; Watson, Samantha. 2018. Integrated Youth Employment Programs: A Stocktake of Evidence on What Works in Youth Employment Programs. Jobs Working Paper;No. 24. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31424 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Integration(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-03)This guide aims to provide general guidance to project managers and project teams on the design and implementation of integrated, cross-sectoral youth employment programs.The aim of the integrated programs described in this guide is to bring together supply- and demand side interventions to simultaneously address three interrelated objectives:Promote job creation for the target population; Improve the quality of jobs young people already have, many of which are in the informal sector; and Help prepare young job seekers for jobs or to move from low- to higher-quality jobs.This guide has been developed by a team drawn from multiple World Bank Global Practices and is based on evidence, experience, and lessons learned from a variety of sources.This guide attempts to present a broad framework to help project teams explicitly link supply- and demand-side considerations in the context of an integrated youth operation: Section one briefly introduces the conceptual framework guiding project design, the type of diagnostic work needed, and the diagnostic models and tools that can be used. Some of these tools are generic, but can be adapted to look more deeply at youth employment issues; Section two discusses how teams could improve the design of supply-side interventions. Reviews of successful youth employment programs suggest they have certain characteristics in common: they offer a diversified package of interventions that address the constraints of a heterogeneous group of beneficiaries; include good identification, profiling, and follow-up systems; and rely on appropriate contracting and payment systems for providers and strong engagement with the private sector; Section three presents practical suggestions to improve the design of a youth employment program on the demand side. The evidence on what works in fostering more and better job creation at the firm level is not as robust as for the supply side. 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Finally, the paper proposes an agenda for research and policy analysis in the area of human development that is expected to help both deepen the understanding of youth employment issues and improve the selection, design, and implementation of youth employment programs.Publication Ethiopia - The Employment Creation Effects of the Addis Ababa Integrated Housing Program(World Bank, 2009-03-01)Ethiopia's second poverty reduction strategy, the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) outlines a strategy of complementing a continued strong focus on increasing agricultural productivity with an increased emphasis on urban development. In this context it highlights the importance of facilitating accelerated employment generation to address the issue of high levels of urban unemployment. This report is organized as follows: chapter two provides more detailed background information on the program's operation and goals. Chapter three focuses on the methodology for this study, by articulating the key hypotheses tested in this analysis and identifying its limitations. The chapter also describes the main source of information for this study, a purposively collected survey of firms and workers in the construction sector. Chapter four addresses the central issue of this report by providing a snapshot of the beneficiaries of the program, focusing both on firms and workers and reviewing the effects of the program in terms of employment creation, both in static and in dynamic terms. Chapter five provides evidence on the effectiveness of the support offered by the program, and provides some evidence on the general equilibrium effects of the program. Finally, chapter six provides an assessment of the distributional effects of the program through its employment creation effects. Chapter seven reviews the main conclusions emerging from the study and draws the policy implications for the program, particularly in light o f its ongoing scaling up.
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