Towards youth employment solutions: improving knowledge, collaboration, scale and impact

1. Towards Youth Employment Solutions
Improving Knowledge, Collaboration, Scale and Impact
Arup Banerji
Paris, April 30 2013

2. Renewed World Bank Group Goals
End extreme poverty: the percentage of people
living with less than US$ 1.25 a day to fall to 3
percent by 2030
Promote shared prosperity: foster income growth of
the bottom 40 percent of the population in every
country
Sustainability, an overarching theme
Achieving these goals require promoting
environmental, social, and fiscal sustainability

3. The poverty target of 3% by 2030
* Preliminary
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1980198419881992199620002004200820122016202020242028

4. Growth
Job
Creation
Poverty
Reduction
Opportunities
For All
TransfersTaxes
Pathways for shared prosperity
Human
Capital, Infras
tructure

5. Poverty Reduction Occurs Mostly
through Jobs
0.4 0.4 0.5 0.3
0.6
0.4
2.9
1.9
1.0 1.0
1.4
0.8
0.5
0.9
0.3 0.6
0.1
0.6
0.2
-0.2
0.4
-0.4
-0.2
-1.0
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
Peru
(2005-2009)
Nepal
(1996-2003)
Ghana
(1998-2005)
Brazil
(2001-2009)
Bangladesh
(2000-2010)
Thailand
(2000-2009)
AnnualPovertyReduction(percentage
points)
Demographic Change Labor Income Non-Labor Income Other

6. But the Jobs Have to be Primarily for
Young People
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Millions
Growth
45%
Percentage change, 2010-2025
Source: WB calculations from US Census Bureau
Growth
8%
Growth
0%
Decline
23%
Decline
34%
Growth
8%
Growth
3%
SS Africa MENA LAC E Europe China India Other Asia
Population 15-24, 2025

7. Yet today, unemployment among young
people is higher than among adults
WB WDR 2007

8. … and under-employment is a greater
issue
Source: WB calculations from International Income Distribution Database
32.4
30.9
46.8
29.4
34.2
45.4
4.5
8.1
8.2
7.0
3.7
5.9
9.1
12.8
15.3
33.2
27.2
14.5
54.0
48.2
29.7
30.3
34.9
34.2
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
East Asia & Pacific
Europe & Central Asia
Latin America & Caribbean
Middle East & North Africa
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Employed Unemployed Inactive nonstudent Inactive student
8.7
4.5
11.6
4
16.7
37.3
7.4
5.9
13.3
39.7
29.1
29.9
0.9
0.8
1.2
1.6
0.2
0.5
83
88.8
73.9
54.6
53.9
32.4
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
East Asia & Pacific
Europe & Central Asia
Latin America & Caribbean
Middle East & North Africa
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Self-employed Unpaid Employee Employer Paid Employee

9. There are some promising interventions
• We know that some supply-side
interventions can work, for some
people:
– Jovenes-type skills programs for
disadvantaged youth (Latin America)
– Wage subsidies when there are jobs
available (South Africa)
– Various targeted “packaged” programs
aimed at specific groups (“gazelle”
entrepreneurs, young girls…)
• We also know that demand-side
interventions hold promise:
• Links to global value chains
(Vietnam)
• Growing industries (India, Nigeria)

10. • what type of supply-side interventions for youth is most effective (job
skills, “life skills,”…)?
• can demand for youth employment by private firms be fostered?
• how can private firms be induced to hire younger workers?
• can the failings of educational systems to provide work skills be cheaply
remedied?
• are there good ways to make rural work more productive for youth?
• are combinations of interventions targeting youth employment more
effective than single interventions?
• what environments are conducive to successful interventions on youth
employment?
• are the “successful” youth programs cost-effective?
• will successful programs aimed at a few youth also work at large scale?
But there are still unanswered
questions and scanty evidence

11. • For tackling the huge challenge ahead, there is a need for
concerted effort to seek out, pilot, evaluate and roll-out a
range of interventions that:
• Directly involve private sector employers and financiers, as
well as public policy policymakers, regulators and
educators, civil society players and young workers
• Are proven effective in different contexts, based on rigorous
evidence
• Are affordable and scalable, and potentially transformative
Towards building improved solutions

12. The need for a new kind of
partnership, involving those who have
Involving those who have:
• Involvement as large employers
along the value chain
• Implementation experience
• Expertise in generating and
brokering knowledge
• Policy influence
• Connections to youth
themselves
• Resources to promote evidence-
building
In order to:
Scale Up
EvaluateExperiment