The International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation , has launched a new series of policy briefs examining trends and issues in youth employment, including the impact of COVID-19 in seven sub-Saharan African countries.
A webinar on youth employment and school-to-work transitions in Africa , organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, and YouthForesight , provided the platform for the launch of the country briefs and a cross-country review of youth employment, school-to-work transition and the impact of COVID-19 on youth labour market outcomes in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda.
Using the most recent harmonised labour force survey micro-datasets available on the ILO’s YouthSTATS database, the briefs outline the youth labour market situation in the seven countries.
Niall O’Higgins, Senior Employment Research and Technical Specialist, ILO Employment, Labour Markets and Youth Branch, said: “Action is urgently needed to expand decent work opportunities for the rapidly growing youth populations of Africa”,
“Policies and programmes must be based on a clear understanding of the challenges young people face as they embark upon the school-to-work transition. That means more and better evidence on young people’s situation and the available policy measures to support the transition. These briefs provide a step in that direction”.
Dr. Tade Aina, Senior Director of Research at the Mastercard Foundation, said: “Byexaminingspecificyouthlabourmarket indicators, includingtheshareof youngpeople notin employment, educationortraining (the NEET rate) and the ILO’s School-to- WorkTransitionindicators, thebriefsassess whereprogresshasorhasnotbeenmade, as wellasexaminetheimpactof theCOVID-19 pandemic, providing detailed analyses of trendsandissuesfacingyoungpeopleinthe labour market in these countries. The briefs pay specialattentiontoassessingthespecific labour market situation of young women and young people with disabilities utilizing data from the ILO’s new Disability Labour Market Indicators Database .