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Home»Social Development»Poverty & wellbeing»Jobs & livelihoods

Workplace-based Learning and Youth Employment in Africa

Literature Review
  • Sithandiwe Mujuru,
  • Zenobia Ismail
May 2020

Workplace-based learning is a supply-side approach to youth employment that includes practical or on-the-job training that is usually provided through an apprenticeship, internship, learnership , work placement or other practical training component of a vocational education or training programme. For the workplace-based learning approach to be effective, it requires ...» more

Fossils fuels and job creation in Africa

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
January 2020

Fossil fuel development, including oil, gas and coal, can provide or support employment in a number of different ways. Estimates for Africa’s extractive sector as a whole put it as employing less than 1% of Africa’s workforce (Fine et al., 2012). However, it is hard to determine the number of jobs supported directly or indirectly by the fossil fuels industry in different ...» more

The future of work for women in the Indo-Pacific region

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
September 2018

The ‘future of work’ is a policy concept that explores how various technological, socio-economic, geopolitical, demographic, cultural, and environmental megatrends are developing and interacting to create new types of jobs, industries, labour conditions, and business models. It is not well-defined or critiqued as a definition, and there is no standard approach to what concepts ...» more

Mapping of stakeholders engaged in Public Works Programmes (PWPs)

Helpdesk Report
  • Thomas Corser
May 2018

Public works programmes (PWPs) have received increasing attention as a social protection intervention due to their perceived benefits of tackling poverty by addressing basic consumption needs whilst improving public goods and community infrastructure. This helpdesk report maps organisational and individual actors engaged in PWPs in development and humanitarian contexts from a ...» more

A Mapping of Larger Youth Employment Programmes in Developing Countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
December 2018

There is a robust literature on youth employment that spans academic and grey literature. This rapid literature review combines academic and grey literature to identify larger youth employment programmes in developing countries. The review identifies the countries, which have a national youth policy. There is no literature that assesses the sustainability of national youth ...» more

Innovative Financial Technologies to Support Livelihoods and Economic Outcomes

Helpdesk Report
  • Huma Haider
July 2018

Access to digital technologies, in particular, mobile phones, internet connectivity and biometric authentication, allows for a wider range of financial services, such as online banking, mobile phone banking, and digital credit for the unbanked. Digital financial services can be more convenient and affordable than traditional banking services, enabling low-income and poor people ...» more

Benefits of Internships for Interns and Host Organisations

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
July 2018

Internships enable students to acquire skills, which cannot be learned in the classroom environment, while employers obtain access to low-cost labour and reduced recruitment costs (Galloway, Marks, & Chillas, 2014; Holyoak, 2013; Maertz, Stoeberl, & Marks, 2014). Interns develop interpersonal skills, team-working skills, professionalism and customer management ...» more

Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Public Works Programmes

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
June 2018

This helpdesk report aims to outline the scope, impact and challenges associated with public works programmes (PWPs) in development and humanitarian contexts. PWPs have been implemented in a broad range of countries to help working-aged poor people to cope with economic shocks or chronic poverty (McCord, 2012b). The majority of PWPs are effective in terms of increasing food ...» more

Indicators and Methods for Assessing Entrepreneurship Training Programmes

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
May 2018

Entrepreneurship training programmes are an important component of demand-side job creation strategies in developing countries (Fox and Kaul, 2017). Assessments of such programmes are constrained by variations in the programme content, as entrepreneurship training is often combined with grants, life-skills training, internships and mentorship. The targets of these programmes ...» more

The Impact of Entrepreneurship Training Programmes

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
May 2018

Entrepreneurship training programmes generally have a positive impact on existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, especially in terms of promoting better business practices. Programmes which provide training for entrepreneurs often include other interventions such as micro-finance, grants, internships or mentorship (McKenzie & Woodruff, 2013). The varied content of the ...» more

Lessons Learned from Youth Employment Programmes in Developing Countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
March 2018

Youth employment programmes are varied but meta-analysis and systematic reviews of impact assessments of these programmes indicate that some interventions have an overall positive effect on employment and earnings. Assessments of programmes which support youth job creation in the private sector find that larger businesses are more likely to generate jobs than micro-enterprises. ...» more

Livelihood Options and Pathways out of Poverty in Nepal

Helpdesk Report
March 2018

This rapid review synthesises findings from a rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references published in the past 10 years that discuss livelihood options and pathways out of poverty for households in Nepal. The World Bank (2016) highlights that in 1991, circa 40% of the Nepali population were identified as poor. Further rounds of the Nepal Living Standard Surveys ...» more

Lessons Learned from Youth Employment Programmes in Kenya

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
March 2018

The government of Kenya with the support of multilateral donors, especially the World Bank, has introduced several youth employment initiatives since the 2000s, including a large-scale public works programme. There is a mix of supply-side programmes which provide training to enhance the skills of the youth labour force and demand-side initiatives which facilitate ...» more

Digital Development and the Digital Gender Gap

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
January 2018

This rapid literature review collates findings from recently published papers on digital development and gender, highlighting some of the most commonly discussed discussions related to economic, social and political development. As the scope of this query is very large, this review provides an illustration of some of the commonly identified issues in the literature. The digital ...» more

Jobs in Kenya: opportunities and challenges

Helpdesk Report
  • Hannah Timmis
March 2018

This report examines job opportunities in Kenya and challenges to their expansion. Job opportunities are measured on three levels: quantity, quality and inclusiveness. All three outcomes matter for a country’s development; “just having jobs is not enough” (World Bank, 2017). For individuals, the quantity, quality and inclusiveness of jobs determine living standards, since jobs ...» more

Youth employment programmes in developing countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
March 2018

Youth employment programmes are varied but meta-analysis and systematic reviews of impact assessments of these programmes indicate that some interventions have an overall positive effect on employment and earnings. Assessments of programmes which support youth job creation in the private sector find that larger businesses are more likely to generate jobs than micro-enterprises. ...» more

Modern slavery within the tea industry in Bangladesh

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
March 2018

The main factor driving modern slavery within the tea industry in Bangladesh is the extreme marginalisation of tea garden workers, who are mostly descendants of migrants from India, by wider society. Social and economic exclusion mean workers have no alternative to working under highly exploitative conditions in the tea industry. The review found considerable literature on the ...» more

Interventions to support victims of modern slavery

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
December 2017

This review found few evaluations of interventions to support victims of modern slavery, even though there is recognition of the need for support services. While there is little evidence on effectiveness of interventions, the literature highlights the importance of victim-centred, holistic (multi-disciplinary) approaches to supporting victims. There is strong consensus in ...» more

Interventions to combat modern slavery

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
December 2017

This report details findings from evaluations of a range of interventions to combat modern slavery. While there are three broad areas of efforts to tackle modern slavery – prevention, protection and prosecution – the main focus to date has been on prevention and, to a lesser extent, protection; prosecution has received far less attention. The literature indicates that ...» more

Child labour in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in Asia and Africa

Helpdesk Report
  • Dylan O’Driscoll
October 2017

This rapid review synthesises data from academic, policy, and NGO sources on child labour in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector in Asia and Africa. ASM refers to small groups engaged in low-cost, low-tech, labour-intensive excavation and processing of minerals. Therefore, a clear distinction can be made between industrial and large-scale (usually licensed) mining ...» more

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