What do Youth Need to Succeed? Multi-Country Evidence on the Efficacy of Skill Development for Youth Livelihood Success

Group Submission Type: Panel Session

Proposal

Globally, of the 1.8 billion youth aged 10-24, 9 out of 10 live in the majority world (Gupta et al., 2014). Further, the 10 youngest nations by population age are all on the African continent; the median age in five of these countries—Niger, Uganda, Mali, Malawi, and Zambia—is under 16 years, with ~60% of the population under the age of 25 (Mcginn et al., 2015). With recent preliminary successes in interventions for children, governments and civil society in the majority world have increased their focus on this burgeoning youth population. This has been reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 through youth education and skill development goals (United Nations, 2015). Investing in this cohort can have social, developmental, and economic benefits (UNFPA, 2010).

This focus on youth has led to a proliferation of youth livelihood development interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially interventions focused on skill building: the supply-side of the labor market. However, evidence regarding the efficacy of these interventions is mixed. Given limited resources, it is not always clear which skills we should be focusing on, how, and why? Rather than taking the kitchen-sink approach and trying to train youth on the universe of skills that are important for livelihood development, we need to use evidence to help us determine the efficacy of skill development for youth livelihood success in different contexts.

In this panel we present recent evidence that explores this important question of skill development for youth livelihood success. Each presentation looks at a specific context and uses research to identify how and why individual skill development was important for youth livelihood success. We start with a presentation that focuses primarily on youth literacy in Asia, and the importance of early grade reading investment in long term labor market success for youth. The second presentation will focus on skill development for out of school rural youth from five countries in continental Africa. This presentation will highlight the impact of academic skills, transferable life skills, and financial literacy on the self-employment capabilities of youth. The third presentation will focus on when and how life skill development should be incorporated with financial empowerment for youth, and when this process may not be successful.

The aim of this panel is to highlight the importance of using evidence to uncover the contextual mechanisms that can help and hider skill development for youth, and the ways in which skill development could actually lead to livelihood success. The panel will end with a discussion on the gaps in our understanding of skill development initiatives and how we can use evidence more effectively in program decision cycles.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Youth Development and Education

Chair

• Nikhit D'Sa, Save the Children

Individual Presentations

• Why should Asia invest in early grade reading? - Lee Eric Nordstrum, RTI International

• Exploring the link between work readiness skills and socioeconomic outcomes for out-of-school rural youth - Eliel Gebru, Search Institute

• Decoding youth empowerment programs: How and when (not) to combine soft and hard skills for maximum impact - Aissatou Diallo, BRAC USA