Supported in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation
PEP’s What Works for Youth Employment in Africa initiative represents one of the most extensive bodies of locally led research on youth employment across the continent. Implemented between 2021 and 2024 in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the programme supported research teams across ten African countries to generate evidence on policies and interventions aimed at improving labour market outcomes for young people.
The initiative combined rigorous empirical research with sustained engagement with policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders. Through this approach, research teams were able to ensure that their work addressed country-specific policy priorities while contributing to broader regional and global debates on youth employment.
A defining feature of the programme was its emphasis on co-production of knowledge. Over 1,000 stakeholders—including government representatives, youth, civil society actors, and private sector participants—were engaged throughout the research process. This ensured that findings were grounded in real-world constraints and aligned with ongoing policy discussions.
The research explored a wide range of themes, including school-to-work transitions, job quality, skills development, entrepreneurship, and barriers faced by young women and marginalized groups. Across countries, findings highlighted the importance of aligning education systems with labour market needs, addressing structural constraints in local economies, and designing targeted interventions that support vulnerable youth populations.
The programme also identified critical evidence gaps, particularly in understanding demand-side dynamics, firm-level constraints, and the long-term sustainability and scalability of employment interventions. These insights are helping to inform a second phase of research (2026–2028), focused on advancing inclusive employment policies for young women and marginalised groups.
In 2025, PEP released a comprehensive set of outputs from this initiative, including working papers, policy briefs, a synthesis volume, and an open-access data repository. These outputs translate several years of locally led research into actionable evidence for policymakers and development partners.
🔗 Explore the Youth Employment Repository
