Building the capacity of youth to be workforce-ready and equipped with entrepreneurial skills is a common method of addressing economic development needs in economies in which youth are the largest sector of the population and/or the sector of population that has the lowest employment rates. It is particularly important in post-conflict areas, with many children acting as heads-of-households and without the skills to provide for their families through employment or entrepreneurship.
The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children is engaged in a three-year research and advocacy project aimed at improving the effectiveness of economic programming targeting refugee, internally displaced and returning women and youth.
The STRIVE Philippines Project, an initiative of Action for Enterprise (AFE), aims to improve child well-being by strategically linking small producers in poor coastal communities with key market actors in other parts of appropriate value chains. AFE anticipates that these linkages will help increase household income among coastal communities and reduce the economic vulnerability of the families and children who live there.
Although Afghanistan has seen gains in education, health care provision and economic growth in recent years, most of its people continue to struggle economically. Furthermore, the ongoing conflict, the legacy of the Taliban, and decades of war have left the country with a substantially under-educated and under-trained workforce. Apprenticeships are one of the most common approaches to vocational training in Afghanistan. While valuable for youth skill building, the quality of apprenticeships varies greatly, with some apprenticeships causing youth to forego their formal education, put themselves at risk of physical injury or become stuck in low-wage jobs over the long term. To improve the quality of informal apprenticeships, and thus support the development of a workforce that will more fully contribute to Afghanistan’s economic growth, AED and MEDA are collaborating on the Afghanistan Secure Futures (ASF) project.
