Youth Employment Programs in Africa

This book investigates youth employment programmes across nine African countries, providing important insights into the world’s youngest continent by population, in which 60% of people are aged under 25.

By 2050, the labour force in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be almost double the size of the labour force in high-income countries, representing a massive shift in the world’s working population and providing a significant challenge for job creation. In this book, contributors bring together insights from more than 500 in-depth interviews and 1,500 focus group participants to consider whether youth employment programmes are effectively reaching vulnerable groups. This book tackles the problem of political clientelism in the allocation of benefits and considers the level of coordination that is taking place across programmes and political institutions.

Combining rich empirical findings with data about labour market outcomes and institutions, this book will be an important read for researchers wishing to understand the political economy of youth employment policy in Africa.

Ramos E. Mabugu is Professor of Economics at Sol Plaatje University, South Africa. He is also a Senior Researcher at Stellenbosch University and a Research Fellow at the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP), Kenya. He his PhD in economics from Gothenburg University. He has written widely on economics and economic policy in leading academic economic journals, books and popular press. He has been a consultant for many international organisations as well as advising governments on economic matters. Prior to joining Sol Plaatje University, Mabugu headed the research and policy division at the Financial and Fiscal Commission and lectured at Universities of Pretoria and Zimbabwe having started his early career as a banker with Standard Bank.

Lucas Ronconi is Professor of Economics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also a Research Fellow at the Argentine National Research Council, CONICET, a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor, Germany, and at PEP, Kenya. His main research interest is Labour Market Institutions in developing countries, with a focus on enforcement. His research has been published in several journals including Industrial Relations, Journal of Development Economics, and World Development.