Search

It is claimed that the funded program, the subject of this study, never existed per se, except on paper. It was found that over half of the schools did not receive new project personnel designated under program guidelines. Moreover, substantial numbers of principals and teachers did not even know their schools were participating in the program. Yet evaluation gleaned from school personnel was found highly favorable even though no concrete effects could be identified in attendance and achievement data. The positive personnel evaluation is accounted for by the suggestion that project funds were actually used to support an already established curriculum of remedial instruction. Discussions and charts of the findings of classroom observations, attendance, and reading achievement, and evaluations of principals, project personnel, and teachers are, nevertheless, described. (KG)

Despite a burgeoning literature on youth employment, little is known about the economic activities of rural youth, including whether rural transformation, seen through the lens of the agrifood system (AFS) will create new opportunities for youth. Using data on hours worked of 467,453 workingage individuals in four age cohorts (early youth, later youth, early adulthood, later adulthood) and a rural-urban gradient based on population density (rural hinterland, intermediate, peri-urban and urban zones) in 188,996 households in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we provide empirical evidence on this gap in literature. We find that no region allocates more than 37 per cent of their labour hours to on-farm employment, but when including off-farm AFS self- and wage employment, total AFS accounts for half of all hours worked. Even in Latin America, off-farm AFS accounts for 21 per cent of hours worked, demonstrating the importance of pre- and postfarm value added for employment creation. Youth appear to access off-farm AFS opportunities more easily than non-AFS ones, especially wage employment in urban and peri-urban zones. These findings dispute the narrative that youth do not enter farming and cannot get wage jobs, as youth work substantial hours in both sectors with distinct spatial patterns.

Employment opportunities (for youth and non-youth) depend on the development of the economy: structural transformation, rural transformation and employment transformation. In rural areas, employment transformation (to steady, more productive wage employment) takes longer than in urban areas. Strategies to facilitate youth’s entry into employment (the youth-specific employment challenge) have to take account of this. We have limited evidence on how youth handle this challenge in rural areas, and on effects of targeted programmes on this challenge – either the impact of non-targeted agricultural productivity and earnings programmes on youth’s challenges or the impact of targeted youth programmes in rural areas. Certainly, the rural-urban gap in education and learning disadvantages rural youth. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when new off-farm opportunities develop in rural areas, youth are able to access them, while entry into farming may be hindered by lack of access to land. Evidence on programmes in urban areas to help youth enter self-employment may hold lessons for programme design for rural youth. A key lesson is that lack of technical skills does not seem to be the biggest obstacle youth face in entering the labour force. Given that most rural tasks (farm or non-farm) do not require a high degree of technical skill, we can expect that this would be even truer in rural areas. Microfinance (or cash grants) has been helpful in urban settings to help youth start non-farm businesses. Evidence on agricultural extension programmes suggests that peer-to-peer learning works best, perhaps arguing for youth-specific programmes to upgrade farming skills and knowledge, but this needs to be tested.

Youth in many low-income countries are entering the labor force in unprecedented numbers, yet many struggle to secure rewarding livelihoods. This paper outlines the economic development challenges that constrain youth's transition into employment, and it parses the evidence on which programs and policies appear to speed that transition. It concludes that it may be time for a fundamental reassessment of approaches for addressing youth employment and the youth transition in low-income countries. Employment opportunities in low-income countries reflect the pace of economic and structural transformation. In designing strategies, policies, and programs to meet the entry-into-employment challenge for youth, the starting point is to diagnose the economy and current/future employment opportunities. Combined with the analysis of youth employment problems from a structural transformation perspective, evidence from rigorous evaluations of youth employment interventions provides new insight into which kinds of interventions are more likely to help youth succeed in certain contexts. The evidence reviewed here casts serious doubt on the efficacy and value of training interventions to help youth enter formal wage employment. The case is stronger for interventions that speed the transition to self-employment in farming or non-farm household enterprises. Support for development of transferable character skills and social integration among youth through positive youth development programs should be tested further for employment and earnings impacts, perhaps along with cash transfers to youth or access to finance. In reviewing the evidence on the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of youth employment impacts, the paper also notes the need for better measures of displacement and general equilibrium effects.

The concept of empowerment is now widely used in several disciplines to characterize the states and social processes of individuals and communities. In economic development, the concept has come to mean women's power and agency in all economic domains and market-related interactions—earning, spending, and saving income; buying, owning, and selling assets; holding and inheriting wealth; starting and operating a business; acquiring a bank account or credit; and participating in or leading a union or other form of economic collective action. Measurement has lagged conceptualization. Most analytical research by economists, primarily involving impact evaluation, has measured empowerment as women's influence over household expenditures. This is a very narrow sliver of empowerment; not surprisingly, it is not well correlated with other economic or social outcomes. This paper suggests measuring empowerment in eight facets (a 4 x 2 matrix): (a) attitudes and (b) behaviors, in the domains of (i) transactions and markets; (ii) social interactions, including mobility and reproductive freedom; (iii) political and civic participation, including exercising legal rights; and (iv) psychology, including self-confidence and ability to seek mental health.