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The objective of this policy note is to develop a set of actionable recommendations for tackling poverty and social exclusion in Poland based on evidence. In recent years, the World Bank has deepened its engagement in Poland around issues of social inclusion, through work on effective labor market and activation policies, social assistance benefits, and investment financing for local social inclusion initiatives. This note purports to integrate the outputs of these activities and complement them with insights from the new analytical work to develop recommendations for the government of Poland for program choices to enhance the impact of inclusion programs and employment services. This policy note is structured as follows: (i) introduction; (ii) section two provides a definition of social inclusion and describes the country context by key trends and key groups at risk of social exclusion; (iii) section three provides an overview of the institutional set-up to deliver policies for social inclusion at the national and local level and presents an assessment of the achievements and challenges of key policy instruments (employment services, social benefits, social services, and the work of civil society); (iv) section four focuses on two recent operational experiences of relevance to a future operation: an assessment of the execution of the European Social Fund in Poland against the social and labor agendas and a presentation of the learning generated through the social inclusion component of the World Bank Post Accession Rural Support Project; and (v) section five illustrates areas for potential intervention at the policy and operational level in Poland. Recognizing that social inclusion outcomes are the result of a complex set of factors on the demand and supply side,recommendations include macro-level institutional reforms and changes to local service delivery for inclusion of vulnerable groups, mobilization and capacity support, strategies for local employment generation, and monitoring and accountability support.

This paper examines whether export participation matters for job training. The paper draws on longitudinal worker-firm data for Brazilian manufacturing, linked with detailed records on training activity from the main provider. The analysis uses industry-specific exchange rate movements to generate exogenous variation in export status at the firm-level. The findings indicate that export participation tends to increase the share of workers who receive technical upgrading. The results also reveal that technical upgrading has positive returns to trainees within exporting firms. These findings support the hypothesis that exporting requires skill upgrading, and suggest that this is partially achieved by training firms' existing workforce.

Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) were launched in October 2014 as a multi-stakeholder coalition to positively disrupt the youth employment landscape. S4YE is a partnership initiated by the World Bank, Plan International, the International Youth Foundation (IYF), and Youth Business International (YBI), RAND, Accenture, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) with a view to contributing to a world where all youth have access to work opportunities. The mission of S4YE is to provide leadership and catalytic action and mobilize efforts to significantly increase the number of young people engaged in productive work by 2030. It seeks to develop innovative solutions through practical research and active engagement with public, private and civil stakeholders, to enable solutions for all youth at scale. This inaugural report explores how S4YE can find and advance solutions to the challenges of getting all youth into productive work.

A shrinking working-age population will be the Russian Federations biggest demographic challenge in coming decades. With workers increasingly scarce, sustainable future economic development depends on Russias ability to bring into the labor force currently under-utilized groups, such as young mothers and older people, and to maximize the productivity of every worker. This study assesses the projected dynamics of the working-age population and how changes in labor force participation may affect the future workforce. It also assesses the potential contribution of individual factors to either facilitate or deter the participation of older Russians in the labor force. A review of disincentives for labor force participation in current social insurance programs and labor institutions is followed by policy proposals to help prolong the working lives of older adults.

Skills development is one of the priorities for national economic development strategies of Bangladesh. The vision 2021 of the Government of Bangladesh gives the highest priority to building a large base of skilled workers in order to achieve a poverty-free middle-income country by 2021. The skills development sector is highly complex due to multiple service providers, a vast spectrum of target audiences, a large range in modalities of service provision, and varied emphases in terms of skills levels and types. The short-term training, a formal channel of six months training, is an important instrument for bridging the gap between the needs of the labor market for increasing the pool of skillful workers and the aspiration of the students for finding a good job. In order to assess the performance of short-term training and interventions by Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP), a tracer study was conducted between December 2013 and January 2014. Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP) is jointly financed by the World Bank, Canada and the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), which started in 2010 for contributing to Bangladesh’s medium to long-term objective of developing its human resources as a cornerstone of its strategy for poverty alleviation and economic growth. It supports competitively selected 42 public and 8 private short-term training institutions for improving the quality of training and providing opportunities to the disadvantaged youth for obtaining skills from the select training providers.

The study includes an analysis of inequality patterns in terms of labor force participation as well as a review of policy responses, and areas for possible further policy action. In particular, the report looks at the two main dimensions of inequality that characterize Macedonia’s labor market: gender and ethnicity. Almost half the female working age population is inactive, whereas male inactivity is considerably lower. Labor market outcomes also vary significantly with ethnicity. In particular, a strong interaction exists between gender and ethnicity, with ethnic minority women forming a particularly vulnerable group. Hence, it is worthwhile to investigate in more detail how gender and ethnicity shape the Macedonian labor market, and how public policy could be used to increase labor market participation and job opportunities for women and ethnic minorities. This report is organized as follows. First, the report describes the main characteristics of the Macedonian labor market, emphasizing the most important patterns of inequality in terms of labor market participation (section two). Section three addresses the possible causes of these inequality patterns. Section four discusses potential policy responses and concludes.

Main macroeconomic indicators in Morocco (notably economic growth, inflation) are expected to remain appropriate in the short-medium term. Despite negative impacts in the economy due to developments in the Eurozone, in particular sovereign debt crises in Spain and Italy, among other countries, economic growth in Morocco has been positive averaging 4.3 percent per year between years 2010 and 2013. Morocco has displayed important progress in the Bank’s twin objectives of reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity. Inequality and vulnerability remain important challenges. Despite some notable progress on key human development indicators, Morocco still lags behind in health and education achievements. One of the key challenges for Morocco is that economic growth has not achieved enough employment growth to the needs of a saturated labor market. To achieve faster economic growth, Morocco will need a structural transformation of its economy, with a focus on broadening economic opportunities. Low employment rates in Morocco are largely explained by very low rates of participation of women in the labor force. Most employment creation in Morocco happens in the services and construction sectors, while the agriculture and manufacturing sectors (as these sectors become more productive and substitute labor by capital) actually suffer from net job destruction of approximately 35 thousand jobs per year.

The accumulation of human capital through the acquisition of knowledge and skills is recognized as central for economic development. More-educated workers not only have better employment opportunities, they earn more and have more stable and rewarding jobs. They are also more adaptable and mobile. Workers who acquire more skills make other workers and capital more productive and, within the firm, they facilitate the adaptation, adoption, and ultimately invention of new technologies. This is crucial for economic diversification, productivity growth, and ultimately raising the living standards of living of the population. The structure of the note is as follows. First, it examines the different types of market failures, and subsequently reviews the role that governments have played in training systems around the world. Finally it offers a set of proposals for reforming and improving these systems to improve labor market outcomes.

Getting youth into productive employment is an urgent policy issue for countries around the world. Many governments in low and middle-income countries are actively engaged in policies to help youth attain the skills they need to do well in work and in life, as well as to find suitable employment. The involvement of the private sector in youth skills development and employment is a complex issue because the nature of the firms and their motivations vary significantly. Multinational corporations operating in low and middle-income countries may be motivated by direct productivity or profit objectives - to secure a skilled workforce, or reliable suppliers - but also, or even primarily, by corporate social responsibility (CSR) factors. Firms that supply training or employment services will be driven by profit considerations when entering these markets and deciding what services to offer and to whom. The purpose of this paper is threefold: (1) to provide a comprehensive look at the way the private sector is involved in youth skills and employment in low- and middle-income countries, considering the broad range of program types and firm types; (2) to present and interpret the available evidence of the effectiveness of this involvement; and (3) to understand where the private sector has been most effective at promoting young people’s labor market success, and what can be done to enhance the role of the private sector to achieve this objective. The report is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides background to the analysis of the private sector role in youth employment in low- and middle-income countries. In chapter three the authors characterize the private sector’s role more systematically using the youth employment inventory, a global database of interventions that are designed to integrate young people into the labor market. Chapter four reviews the evidence of effectiveness of youth interventions involving the private sector. Chapter five briefly draws together strands from the previous review, as well as from the broader literature, to gain an understanding of the institutional and other factors leading to (and in other cases preventing) successful public-private partnerships for youth employment. Chapter six summarizes the main findings of this review, and is followed by a discussion of key gaps in knowledge on the role of the private sector in different types of youth employment intervention that future research should attempt to address, and a review of the main lessons for policy and programming emerging from the study.

The findings from the study suggest that international pressure for more effective Right to Information (RTI) implementation only goes so far. The development of RTI laws with the encouragement, assistance, or insistence of the international community was a prominent theme throughout the case studies, particularly for EU countries during their accession process. But implementation is a less straightforward task, with many interlocking, moving parts, and international support comes in ad hoc fashion as the process unfolds. A strong implication from these findings is that a national coordinating strategy may be valuable for implementation. This kind of strategy document should take the interdependence of the drivers of effectiveness into account when drafting policies and rules for practice, and can serve as a guiding document when deciding on foreign funding priorities.

Almost four years since the onset of the global financial and economic crisis, unemployment and underemployment remain stubbornly high in many G20 countries, and many workers remain trapped in low paid, often informal, jobs with little social protection. Job creation has been anemic in many countries, too slow to fully reabsorb the mass of unemployed and underemployed or, particularly in some emerging market economies, to keep pace with labour force growth and the pressures of rural-urban migration. This raises concerns about the long-term negative effects on human capital, growing inequality and lower future output growth. The political pressures are high, and the risk of a drift towards protectionist measures aimed at 'keeping jobs at home' cannot be ignored. While there is substantial variation in national contexts, G20 countries can help minimize these risks through collective and collaborative work aimed at identifying and implementing credible policy reforms that will boost job creation, employment and the quality of jobs. The report aims at providing a preliminary review of countries' experiences against the backdrop of an evolving economic outlook and could form the basis of a more in-depth analysis, should Ministers request it. Improving labour market outcomes involves several challenges relating to both the quantity and quality aspects of job creation. There is a need in all countries to harness growth to generate labour market opportunities that correspond to labour force growth.

Indonesia has enjoyed a demographic dividend over the last forty years. The working population has been growing faster than the population of non-working dependents. This presents a major opportunity for economic growth and poverty reduction, provided that more jobs and better jobs are created to employ a workforce, which will grow by an estimated 20 million workers over the next ten years. Today's policy makers in Indonesia face a strategic challenge in identifying which policies and programs will spur the creation of good jobs while, at the same time, ensuring that workers are better protected from risks threatening their income security. Decisions about labor policies are particularly difficult because they can directly affect the well-being of workers, both inside and outside the formal jobs market, and the firms that are the main engines of job growth. Sound empirical data will help guide the debate around labor reform. The Indonesia jobs report, prepared by the World Bank in cooperation with the Government of Indonesia and local research partners, is the most comprehensive assessment of the country's labor market that has been carried out in the last decade. The report uses the most up-to-date data available to examine the performance of the labor market, changes in the supply of workers, and the effects of labor policies. The findings will help inform future policy directions and contribute towards evidence-based decision making. Stimulating the growth of better jobs requires a multi-pronged approach. This report recommends much needed reforms of labor policies and programs. Equally important, however, are reforms that accelerate job creation by improving infrastructure and the investment climate, alongside reforms that aim at improving the quality of education. Success will depend on working partnerships between the government, employer associations, labor unions and other civil society groups, with the support of Indonesia's think tanks and international development partners. This report helps reinvigorate policy dialogue about job creation and worker security. Learning from experiences and international best practices, Indonesia will be better prepared to navigate a course towards 'win-win' solutions that accelerate the creation of better jobs without sacrificing adequate protection for workers.

The scope of this report is twofold. First, it documents skills gaps and mismatches and attempts to understand the reasons for them. Second, it provides a framework for thinking about skills development, drawing on international best practices, with the intent of stimulating further discussion. Given the breadth of the task, in this report we narrow the focus on a particular segment of the labor force: unskilled youth. There are several reasons sustaining this choice. First, unskilled youth, most of whom are out of school and have little chance to integrate themselves into the labor market, represent a significant share of the labor force that will remain active for the next 30 or 40 years. If nothing is done, out-of school youth will benefit at best only marginally from growth, and may even become an obstacle to sustaining growth in the long term. Second, the current educational system still faces a strong challenge in retaining students, and unskilled youth are likely to remain high on the agenda in the next decade or even longer. Finally, in the past decade, training programs designed specifically for out-of-school youth have begun to emerge around the developing world, in particular in Latin America, and recent evaluations suggest that they can be effective in increasing productivity and the chance of finding employment. Nevertheless, many of the findings of this report extend to overall skills development in Cambodia. In particular, the report points to significant market failures preventing both firms and training providers from offering quality training at all levels, as well as the need to develop certification and accreditation systems that are valued and recognized by employers and span all levels of education. The report proceeds in four chapters. The first covers demographic trends and the labor market. The second looks at skills gaps and mismatches. The third reviews existing training providers. The concluding chapter considers policy options in going forward.