Africa

Globally, governments, development agencies, and inter-governmental institutions have invested heavily in skills-building interventions seeking to enhance the employability of youths. However, policy actors are becoming more aware of the shortcomings of skills-building interventions, and attention is shifting to focus on how to promote productivity, boost the private sector, and generate the kind of growth that could create jobs. Empirical research on youth employment in the private sector is sparse. This IDS Bulletin begins to fill that gap. »

This report examines factors that influence young people’s earning opportunities and well-being. The research is based on the experiences of 130 young people participating in two programs supported by Learn, Earn and Save (LES), a Mastercard Foundation initiative that was established to test models for market-level training and opportunities. The report looks at youth’s post-program earning pathways by grouping them into two categories: ‘getting by’ and ‘getting ahead’. »

This technical paper summarises key findings and lessons learnt from applying an intra-household dynamics lens to nutrition. The results highlight the importance of longer-time frame and value of targeting different household members to change deeply entrenched norms which impact women’s decision making around what food is prepared. »

This report seeks to understand how conflict affects individuals, groups and communities, the different mechanisms by which conflict affects food security and what opportunities remain for mitigating the impact of conflict on hunger. The study documents conflict’s devastating impact on food security in areas both acutely and less directly affected by violence. »

This report assesses the policy framework for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) implementation and progress in CSA technology adoption for Africa under the Africa Climate Business Plan (ACBP). African countries scored low on the CSA Policy Indicators. Countries adopted a range of context-specific climate-smart technologies and practices to meet their climate change and food security goals. »

This report summarises findings on index-based livestock insurance (IBLI), a donor-funded programme aimed at designing, developing and implementing market-mediated, index-based insurance products to protect livestock keepers, particularly in the drought-prone arid and semi-arid lands. As a drought safety net, IBLI was fairly effective at protecting beneficiary households in northern Kenya against the worst effects of drought. »