Jean Fares

Youth in Africa's labor market

Youth and Africa have received increased attention in recent policy discussions and World Bank work, as articulated in the Africa action plan and the World Development Report 2007: development and the next generation. The Africa action plan offers a framework to support critical policy and public action led by African countries to achieve well-defined goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The World Development reports main message is that the time has never been better to invest in young people living in developing countries. It offers a three pillar policy framework for investing in and preserving the human capital of the next generation. Both frameworks respond to the desire to find solutions to Africas development challenges and to prepare for and benefit from the next generation of workers, parents, and leaders. This report examines the challenges Africas youth face in their transition to working life and proposes policies for meeting these challenges. It presents evidence from case studies of 4 countries - Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda and from household data on 13 countries. The four case studies include a stocktaking of existing policies and programs to address youth employment and labor markets. The overarching message of the report is the call to further invest in the human capital of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa to take advantage of the large youth cohorts there. Youth in Africa leave school too early and enter the labor market unprepared, limiting their contribution to economic growth and increasing their vulnerability to poverty and economic hardship.

Child Labor Across the Developing World: Patterns and Correlations

The aim of this study is two-fold. First, based on summary data at the country-level for an unusually large set of developing countries originally obtained from household sample surveys conducted between 1993 and 2003, the authors construct a detailed profile of child economic activity and child labor, attempting, wherever the data permit, to identify similarities and differences across regions and between genders. Second, they link the country-level data on child economic activity and child labor to country-level indicators of the state of economic and social development in the same time period in order to (1) ascertain if cross-country correlations previously identified in the literature are found in the data, and (2) illumine other possible correlations that may exist. As part of this exercise, the authors examine one important relationship that has thus far not been directly investigated in the literature, namely, the cross-country correlation between child labor, agriculture, and poverty.

How are Youth Faring in the Labor Market? Evidence from Around the World

This paper uses a new standardized micro database for a large set of developing countries to (1) describe the patterns of labor market outcomes for youth, and (2) explain the contributions of supply and demand factors to youth outcomes. The paper shows that youth face various difficulties in transitioning to work. This is reflected in their relatively higher unemployment rate, higher incidence of low paying or unpaid work, and a large share of youth who are neither working nor in school. This is especially true for young girls who are found outside the labor market, some engaged in home production. Finally, the paper also finds that cross-country estimates show that changes in the youth relative cohort size is unlikely to have a large effect on how youth are faring in the labor market.