Youth Employment Programs - Independent Evaluation Group

IFC’s Portfolio ReviewYouth has not been a specific target group in IFC projects, except in theeducation sector projects and a few advisory services with youth employmentobjectives. In IFC, employment data have not been categorized by age.Therefore, for IFC, this review focuses on projects with components focusedon job creation and skills development. The portfolio review is based onthe MILES conceptual framework used in this evaluation, focusing onI (investment climate) and E (education, skills, and training). On theinvestment side, the portfolio review is based on 853 clients (correspondingto 1,148 investment operations approved between FY01 and FY11) with jobsdata. On the advisory services side, the portfolio includes 159 projects thatwere in the corporate system between FY06 and FY11 with either job creationobjectives or employment indicators.The review also included an in-depth analysis of 50 investment and 18advisory services operations in the education sector. 2 IFC’s educationportfolio was included since the projects potentially improve theemployability of the youth and most of the universities that IFC hasinvested in offer courses to current workers to upgrade skills, and/orhave TVET courses. Ten projects specifically focused on operations thattargeted youth as a beneficiary or tracked youth employment in the resultsindicators. Finally, the evaluation looked at special initiatives such as the2011 e4e Initiative for Arab Youth that aims at narrowing the skills gapamong young people in the Arab world.There are other channels through which IFC creates employment opportunities,directly or indirectly, such as through investment climate reforms, and accessto finance and infrastructure. Improving the investment climate for firmscan create more and better jobs (World Bank 2005). In addition, IEG’s reviewof countries analyzed as part of this evaluation demonstrates that poorinvestment climates, business, and labor regulations are common impedimentsto youth employment. Since FY06, IFC has supported 409 advisory servicesprojects in 95 countries ($314 million) in areas including business entry,business operations, business taxation, doing business reform, investmentpolicy and promotion, and special economic zones. 3Access to finance (A2F) is another key impediment to job creation andentrepreneurship (Enterprise surveys), as it is more difficult for youngentrepreneurs to get access to finance. Financial market investment andadvisory services interventions help address some of the access to financeproblems for young entrepreneurs. There is some evidence that increasedaccess to finance leads to increased employment creation (Bruhn 2008).However, there is little evidence that IFC interventions in access to financehave demonstrably led to direct job creation.IFC has supported financial markets development with $37 billion worth ofinvestments, nearly half of all IFC commitments since FY01. In the AccessAppendix E: The IFC Portfolio for Youth Employment 123