Youth Employment Programs - Independent Evaluation Group

support to youth employment programs) and attempts to distill recommendations.However, due to these constraints, the IEG report cannot go into greatdetail about what works, what does not, and what interventions should beprioritized in different contexts.The IEG report recognizes that a “growing economy and a stable macroeconomicand political environment are fundamental conditions for jobcreation and employment for all age groups,” and that interventions specificallytargeted at youth are less likely to be effective if these conditions arenot in place. It then proceeds to reviewing only activities that are specificallytargeted at youth. While the constraints that lead to this approach areunderstandable, the report only focuses on a part, and possibly a relativelysmall part, of the Bank activities that affect youth employment. Conversely,it should be recognized that employment is but one indicator of successfultransition to adulthood and active, productive citizenship. Employment programsmay have other impacts that enhance development and growth suchas attitudes toward the future, behavioral skills, networks and business skillsthat were not measured under this evaluation.Ongoing Bank operations. Lessons from a number of projects currently underway or in the pipeline will address some of the concerns raised by this reviewand will provide a more complete picture of the status of World Bank support toyouth employment programs in the near future. For example, the Liberia YouthEmployment and Skills project is targeting employment in the informal sector,by supporting small businesses and stimulating demand for skills among theseemployers. Similarly, the Kenya Youth Empowerment Program, which is supportedboth by the Bank and by a grant from the Rapid Social Response Fund,is providing both skills training and six-month internships. Employers are directlyinvolved in determining the type of skills and knowledge offered by theprogram as well as the work experience available to participants. This programexpects to recruit and train 10,000 young people by 2015.Ongoing Bank evaluation work. Similarly, the Bank is implementing a numberof impact evaluations that will soon begin to bear fruit and enable the fillingin some of the knowledge gaps discussed by the IEG review. For exampleIEG refers to a voucher program in Kenya, which is supported by the SpanishImpact Evaluation Active Labor Market Program (ALMP) cluster. This projecthas yielded important evidence on the provision of training and apprenticeships;in addition, the cluster is also supporting seven other important evaluations.1 Mid-line or end-line results from most of these evaluations are generallypositive, both in terms of employment and incomes, and also in terms ofother outcomes such as health, childbearing, and self-reported measures suchas confidence and self-efficacy. A number of evaluations under the AdolescentGirls’ Initiative, which is beginning to yield positive results, should shed lighton how low-income young women in informal sectors are benefiting.Monitoring youth outcomes. As the IEG report notes, it is important tomonitor the situation of young people and the impact of programs on youngxxYouth Employment Programs