Strategies & Concept developement: A young and growing population in Africa requires an increasing number of jobs. Therefore, employment promotion is pertinent, but how to best achieve it is often unclear. To provide orientation to our client, we analyzed broad economic trends and challenges in different areas of the African continent. We recommended to focus not just on employment numbers, but also on job quality: Valuable jobs are productive, safe, promote social cohesion and provide the basis for decent livelihoods.
Project design & Evaluation: As part of the study, we identified concrete project approaches that 1) strengthen framework conditions for employment, such as policy-based operations for jobs, 2) promote the private sector and innovation, such as venture capital, business development services or technical skills for SME employees and 3) support industrial zones as catalysts for regional growth as well as future-oriented labour-intensive sectors, such as the emerging “green” construction sector. We evaluated the different approaches regarding the broadness of their impact and different aspects of job quality.