Getting Africa’s Youth Working

This research brief looks at characteristics of youth labor markets in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and draws on lessons from programs that use a market systems approach to make these markets work better for young people. The brief provides a synthesis of key findings for those looking to take a systemic approach to working with youth and labor markets in SSA or those more broadly engaged with the challenge of decent work for young people. It draws on learnings from six market systems programs. In doing so, it builds on existing research and compares multiple projects across countries and continents to help development practitioners understand how they can more effectively use a market systems approach to create more and better jobs for Africa’s youth.