Decent Jobs for Youth Should Be at the Top of African Development Agenda， Says ILO

Informality and vulnerable employment remain the reality for the vast majority of young workers in the region， says a new ILO report prepared for the Work4Youth Regional Conference that took place in Addis Ababa. With more than two thirds of young workers’ potential not fully utilized， there is an urgent need for countries in Sub Saharan Africa to create quality jobs for youth， the report advocates.

African countries have experienced incredible economic growth over the past several years. The World Bank projects that GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa will hit 4.9 per cent this year， rise to 5.3 per cent in 2014 and to 5.5 per cent in 2015. But the quantity and quality of jobs for youth remains a huge challenge.

According to the report titled “Labour market transitions of young women and men in Sub-Saharan Africa”， the average youth labour underutilization rate in the region -- which adds the share of youth in irregular employment， unemployment and inactive non-students -- reached 67.1 per cent in 2012-13.

Only around half of the youth in the region （53.2 per cent） are working， while only one youth in four works in a standard employment relationship with a written contract， the report says. Informality and vulnerable employment remain the reality for the vast majority of young workers in the region.

The study was based on recent school-to-work transition surveys （SWTS）， which were carried out in eight sub-Saharan African countries （Benin， Liberia， Madagascar， Malawi， Tanzania， Togo， Uganda and Zambia） under the ILO’s Work4Youth （W4Y） Project – a global partnership between the ILO and The MasterCard Foundation.

The study was prepared for the first Work4Youth Regional Conference， which took place in Addis Ababa.

The Addis Ababa meeting -- organized by the ILO’s Youth Employment Programme -- provides an opportunity to better assess how statistical evidence can support the design and monitoring of policy toward improved labour market transitions of young people in the region.

“With 10 million young people entering the labour market each year， countries in Sub-Saharan Africa face an urgent need to create quality jobs that guarantee the necessary income and material independence for workers and their families. The low quality of jobs does not allow either the youth or the countries they are living in to fully tap into the region’s true economic potential，” said Azita Berar Awad， Director of the ILO’s Employment Policy Department， at the opening of the Conference.