Ethiopia's youth are thought to make up 30% of the country's 120 million estimated population. The number of people in the age group 15-29 is expected to increase by two million every year in the foreseen future. This trend exacerbates the high level of current youth unemployment and underemployment challenges where the latter is more prevalent in rural areas. The Ethiopian government began creating youth employment initiatives, packages, and policies in an effort to address the issues of underemployment and unemployment in 2004. Thus, this study reviewed youth employment programs and other related social policies to understand to what extent the interventions create enabling environment for youth and other marginalized groups. Data were collected using different tools such as focus group discussions (FGDs) with individuals aged 15-35 years, key informant interviews (KIIs) with pertinent stakeholders including international donors active in Ethiopia, and extensive literature review amassing more than sixty documents on the context of youth employment issues in Ethiopia. The documents served as references to complement and triangulate the findings from the KIIs and FGDs. The findings provide new insights to the various efforts that have been employed to tackle youth employment issues in Ethiopia despite the lack of employment policy particularly designed for the youth. This lack of policy focus is found to result in fragmented interventions and programs implemented by different actors. Further, the findings indicate that the youth employment programs have been implemented in piecemeal approach with weak coordination, monitoring and evaluation activities. Since 2004, the line ministries in charge to oversee youth employment issues have been changing in terms of their duties and responsibilities due to the frequent restructuring in the government. Such practices created vacuums for follow-up and continuity of the programs and strategies initiated and/or implemented resulting in hindrances to learning and improvement of youth employment intervention outcomes. Reviews of government initiated youth employment programs also unveiled that most of the programs were implemented following political instabilities in the country with haste and putting out fire approach lacking through planning and rigorous, evaluations. The findings imply that evidence-based interventions are needed to tackle issues related to youth employment. The findings can also serve as input to inform policies geared towards alleviating youth unemployment, poverty and inequality and to promote decent and fulfilling jobs for the youth labor force in Ethiopia.
Project leader: Tsega Gebrekristos Mezgebo
Project researchers: Zerihun Weldegebriel | Habtamu Adane | Selamawit Weldeslassie Gebrehiwot | Lissan Meless | Habtamu Kebede Menamo
Policy outreach mentors: Stephen Wainaina
No journal publications.
No working papers.
No policy briefs.
No final reports.
No proposals.
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