Chapter 3.
ASSESSMENT OF THE UNDP CONTRIBUTION TO YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
This section examines the relevance of the UNDP programmatic approach and the effectiveness and sustainability of results achieved.
3.1 PROGRAMMATIC APPROACH Finding 1. Relevance of UNDP interventions in responding to the most pressing youth economic empowerment challenges. UNDP has been highly aware of young people’s most pressing challenges. However, its response fell short of fully addressing access to decent jobs and productive employment. UNDP youth economic empowerment interventions were skewed towards supply over demand and paid less attention to most structural challenges. UNDP staff and stakeholders interviewed as well as the SparkBlue discussion summed up the monumental and varied economic challenges facing youth as the tension between supply (mismatch between education and employability skills), demand (low job vacancies due to inefficient or sluggish markets, weak private and public sector engagement due to instability), and the policy environment (weak/unresponsive Governments, inexistent/adverse youth policies, lack of social protection and labour rights frameworks). The correlation analysis63 does not demonstrate a strong relationship between countries with acute youth economic challenges and UNDP youth economic empowerment interventions (see figure 5).64 The desk review of key documents indicates that the design of the UNDP response was mostly addressing partial elements of these challenges. In several contexts, the design of operations was largely limited by restrictive or unfavourable policy environments. Initiatives did not culminate into a synergetic and holistic strategy for full economic empowerment, decent jobs and productive employment. Overall, the UNDP response overemphasized the supply side of employment creation (see figure 2 in chapter 1). Most interventions focused on young people’s low employability skills, rather than the structural factors underlying the skills gap. In many cases, the rationale for design acknowledged the mismatch between job market needs and outdated education systems that do not foster employability and entrepreneurship skills resulting in, for example, 38 percent of Rwandan youths 63
64
This analysis provides indicative information regarding UNDP targeting and should not be interpreted without the proper regional and country contexts. Moreover, it should be considered within its statistical limitations (reliability of national statistics, data gaps, etc.). Of the countries implementing youth economic empowerment projects – and for which country context data are available (87 out of 95 countries) – 52 percent and 60 percent have above global average youth unemployment and proportion of youth NEET, respectively.
CHAPTER 3. ASSESSMENT OF THE UNDP CONTRIBUTION TO YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
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