The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is a key driver in Egypt’s economic plans, including its vision 2030. As a fast-growing sector, it has the potential to create many sustainable jobs in Egypt for a broad cross-section of society, thus achieving inclusive growth.
Supported by the European Union, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) and the Federation of Egyptian Industry/Environmental Compliance Office (FEI/ECO) aimed to analyze the gaps between Egyptian businesses’ needs and the skills of the workforce in order to enable a dialog on new initiatives to increase employability and thus employment. In addition, the partners had a focus on inclusion of marginalized groups in the ICT sector, including youth and women, and improvement of the enabling environment for employers.
The assessment moreover identified constraints to entrepreneurship and doing business from the perspectives of both potential and actual entrepreneurs – including the barriers to female employment within the ICT sector. Finally, Voluntas supported the development of recommendations on practical policy changes to support future employment opportunities.
Supported by the European Union, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) and the Federation of Egyptian Industry/Environmental Compliance Office (FEI/ECO) aimed to analyze the gaps between Egyptian businesses’ needs and the skills of the workforce in order to enable a dialog on new initiatives to increase employability and thus employment.
Voluntas Policy Advisory was asked by Hivos to conduct an evaluation of their “Co-Working for Sustainable Employment” program along the OECD-DAC criteria.
To document results of the LEAD program in Somalia, Voluntās Policy Advisory helped SPARK, a Dutch NGO focused on creating jobs for young people in fragile states, estimate impact of activities in terms of jobs creation.
Entrepreneurship can make an important contribution to sustainable development as it is critical for job creation and can help expand opportunities for socially disadvantages groups – particularly women and youth. The Maghreb region has seen high youth unemployment for years, with unemployment rates of young people aged between 15 and 24 years ranging between 30.8% and 42% in 2019.
Hivos, an international organization that was founded in the Netherlands, has been working with co-working spaces in the Maghreb region (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya) for several years.
In 2016, Hivos launched the “Co-Working for Sustainable Employment” program in collaboration with Mercy Corps Tunisia and other regional partners aimed to drive job creation and entrepreneurship in the Maghreb, with an emphasis on youth empowerment and particularly female entrepreneurship. It has supported a total of 33 co-working spaces and forged partnerships with different local organizations.
Specifically, the initiative aimed to contribute to the creation of 4,000 job opportunities for youth between 15 and 35 years – in particular young women and in medium-sized towns. The program was supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is nested within their “Local Employment in Africa for Development“ (LEAD) program of preventing brain drain, irregular migration and radicalization by providing opportunities for young people.
Voluntas Policy Advisory was asked by Hivos to conduct an evaluation of their “Co-Working for Sustainable Employment” program along the OECD-DAC criteria.
The evaluation aimed to assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of the program, and to learn from the experience for future programming.
Furthermore, based on the results of the evaluation, Voluntas Policy Advisory advised Hivos on building a robust Monitoring and Evaluation framework for an extension of the program.
Supported by the European Union, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) and the Federation of Egyptian Industry/Environmental Compliance Office (FEI/ECO) aimed to analyze the gaps between Egyptian businesses’ needs and the skills of the workforce in order to enable a dialog on new initiatives to increase employability and thus employment.
Voluntas Policy Advisory was asked by Hivos to conduct an evaluation of their “Co-Working for Sustainable Employment” program along the OECD-DAC criteria.
To document results of the LEAD program in Somalia, Voluntās Policy Advisory helped SPARK, a Dutch NGO focused on creating jobs for young people in fragile states, estimate impact of activities in terms of jobs creation.
Since 2001, the Somali private sector has grown steadily thanks to improved security and increasing stability. As such, agricultural activities and trade have developed significantly, although businesses are often informal with structures based on family and clan (World Bank, Unemployment rate (%) Somalia, 2018).
However, despite this progress and according to the International Organization of Migration (IOM), tens of thousands of people leave Somalia/Somaliland every year, and 60% of young people consider migrating because of youth unemployment – estimated at 25% in 2019 (World Bank Data, Youth Unemployment Rate for Somalia, 2019) – and lack of job prospects (IOM, Somalia, 2017).
In this context, SPARK, a Dutch NGO focused on creating jobs for young people in fragile states, has implemented the Local Employment in Africa for Development (LEAD) program seeking to improve employment opportunities for youth by supporting entrepreneurship and helping create sustainable jobs.
The LEAD program has been focused on activities in Libya, Somalia, and Tunisia aimed at underpinning the human potential of local youth to reduce migration and radicalization in the countries.
To document results of the LEAD program in Somalia, Voluntas Policy Advisory helped SPARK estimate impact of activities in terms of job creation.
This was done by tracing the number of sustainable jobs created thanks to activities in Hargeisa, Mogadishu, Garowe and Borama. At Voluntas Policy Advisory, we also evaluated the feasible means for job verification taking into consideration the Somali context.
To do this, Voluntas Policy Advisory carried out phone surveys with beneficiaries of LEAD activities, and key informant interviews with partners. Through this data collection, it was possible to quantitatively estimate new jobs created by business owners, and new job opportunities identified for job seekers – both formal and informal.
As a result, SPARK is now able to build future job creation activities on fact-based recommendations for the most efficient and effective practices in the Somali context.
Supported by the European Union, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) and the Federation of Egyptian Industry/Environmental Compliance Office (FEI/ECO) aimed to analyze the gaps between Egyptian businesses’ needs and the skills of the workforce in order to enable a dialog on new initiatives to increase employability and thus employment.
Voluntas Policy Advisory was asked by Hivos to conduct an evaluation of their “Co-Working for Sustainable Employment” program along the OECD-DAC criteria.
To document results of the LEAD program in Somalia, Voluntās Policy Advisory helped SPARK, a Dutch NGO focused on creating jobs for young people in fragile states, estimate impact of activities in terms of jobs creation.
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