This brief contrasts the 800,000 to 1 million young Kenyans who enter the labour market each year with the 78,600 formal jobs created in 2024. It describes the crisis as both a policy and an implementation failure, citing underinvestment, poor coordination and political interference. It calls for growth that creates jobs in sectors such as agri-processing, leather, the blue economy, construction and digital services. It also proposes a national skills-to-work system with mandatory work-based learning, protections for informal and gig workers, and programmes that reach excluded youth. Read more:

This brief looks at unemployment, underemployment and precarious work among Ghana’s 15–35 year olds, who make up 38–40% of the population. It uses desk review, labour market analysis, stakeholder mapping, interviews and participatory research with young people. It traces the problem to programmes that stop when governments change, overlapping mandates, weak coordination between agencies, training that doesn’t match industry needs, and norms that exclude women and youth with disabilities. It recommends system-level reform over short-term, fragmented programmes. Read more: