This report highlights how rapid and widespread digitalization has changed the nature of work. The report's findings stress the importance and urgency of addressing the digital skills gap and highlight that digital and social inequalities also affect the available opportunities to develop digital skills.

This study examines applying the Circular Economy, focused on minimizing waste, to the complex coffee industry. A 7-month case study of a specialty coffee importer in Amsterdam revealed challenges like government policies and industry mindsets, but also highlighted the importance of shared vision, strong business models, and clear communication for success. The research suggests companies navigate identity concerns and misconceptions about CE through factual communication, emphasizing the interconnectedness of barriers and enablers for a strategic approach to a more sustainable coffee industry.

The growth of digital labour platforms is presenting opportunities and challenges for workers and businesses and a need for international policy dialogue. This report examines: the features of platform business model, what motivates workers to perform task on platforms and policy recommendations.

Making smart decisions today could set up the world’s young people for success in the green jobs of tomorrow. But shaping those decisions can be tricky as many of those future jobs don’t yet exist. The United Nations Environment Programme has developed GEO-6 for Youth - a digital guide on sustainable career choices and the skills required to thrive in green industries. This article from the World Economic Forum discusses six key skill categories that can help youth build a successful career in the future.

This booklet contains the collected recommendations of the OMC expert group report ‘Towards Gender Equality in the Cultural and Creative Sectors’ (2021). All recommendations are based on practical experience and good practise case studies. They highlight the importance of political commitment to improving gender equality in the cultural and creative sectors (CCS). It should also be stressed that gender equality strategies without targets or gender equality targets without monitoring are less effective and artistic quality and artistic freedom remain the primary selection criteria for any of the proposed measures. The following recommendations correspond to all the recommendations of the OMC report and include general recommendations addressing all policy makers and persons in positions of power, as well as the cultural and creative sectors, the media, and the education sector. The key challenges in this area are gender stereotypes, sexual harassment, access to the labour market and the gender pay gap, access to resources, access to leadership positions, and female entrepreneurship.

This report explores a “what if” scenario – what if the world took action to harness the full potential of DREs to end energy poverty, setting in motion a green power transition across the energy poor world? It combines qualitative case studies with predictive economic modelling to explore the job creation potential that would flow from a steep and rapid increase in investment in DREs across 63 energy-poor countries in Asia and Africa.

This Global Guidance Document provides an overview of how educators can prepare students to participate in the just transition to a green and more inclusive economy.

This study by UNESCO-UNEVOC aims at understanding the barriers to the participation of disadvantaged youth in TVET and examines some strategies being used to meet their needs.

The report contains six in-depth country profiles, where specific data and strategic analyses help present the voiced concerns and hopes of stakeholders on the ground. The country profiles are followed by extensive recommendations for Covid-19 response actions organized around the themes of Space, Community, Training and Funding. Both chapters give attention to non-Western expertise on the cultural and creative industries’ needs as well as their stakeholders’ aspirations for development and, thus, broaden the perspectives for more effective and holistic problem solving. 

This report seeks to answer the question of what works to improve productive employment opportunities and reduce poverty? This question is purposefully broad, as employment-targeted interventions often tackle a wide range of outcomes: the supply of labour that focuses on marketable skills and equal access to productive assets and the demand for labour that focus on promoting entrepreneurship, business development, and market access.

This study exposes failure to factor in gender in COVID-19 education responses and widening gaps in access to quality education following school closures. Citing some 90 countries, the study shows that despite governments' and partners’ swift responses to school closures, remote learning strategies in most countries failed to account for gender-based considerations and barriers that children face at home.

This is the first large-scale use of platform data in the region to inform the extent of women’s participation on e-commerce and how online platforms can benefit women business owners. Developed in partnership with the European Commission, with funding from the Umbrella Fund for Gender Equality and data from one of Africa’s largest platforms, Jumia, the report shows that closing earnings gaps between men and women on e-commerce platforms could add nearly $15 billion to the value of the African e-commerce market. Achieving such gains will require proactive efforts by e-commerce platforms, investors and policymakers, to not only increase the number of women selling online, but also support their growth, including entry into higher-value segments on e-commerce platforms.

This is the first large-scale use of platform data in the region to inform the extent of women’s participation on e-commerce and how online platforms can benefit women business owners. Developed in partnership with the European Commission, with funding from the Umbrella Fund for Gender Equality and data from one of the region’s largest platforms, Lazada, the report shows that closing earnings gaps between men and women on e-commerce platforms could add over $280 billion to the value of the regional e-commerce market. Achieving such gains will require proactive efforts by e-commerce platforms, investors and policymakers, to not only increase the number of women selling online, but also support their growth, including entry into higher-value segments on e-commerce platforms.

This study looks at markets across four key areas to provide a dual perspective from both youth and employers regarding sectoral opportunities and challenges, qualifying the skills gap, bridging the gap, and the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market.

This Guide aims to address the knowledge gap and strengthen young people’s knowledge and skills on climate change and how to engage in climate policy processes. It provides targeted content and activities that help learners turn their knowledge and skills into action for climate empowerment. The tools aim to support young people in accessing climate decision-making spaces and groups and to think critically about their own country’s mitigation and adaptation priorities through a rights-based lens.

This report focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and presents findings drawn from the narratives of over 150 young female STEM professionals in seven countries. The report showcases how confidence in their own abilities helps women deal with setbacks. At the same time, the report highlights the critical role that support from parents, mentors, and partners play in women’s success in STEM. Finally, the report concludes that even where training and hiring environments support women in STEM careers, discrimination in day-to-day delivery remains a challenge.

This report aims to guide stakeholders with tools and information to support the integration of meaningful youth engagement into youth employment programming and strategies. The paper outlines what meaningful youth engagement is, why meaningful youth engagement is important, and how it could be embedded across various stages of the program life cycle, as well as within a funder’s strategy and culture. The presented roadmap’s recommendations are both immediately actionable and aspirational.

This publication emphasizes the importance of youth involvement in transitioning to a circular economy. The document identifies ways young people can get involved, such as working for companies that encourage circularity, joining sustainability-focused youth groups, and advocating for change.

This Note builds on research covering the three countries with the highest concentration of Syrian refugees displaced since 2011: Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. It is intended to inform policymakers and practitioners on the barriers that Syrian refugees, especially women, face in securing work to earn a livelihood. This Note highlights initiatives designed to address those barriers, but does not enumerate all of them. While not specifically addressing internally-displaced persons (IDPs) within Syria, this Note could serve as a blueprint for examining and addressing many of the same barriers women face in Syria.

This case study provides evidence from Kenya to show that online freelancing has become an interesting sector, both in terms of its growth trajectory, and in terms of worker upward mobility in the global knowledge economy. As life everywhere moves further into the digital realm, and global internet connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world grows, more and more young Africans who stream onto the labour market may find work in the world of global online freelancing.